On the Banks

Laughing at Auschwitz: the Banality of Evil in Pictures

 

 

 

Hannah Arendt, in her coverage of the war-crimes trial of Adolf Eichmann, alerted us to the "banality of evil." Eichmann was not, she observed, a maniacal monster filled with hate, a psychopath, or indeed, anyone very different from most of us. He was an ordinary man, just doing his job, following the orders given by his superiors. For pointing this out, Arendt was viciously attacked, and of course that makes sense: Nobody wants to hear that those who participated in mass murder and sub-human treatment of their fellow human beings were ordinary people, just like themselves.

But of course they were.

Here is another look at that banality. And a reminder that perhaps the most deadly human traits are those of obedience and going along with the crowd:

Twelve SS auxiliaries sit happily on a fence railing eating blueberries given to them by an SS officer. The photo was taken in 1944 in Solahütte, a recreation home located near Auschwitz for the SS team in charge of running the concentration camp. Another shows the auxiliaries callously feigning tears once their bowls are empty.

These are just two of 116 images in a photo album made public by the United States National Holocaust Museum in Washington earlier this week. The museum obtained the photos at the year of the year from a retired US Army intelligence officer, who came across the album in an apartment in Frankfurt and has now given them to the museum.

The photos were taken between May and December 1944, and they show the officers and guards relaxing and enjoying themselves -- as countless people were being murdered and cremated at the nearby death camp.

 

 

The Best Two Minutes and Ten Seconds of Television You Will Ever See

SPOILERS.

It's possible that it is too early to call this, but I don't think so. For those who have been watching Stranger Things (maybe not so much for those who haven't), this clip is destined to go down in history as the finest two minutes and ten seconds of all of television:

 

 

A Doctor's View on the Vaccine Debate

 

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, a GP in Scotland, writes:

When it comes to the science, it does amuse me that vaccination began before anyone understood any of the science – of anything to do with microbes and the immune system. It all began, so it is recorded, with the observation that milkmaids were much less likely to get smallpox.

This led to the idea that you should deliberately infect people with a bit of cowpox, to prevent them getting smallpox. Bold.

‘The terms vaccine and vaccination are derived from Variolae vaccinae (smallpox of the cow), the term devised by Jenner to denote cowpox. He used it in 1796 in the long title of his Inquiry into the Variolae vaccinae known as the Cow Pox, in which he described the protective effect of cowpox against smallpox.’ [from the website that cannot be named… Wikipedia actually]

This was suggested at a time when all doctors thought infections were spread by Miasma. Basically, a nasty smell. No-one had the faintest idea that there were bacteria, or viruses. Somewhat ironically, vaccination – giving a small amount of a substance to cure/prevent a nasty disease – became the underlying principle of homeopathy – which most doctors now angrily dismiss as ‘woo woo medicine.’

Clearly, vaccination did not start as science. It basically started as a hunch, based on no comprehension of the science at all. Of course, that doesn’t make it wrong, but you can hardly suggest it was founded on a thorough understanding of the human immune system. Edward Jenner did not know that such a thing existed, and nor did anyone else. It was just a good guess.

The science of vaccination then became, what I call, backwards rationalisation. ‘It works, now let us work out how the hell it actually works.’ Again, nothing wrong with this. The best science often starts with observation, not a hypothesis. Graphene is a recent example. Two scientists larking about in the lab with Sellotape and pencils.

 

The whole thing is worth a read.

 

 

Daily Log: Saving Humanity by Learning How to Live with Tech.

 

 

I had some really amazing conversations at FEECON last month. Lots and lots of really smart, interesting, independent-minded people there, and lots to talk about. One of my favorite conversations was with another homeschooling mom (there were lots of those there too), whose name I didn't even get. Of course, the topic of "screens" came up. For me - and for a lot of parents, homeschoolers or not - this is my biggest challenge with our neuro-typical son. 

 

But this mom articulated it in a way that made me see the entire question differently. She said something to the effect of: "We're trying to figure out a balance between technology and 'real life', and to help our kids achieve this balance. And if we can get it right, it's one of the most important things we can do for the future of humanity."

 

I think she's right. Too much of the time, my own battle with technology, as a parent, consists of trying to find ways to limit it, to restict my son's "screentime." But there's so much more to it than that. This mom and I both agreed that we don't want to keep screens out of our kids' lives, we want them to be proficient in navigating the landscape that technology offers - a landscape that neither she nor I grew up with, and with which our kids are already far more proficient in many ways than we are.

 

But we also recognize that there are things we need as human beings - things like time spent in nature, face-to-face interactions with other humans, quiet time, to work with our hands, etc. - and that there are skills everyone needs to develop if they are going to be anything more than consumers and game players. Skills like: The ability to focus, to fend off distraction; the ability to think critically and evaluate the information one encounters; the ability to discern between substance and noise; and the nurturing of one's own moral compass.

 

Part of the problem with "screens" is down to the nature of the beast itself: From the physiological problems of exposure to blue light, to the way that communicating with others without seeing their faces changes both our communication and our ability to relate to others. But another part of the problem is just an augmentation of what we have always faced as humans: How to master our own minds. How to not just get sucked in to whatever attention-seeking piece of information happens to be floating around in front of us, but to focus on the things that we believe are important; How to not just adopt the viewpoints of the crowd around us, but really sit with something, think it through, and come to our own viewopoint; How to slice through all of the bullshit the world presents to us and distinguish between what is essential and worth spending time on, and what is not.

 

These are not new problems. The rate at which new information is being thrown at us may be new, but the underlying problem itself is not.

 

There's a lot more to say about this, but for now I just want to say that I now see this as THE big challenge for me as a homeschooling mom, and I'm going to be blogging more about it in the future. Partly just to help clarify my own thinking on the matter, because the God's honest truth here is that I have NO IDEA how to get this right. For myself, there have been a few times in my life when I really did have it right: In film school, when I was 100% focused on the work I was doing, all day long, and it was a beautiful thing; and again in the year and a half before I met my husband, when I was living on my own in Brooklyn, getting up and meditating every morning, going to ballet 3-4 times a week, teaching yoga and going to yoga classes, and also writing. It was so easy when I was on my own. But now, with a husband and two kids (I'm not complaining), one of whom needs lots of special care, and a day that is way too short for the list of things that Must Get Done... it is much more challenging. 

 

So that's my big challenge: Restoring peace and ...I'm not even sure what to call it... "right living"? "Balance" just sounds like jargon. I'll try to think of something better. Restoring the "real life" part of my life, and helping my son to have it too. And I suspect that the answer to getting it lies less in imposing restrictions on screens, and more in offering up meaningful (if not as immediately enticing) alternatives.

 

One of my favorite yoga teachers ever had this to say on the matter: "Learn to use technology, without letting it use you." That's the power I want to give to my son. 

 

Stay tuned as I work to figure this out.

 

 

 

 

Daily Log: Way Behind, but ...Sky Pirates!

 

 

OK, yes, I have not been doing a great job of updating my Daily Log each day. In other news though, my book is finished! Yesterday, I received the proofing copy of Annabel Pickering and the Sky Pirates!!! There are a few little tweaks to make (and the cover here is too dark), so maybe I shouldn't say "finished" - but yes, tweaks aside, it is done! I will spend the next few months publicizing it, gathering reviews, and... I don't really know what else, to get people to know that it's out there... and in early October it will be released!

For now, you can read the first few chapters here.

 

Daily Log: All I Have to Say About Google

 

 

Yesterday, RT reported that:

"An embarrassing new leak shows Google employees discussing disabling features for YouTube creators they describe as ‘Nazis,’ even as the company denied allegations of political bias based on earlier leaked documents.

"In an email published on Tuesday by the conservative watchdog Project Veritas, one member of the Google transparency and ethics team, identified only as Liam, tells others that Prager University, Jordan Peterson and Ben Shapiro are “Nazis using the dog whistles you mention.”

"Those named in the email reacted swiftly and with umbrage at being described as Nazis. Prager University pointed out that their founder is Jewish and has spoken against “anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, Hitler, etc.”..."

 

And today, GreenMedInfo reports that: 

"Earlier this month, in one devastating algorithmic stroke, Google removed many of the top natural health and health freedom websites from their organic search results -- some losing as much as 90% of their traffic."

 

I only have this to say about Google:

I am eternally grateful to the company for the generous paternity leave and time off that it gave my husband when our daughter was born and had medical difficulties, and for allowing him to work remotely when we decided to move down south in order to be closer to my family. As an employer, they are the very best, and are very good people.

But Google is destroying itself. I would say that it is helping to destroy civil discourse, and a culture of free and open communication, but I don't believe that that will be destroyed. What is happening is that, as the major players attempt to censor content on their platforms, new platforms are coming into being and the people who don't want their speech to be controlled are going there.

Civil discourse will likely become more fragmented, with even more distance between ideological bubbles, but it is not going to disappear. What will happen though, is - barring govt. intervention that hands these folks a genuine monopoly (PLEASE stop calling for anti-trust action against them!) - the Googles and the FaceBooks and the HuffPos will become known as places where information and communication are manipulated to fit someone's agenda. The people who are OK with that will continue to go to those sites, and those who don't want their conversations and Internet searches to be controlled will go elsewhere.

Other than the occasional image search, I haven't used Google's search engine for a few years now.

 

Daily Log: Scarecrows

 

 

Today was depressing - if I focus on the news, that is. SB 276, the draconian bill that I wrote about here and here, passed out of the CA Assembly Health Committee today by a vote of 9:3, with 2 abstaining. It was entirely expected, it's not that I'm let down somehow, that I believed the politicians would suddenly wake up and give a shit about individual rights. But it is depressing to watch the same charade played out over and over again:

Hundreds upon hundreds of parents descending upon the hearings, most of them with stories of vaccine-injured children; stony-faced politicians looking back at them and admonishing them against making "personal attacks" against the people who are threatening their children; one or more politicians (this time it was the governor) feigning opposition on principle, only to be swayed in the end; dishonest testimony from those pushing the bill; sometimes some good counter-testimony from those against it - which always goes ignored; and finally, a vote strongly in favor of more government power over all of our lives.

And what keeps running through my head this time is: Measles. They were able to push this through, and whip up public hysteria, over something as insignificant as measles. If they can railroad our most fundamental rights, and ignite public furor, over that, then they can do it over ANYTHING. Jews, immigrants, people who don't dress the way you do... or a country far away that has never posed any kind of threat to the people living here.

I've written elsewhere about how it doesn't make sense to expect the political system to protect our rights and our freedom. It seems especially relevant to repeat today:

Here’s the thing to understand: The things libertarians want - freedom, less govt. interference in markets & in personal choices, non-interventionist foreign policy… there is no money in these things for politicians. There are no big corporations and very few rich people who are willing to pay tons of money to politicians to refrain from intervening in markets, or to keep the troops home, or to let people ingest whatever substances they want to.

In fact, it is just the opposite: Corporations have long been in the business of paying politicians to intervene in markets on their behalf, to erect barriers to competition and in some cases to squash a particular competitor. Competition is wonderful for society as a whole. But it’s not so great if you’re one of the ones doing the competing. It’s hard, and sometimes you lose. Sometimes, if you’re big enough, it’s just easier to send some money in the direction of the people who can discover antitrust violations in your competitor’s business practices.

Understand that behind the empty campaign promises, politicians have essentially two things to offer to the people who support them: 1. Power, in the form of regulatory and other control, over competitors and others who may get in the way of a particular entity remaining comfortably profitable; 2. Money. Not their own money of course - your money, and my money. Taken from us in taxes, and in the continual devaluation of the government-issued money we all use. Politicians can give money to their supporters in the form of contracts for things like military equipment and public works projects, or in less direct ways, like mandating that government schools all stock epinephrine injectors that meet the same very specific product requirements that your device happens to meet.

And the list goes on. What is not on this list is liberty. Why? Because nowhere in this game is there an advantage to selling liberty. This point was driven home to me a few years ago when I asked a California senator’s policy consultant if his boss would consider relaxing business restrictions as a way to help parents of children with special needs create the services they need. He practically laughed at me. There was nothing in it for his boss or his boss’ supporters in reducing the very control that he uses to buy support.

In theory, politicians could offer liberty to their supporters. They could offer to cut back regulations, to end military aggression. But who is going to pay them for that? Again these are things that would benefit everyone, all of society. But the game of politics is not about benefitting all of society. And the widely accepted belief that it is is perhaps the most dangerous lie ever crafted.

In order for a seeker of liberty to win at this game, that person would have to compete with the campaign donations and other inducements made by military contractors, major pharmaceutical companies, oil companies - but these are all entities that have been made rich by virtue of government interventions and direct largesse. How can a liberty seeker hope to offer the same level of financial inducements to politicians as these people, when they are not also on the receiving end of the government slush?

This is the real reason that libertarians “don’t matter” in the political sphere. It’s not because they don’t vote. It’s because they don’t participate in the real game of politics - the interest-driven game that can never reward a player who wishes to dismantle the very engine of that game. People win at the game of politics by buying and selling political power over other people’s lives and resources. A player who wants to reduce that power will not find themselves rewarded within that game - they will find themselves spat out of it.

That’s why the political beasts are laughing at us. It’s not because we don’t vote - it’s because we don’t steal. And for these people - for people who never even question the morality of using state violence to get what they want - that is the biggest joke in the world.

 

I have to keep reminding myself that it's OK that only a small minority of people will ever get this. I have to keep reminding myself that real change for the better doesn't generally happen by virtue of mass movements, and that those of us who recognize the unrestrained power of the state as the most urgent problem facing humanity need to look elsewhere for solutions. But it would just be nice if every once in a while it wasn't so easy for them. It would be nice if every once in a while, trampling our most fundamental rights wasn't such a walk in the park.

 

 

 

Amendments to SB 276 Are More Draconian than the Original Bill (A Partial Analysis)

 

Image: Public domain.

 

As I wrote last week, California legislators (and one in particular) are trying to tighten restrictions on the granting of exemptions from the vaccines required for school. The bill, SB 276, seeks to replace doctors with state agents in determining whether an exemption is legitimate or not.

Earlier this month, California’s governor Gavin Newsom expressed concerns about the bill, saying: “I’m a parent. I don’t want someone that the governor of California appointed to make a decision for my family.”

Yesterday though, Governor Newsom did an about turn, declaring that the bill had been sufficiently modified to address his concerns and that he would sign it.

According to the Sacramento Bee:

State Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, had been working with the governor’s office for two weeks before he announced that he accepted changes that both Newsom and the Medical Board of California wanted to see.

But have the changes addressed Newsom’s expressed concerns that doctors would be replaced by state agents in granting medical exemptions?

Here is the bill, with the amendments tracked in blue and deletions tracked in red, so you can clearly see what was in the original and what is in the amended version. Here are the most relevant changes, as I see them. NOTE: This is a quick and dirty review, and is not complete, as I have a couple of outstanding questions which I will leave for an update. But I wanted to get this out ASAP:

1. A lot more information is to be required on the exemption form that parents submit. Including: The name, CA medical license number, business address and telephone number of the child’s primary care physician, if different from the physician issuing the exemption; the name and address of the child’s school; a statement certifying that the physician has conducted an examination consistent with the relevant standard of care. [Emphasis mine.]

2. Doctors would be required to certify under penalty of perjury that the information they are submitting is true. This threat of a perjury charge is new–it was not in the original, and it is significant.

3. Any doctors who write more than five exemptions each year will be subject to review by the public health department.

4. If the State Department of Public Health “…determines that a physician and surgeon poses a risk to the public’s health," the doctor can be prohibited from submitting any medical exemption applications for at least two years.

5. Doctors would not be allowed to charge money either for filling out an exemption form, or for “(a)n examination related to the renewal of a temporary medical exemption.”

6. Any schools with a vaccination rate of less than 95% will be subject to review by a “clinically trained department staff member.” 

7. The State Department of Public Health “shall create a standardized system to monitor immunization levels in schools and institutions as specified in Section 120440, and to monitor patterns of unusually high exemption form submissions by a particular physician and surgeon or medical practice.”

8. In what appears to be a concession to concerns about the criteria for exemptions being too limited, the amended bill states:

“the department, based on the medical discretion of the clinically trained immunization staff member, may accept a medical exemption that is based on other contraindications or precautions, including consideration of family medical history, if the issuing physician and surgeon provides written documentation to support the medical exemption that is consistent with the relevant standard of care.” [Emphasis mine.]

This sounds like a genuine broadening of the exemption criteria, and indeed it might be. But there are a couple of problems:

a. Who determines what “consistent with the relevant standard of care” means? Obviously, someone in the State Department of Public Health.

b. While this might look like a concession on paper, the reality of the other requirements that have been added to the bill mean that doctors would be less free to write exemptions than they would have been even under the original SB 276 text:

They will be limited to writing five exemptions each year, if they do not want their practice to be “reviewed” by state authorities; they will be unable to charge their normal fees for filling out exemption forms or for examinations for patients seeking renewals; and they risk being charged with perjury–a felony for which violators can be sentenced to up to four years in prison– if their medical assessments do not line up with those of the California Department of Public Health.

The Sacramento Bee reports that “(p)arents are given additional power under the amendments, because they can appeal decisions made by public health officials who might revoke or deny medical exemptions.”

But this is complete nonsense. Appeals were already allowed in the original version of the bill, which stated:

“The denial of a request for a medical exemption may be appealed to the State Public Health Officer.”

The only difference between the two versions in this regard seems to be that appeals would have been filed by doctors in the original bill, but are filed by “a parent or guardian” in the amended version.

In fact, the amended version of this bill is more draconian than the first version, for the reasons I give above. Moreover, it does absolutely nothing to reduce the role of the state in making medical decisions. The authority to grant - or to deny - medical exemptions for vaccines would still rest with the state, and not with doctors. Indeed, the amendments make it far more difficult for doctors to even initiate the process of applying for an exemption. 

The amended version of SB 276 takes what was already a gross violation of the doctor-patient relationship, and of the ability of doctors to practice according to their own judgement and conscience, and makes it much, much worse. Where the original version simply sought to exert power over a doctor’s decisions, this one actually criminalizes them. With the threat of up to four years in prison for making medical statements that the state does not agree with, very few medical professionals are going to be willing to write exemptions at all should this bill pass.

How Governor Newsom can in any way see this as addressing his concerns about the state having too much power over medical decision making defies even the wildest of imaginations.

 

 

 

 

CA Legislators Aim to Replace Doctors with the State in Granting Vaccine Exemptions - My Article for FEE

 

Image: Public domain.

 

From my article on Fee.org last week:

At the time, Pan assured parents that exemptions based on medical criteria would remain in place and would not be interfered with:

"If a physician feels that there is a genetic association in a sibling, a cousin, some other relative, it’s not safe for a vaccine, then they can provide a medical exemption for that vaccine—there is no limitation,” said Pan, during SB 277 hearings.

Now, four years after the passage of SB 277, and with a degree of mendacity that is frankly awe-inspiring, the Sacramento Bee reports that Pan

… is prepared ... to close what he considers a loophole that SB 277 inadvertently created. "I have dedicated my career to keeping children and our communities safe and healthy," Pan said, whose statement on the issue says some doctors are "monetizing their exemption-granting authority and profiting from the sale of medical exemptions."

After participating in a media campaign that demonized doctors for doing exactly what the new law allowed them to and what Pan explicitly promised they would be allowed to do, Pan proposed a new bill: SB 276, which would put the power to grant medical exemptions into the hands of government bureaucrats.

 

You can read the whole thing here.

You may have heard that this bill has been amended, to assuage the concerns of California's governor Gavin Newsom that it gave too much power to government officials to make medical decisions for families. It is true that the bill has been amended, but there is no sense in which it reduces the power given to state officials. If anything, it broadens them. I will be getting a short blog out about that, hopefully later today. 

 

 

Daily Log: Report From FEECON 2019 - Part 1

 

 

So I almost didn't make it to FEECON 2019. The first part was entirely my mistake. (Or, as some might put it: The expected consequence of my not being fully skilled in navigating life in a police state.) I had just recently been approved for "TSA-Pre" status - I know, I was as surprised (and honestly, a little disappointed in myself) as you are. And what I knew, but then forgot, was that I had to bring my passport with me when traveling, because my TSA-Pre status and my passport are both in one of my names, while my driver's license is in another. I knew this. I just forgot. 

What that ended up meaning was that I got to spend several more hours in - NOT the worst place in the world (that title is reserved for a small hotel in Wuhan) but close to it. The Los Angeles International Airport.

Here's what was interesting about that: Every single person I interacted with there was lovely. Which really messed with my head. Because here we are being treated like cattle by the TSA, people who can literally molest us with impunity, here we are being sniffed by bomb-sniffing dogs, told we can't even carry a water bottle through security... and everyone seems really comfortable with it. 

There's obviously a very very dark side to that, and I've written about that elsewhere. But there is also a positive side, and it is this: Human beings are very very resilient. We are capable of tolerating a lot of crap. And while tolerating crap is not a good practice in life, it can be a strength. What I think I saw at LAX (again, NOT the worst place in the world), was people being strong enough to still be decent and happy, even in the face of all this crap. And the truth is probably that a great many of them don't even see it is crap. That by itself is both kind of nice and deeply horrifying.

The second thing that almost prevented me from getting to FEECON was that, as I was figuring out whether I was going to get on another flight with a name change, or have my husband bring my passport to me, I found out that our daughter's feeding tube was stuck! Our daughter has a feeding tube (long story), and sometimes it gets stuck for a short while and we can't get anything through it. Usually it resolves within 15-30 minutes, a few times it has gone as long as two hours. This time it had been more than four hours. 

This is a huge problem, because while she can eat by mouth, she won't usually take her medication by mouth, or all of the water she needs to have. Her caregivers had tried everything we knew to get it to work, I had spoken in depth to both her dietician and a nurse, to get ideas for getting it unstuck, and still it wouldn't budge. So, after my husband arrived with my passport, I realized that I wasn't going to be able to go to FEECON after all, at least not today. Maybe I could catch a flight out in the morning. So, we started the long drive back from LAX to Burbank.

Then, about ten minutes away from the aiport, we get a call - the tube is un-stuck! So we turn around, I run back in, catch another flight, and make it to Atlanta!

By the time I get to the hotel, it's around 1:00am. I am bleary eyed and wobbly from travel, and go check in - only to be told that I'll be on the 17th floor. Ordinarily, this would be just fine. But this particular hotel happened to have been designed by someone with a sick, sick, mind. It's one of those hotels that is open in the center, so when you're at the bottom and you look up, you see stacks and stacks of railings. When you go up to the top and look down, you want to scream and scream until all those railings stop spinning and your stomach comes back down from the top of your skull and you can just go and cry in a corner somewhere.

Oh, and the only elevators they have are glass. 

So that's how my trip started. I'll post more tomorrow - maybe I'll even talk about the conference.

Oh, and that's me with Michael Strong and his wife, Magatte Wade - both rockstars. After talking with Michael especially for many years now online, it was great to finally meet him. 

 

Daily Log: Taking a Break, Heading to FEECON, MailChimp Screws Over its Customers

 

 

 

I'm heading to Atlanta tomorrow, for FEECON, so I won't be posting until (probably) next week. If you don't know what that is, just watch the video. I've never been before, and am really looking forward to it! But then, getting out of the house at all is a big deal for me. Talking with grownups, getting a full night's sleep... this is going to be very exciting!

On the website for FEECON, it says that I should "dress to impress." So, I thought "great! A chance to wear this!"

 

 

But people told me that's not what they meant. So it dawned on me that I was going to have to go... shopping.

I'll save the traumatizing details for later. Just let me say that I'm grateful for those who pitched in at the last minute with some Rescue Clothes that I'll be taking to the conference. I'm not sure what I'll do with the things I "chose" at the big store with all the racks and mirrors. But I'm sure someone will be able to put them to good use.

And the news of the day? Well, over the weekend, MailChimp decided to unceremoniously cancel the accounts of some people who shared information that was critical of vaccines. No warning, no chance to get their data off the site, nothing. The accounts (and all the data, email lists, addresses, etc.) were just gone.

I'll be writing more about that, but for now, I'll just ask people to think about what kind of business behaves that way. Who treats their customers like this and thinks that they'll be able to survive in a competitive marketplace? Someone with some very special "partners" is who.

 

 

 

Daily Log: Unbelievable Asshattery from the UK, and My Little Girl's Second EEG

 

 

This is my little girl, when we first discovered that she was having seizures. This was her second EEG, which we did at home. I've never posted pictures of her on my blog before, or on social media at all outside of parent groups. But I've decided to now, for reasons maybe I'll go into at some point.

Aeriel has had seizures since she was somewhere between nine months and a year old. She has had one nearly-two-year period of being seizure free (we don't know why), and another brief seizure-free period of a couple of months. She is now - knock serious wood - seizure free again, and I don't know how to describe what a relief that is. And also, is not. Because we are always aware that they could come back at any time. But to go for days and days and not see a single seizure, when she had been having dozens every day - is pretty awesome.

CBD has helped her, but it didn't entirely get rid of her seizures. We finally found a med that has knocked them out (for now), but she is also on CBD. And seeing how much it has helped her, it just enrages me more than I can say to see what is happening to families like Teagan's, in England, where they have now had the cannabis they had to go overseas to procure seized from them at customs FOR THE SECOND TIME. And after getting a prescription for it.

Here is the story:

The mother of a severely epileptic nine-year-old girl has had medical cannabis seized at an airport for the second time, even though she had a private prescription for the medicine.

Emma Appleby was accompanied on her trip to the Netherlands by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who has campaigned for greater access to medical cannabis.

Although several cannabis-based medicines have been prescribed by the NHS since it was legalised in November, full extract cannabis oils – which campaigners say are both more effective and cheaper – remain unlicensed and do not appear to have been given to patients.

However, they are available privately and a number of patients have gained access in that way.

“There seems no end to the stress and trauma of trying to access the medical cannabis that I have proved beyond doubt transforms the life of my daughter Teagan,” said Appleby, who was carrying a month’s supply of medical cannabis oil worth about £2,500.

“I am exhausted and shattered but I’ve seen how this medicine transforms my daughter’s life. I have to find a way forward. The NHS just won’t prescribe. This is unforgivably cruel and unfair.”

...

 

Teagan has the same condition our daughter has, Dup15Q syndrome. Her mom is on some of my FaceBook parent groups. So their story particularly hits home for me. But I am outraged over anyone being forcibly prevented from accessing treatments that might help their children. (Or, as I have posted elsewhere, being forced to use medical treatments against their will.) Here's the kicker, from the article:

A government spokesman said: “It is unlawful to import unlicensed cannabis-based products for medicinal use to the UK without a Home Office importation licence.

“There is an established regulatory system which enables the importation of these products to the UK via pharmaceutical wholesalers, so they can be dispensed to UK resident patients prescribed these products by a specialist doctor.”

He added: “Border Force has a duty to enforce the law and stop the unlawful import of controlled substances into the UK.”

 

And that's it. The law is the law, and there's no questioning it, or questioning those who enforce it. It's as if the Nuremberg trials never happened. As I've said a million times, and as I'll keep saying until I'm blue in the face, this is not civilized behavior. And a society that demands obedience to bad laws is not a civilized society. 

And I just wonder what it's going to take for enough people to wake up and stop tolerating this crap. To stop believing that the people with the guns and the prisons have some kind of legitimate authority over our lives. That they get to decide what medical treatments your child may have or may not have - or must have. What the hell is it going to take?

 

 

 

A Real Solution, from Caitlin Johnstone

 

 

 

Caitlin Johnstone​ absolutely nails it here.

"Those who control the narrative control the world. I'm fond of saying that, not just because it's true, but because it points to the solution as well as the problem. When you truly see that whoever controls the narrative controls the world, you can easily zero in on the inherent weakness in their power structure. And that weakness is: that it is all reliant on belief in THEIR stories. So when you attack their stories, when you shine truth on their lies, you are attacking their power base."

What then must we do?

"It's pretty f-ing simple: We tell the truth."

Oh, and substitute "anti-Beach-Baller" for "Assange", and the story is the same. Then, if you haven't already, ask yourself why I have to use the term "Beach Ball" in place of another word. Maybe turn down the volume and look at what's going on without the narrative.

 

 

A Very Interesting Take on the US Govt's Case Against Assange

 

This piece, from John T. Nelson, is well worth reading in its entirety. To summarize:

"Why might Assange not stand trial in the United States for espionage? ...the US-UK extradition treaty may strictly prohibit it. Espionage is generally considered a political offense, and the treaty forbids extraditing someone charged with political offenses.

"While the new charges may signal an intention to put Assange away for many years, they could alternatively be read as a sign that the Justice Department recognizes the weaknesses in its case for extradition. If prosecutors believed Assange to be beyond their grasp upon issuing the espionage indictment, this would effectively demote it from a genuine charging document to a more symbolic statement—proof of the United States’ ability to investigate exfiltration of secret government data and of its preparedness to prosecute those who publish it. Whether this symbolic gesture intends to deter future WikiLeaks-like activities or to intimidate traditional journalists (or both) would then become a legitimate question, but still mostly a theoretical one. It would also mean, of course, that the Sessions-Barr Justice Departments have put down a marker—the precedent of indicting a publisher under the Espionage Act—without having to undergo First Amendment scrutiny by the courts.

"On the other hand, if prosecutors still considered extradition likely, then one must ask why they have gone out of their way to complicate their mission by invoking espionage. In this version of events, either the Justice Department has foolishly made the case for Assange that he is being charged with a “political offense,” which is immune from extradition, or it has cunningly concluded that no such defense will stand regardless of the charges brought.

"If the Justice Department believed or still believes that it will one day try Assange for espionage, then bringing the charges while he is in Britain was appropriate under the Rule of Specialty, which requires that all substantive allegations be brought before the prisoner is rendered. Had the Department sprung new charges on him after he was in its custody, a legal challenge led either by the British or by Assange, if he could assert standing, would have ensued. Regardless of its outcome, this development would have undermined American credibility in future extradition cases.

"On the other hand, if prosecutors worried that the case for extradition was already weak, then the harm of further vindicating Assange’s defenses against extradition would be minimal in comparison to the effect of putting the fourth estate on notice through an aggressive indictment."

[Emphasis mine.]

 

 

Daily Log: Pulling Weeds

 

Now that we have a trampoline, I can let my little girl bounce and play on that while I do garden work, and don't need anyone else to supervise her. We did this today, and I spent a lot of time pulling weeds. I don't like to make these things personal, but... it IS personal. And I have to admit that I HATE those weeds. Especially the ones with the little spade-shaped leaves, that grow inches overnight and turn into these vicious, grasping, clenching vine-like things. I HATE them. And the thing about weeds, that I've come to realize after years of dealing with them is... they always come back. You pull them and you pull them and you try out the latest "sure-fire" technique for getting rid of them, or for not allowing them to grow in the first place, but damnit they just come back anyway. And you have to pull them all over again.

This one, in the picture, was a particularly nasty weed, and I have to say it got very personal this afternoon. The thing is, I let this one go for too long and it got huge. Huge like the size of a small bush - taller than my little orange tree whose roots I'm sure it was trying to strangle. So yes, it got personal. Strong words were used. But I got him. Ripped him up by the roots. And I don't like to feel that way about other living creatures. I don't want to feel as if the weeds are my "enemies." But they are. And I think, deep down inside their heartless little roots, they know they are, too.

Well that's all I have to say about weeds today. And this post counts as both the "personal" and "current events" portions of my log. 

 

 

Daily Log: Greek Heroes and Preserved Lemons

 

 

Yesterday, I participated in a webinar in which John Kiriakou told his story of blowing the whistle on the CIA's policy of torture, and of paying dearly for his heroic act. I had been vaguely aware of his story before, but hadn't really heard the details. It is riveting. I'll post the video here when it's available.

One of the things he talks about is how, unsurprisingly, the culture at the CIA pushes the idea that everything is a shade of grey. That there are no black and white situations, there is no right or wrong. But he saw very clearly that there was. And I wonder whether, if I had been in that environment, become a part of the culture, spent years there, trained there, learned to go along with the things everyone else accepted - I wonder whether I would have been good enough, or attuned enough, to not get sucked into seeing the world in those shades of grey. I don't kow whether I would have had the moral clarity to do what he did. It's so easy to judge a situation like the one he was in from the outside, and be so certain that you would do the right thing. But I'm not certain I would have. Now? Yes, probably I would. But when I was much younger? I don't know. 

This is a picture of the lemon preserves I make, with meyer lemons from our tree. This is before it all gets cooked up of course, and is still beautiful. But not yet yummy.

 

 

Daily Log: A Letter Sent and a Lawsuit Filed

 

 

I sent my letter to Julian Assange today. Or rather, my mom took it to the post office for me. I have this image of her, all grandmotherly now, tottering up - OK, she doesn't totter - to the desk and handing it to the clerk, asking for confirmation of receipt and all that stuff, and then watching the expression on the clerk's face when he or she saw who it was addressed to. And smiling back all sweetly, like the sweet little grandmother she is. (Or... is good at representing.) Maybe grandmothers will save the world.

In other news, Dr. Ken Stoller and his attorney Rick Jaffe filed a lawsuit against the City of San Francisco's City Attorney's subpoena of his patient records. Here is the press release:

Today, Dr. Kenneth Stoller has filed a lawsuit to stop the San Francisco City Attorney’s attempt to obtain the medical records and genetic information of his vaccine exemption patients. The basis of the City Attorney’s subpoena, which was served and widely reported in the media on May 8th, is a purported public nuisance investigation about Dr. Stoller’s practice of writing medical exemptions for children who do not meet the strict CDC (Centers for Disease Control) vaccine contraindications.

here is the gogetfunding page to support this lawsuit.
https://gogetfunding.com/legal-defense-fund-stoller/

We believe that there is no real investigation. Rather, the City Attorney’s press conference announcing the subpoena was intended to create public support for SB 276, which would remove medical vaccine exemption decision making from physicians and place it in the hands of state or local public health officials. Under this bill, an important medical decision will be made by state or local government employees who have never met or spoken to the patient or family.

SB 276 was introduced and is being promoted by Senator Richard Pan who has created the false public relations narrative that SB 276 is necessary to stop a few physicians from writing what he considers to be fake or fraudulent medical exemptions. In reality, some physicians like Dr. Stoller are issuing medical exemptions based on the clear and explicit statements made by Senator Pan and others, that medical exemptions could be written based on considerations much broader than the narrow CDC contraindication guidelines that he now seeks to impose on all Californians via SB 276.

Many of the medical exemptions written by Dr. Stoller (and other like-minded physicians) are for siblings of vaccine injured children. These exemptions are valid medical exemptions written to protect the families’ other children from potential adverse reactions, they are neither fake nor fraudulent.

In addition to seeking to quash the City Attorney’s subpoena, this lawsuit seeks to prove that if there is a public nuisance, the vector or cause is not the medically vaccine exempt children, as the public is being led to believe. This lawsuit also seeks to establish the legal rights of the families of vaccine injured children to obtain an exemption based on considerations beyond CDC guidelines as a right to receive medical care and advice different from the conventional medical majority view.

Here is the complaint. I think many of you will like it.

COMPLAINT

Here’s the gogetfunding link again.

https://gogetfunding.com/legal-defense-fund-stoller/

Rick Jaffe, Esq.
rickjaffeesquire@gmail.com
916-492-6038 (California office number

 

Again, to donate to Dr. Stoller's legal fund: https://gogetfunding.com/legal-defense-fund-stoller/

 

 

 

Daily Log: My Letter to Julian Assange

 

 

This is my entry from yesterday. Which was a little crazy. Anyway, I think this fulfills both the "personal" and "politics/current events" portions of my log. This is the letter I will be sending to Julian Assange (as you can see, it's not ONLY to him). I hope he is able to read it:

Dear Julian,

I hope that you are able to read this letter. I have heard that you are in such poor physical condition because of your treatment there, that last week you were unable to even have a conversation. What they are doing to you is a crime. 

But now, because of the US government’s charges against you, the whole world is finally beginning to understand the nature of the beast that we are up against. Even mainstream journalists are worried that real journalism is being criminalized, and that - should they ever decide to engage in real journalism - that could one day affect them too.

What you have done is heroic. You have given us a tool for exposing official crimes and wrongdoings. And that tool will live on no matter what happens to you. But I sincerely hope that you do survive this, and that you are one day free.

And I think that it must be difficult for those who are in charge of your care, and who must read the correspondence that comes to you. They may have been told things about you, or they may have bought into the media smear campaign that has been going on for years now. Probably, most of them aren’t that interested in the details of your case, or in what you have done to help all of us fight against government abuse. Probably they just want to live their lives and do their jobs and not have to worry about who is on the right side here.

I just hope that those who are in charge of your care - or even those who might be in a position to influence your care, even in some small way - recognize that you are not a criminal. You have not been convicted of any crime, and it is nobody’s job to punish you. I hope that there is even just one person there who might be able to do something, even something small, that could make a difference in how you are cared for there, and help you to survive this ordeal.

Wishing all the best for you, and with gratitude,

Bretigne Shaffer

PS: It is probably small comfort, but I am doing what I can to help to get you released, and to promote freedom of speech and the freedom to expose government malfeasance more generally. I do this on my blog: www.bretigne.com, I have written a comic book dealing with these issues: Urban Yogini: A Superhero Who Can’t Use Violence, and I am completing my first children’s novel - Annabel Pickering and the Sky Pirates - also dealing with issues of liberty and free speech. Maybe the next generation will pay more attention.

 

 

Daily Log: OK So Here's Another Thing About Japan...

 

 

We went out to dinner with my parents and my sister and her family, and when I was in the restroom, I saw this sign. It's a variation of the same sign you see in all restrooms in all restaurants in this country. It said "state law requires you to wash your hands before leaving the restroom." It didn't say so explicitly, but I knew that it was meant for restaurant employees, not me (although for reasons that are incomprehensible to anyone but myself, I did wash my hands anyway). There wasn't an exclamation mark, but an exclamation mark was implied. 

And tonight, there was something jarring to me about that sign. It just brought home to me just how much our society is based on commands and laws - on force. And it's not only the laws themselves, but in the way people interact with each other, the way many people parent their children. It's as if, collectively, as a society, we don't believe anything will ever happen if it is not forced to happen. By law. By threats of violence.

Meanwhile, in Japan, everyone knows that you need to bathe yourself BEFORE you get in the lovely steaming hot public bath. Everyone goes and showers themselves, for a LONG time, getting every last spot, and then finally, when there's no skin left to scrub, you go and get in the tub. Everyone KNOWS that. And as far as I know, there is no law requiring it. Why would you need one? It would be like having a law telling people they had to wash their hands after using the restroom.

And that's just a glimpse of what is missing here. A cultural intelligence, a reliance on each other as individuals, rather than a reliance on the force of law. I feel that America really is spiralling into a kind of insanity, where the only solution that can ever be implemented is one that brings more laws, more force, more state power over people's lives, and that alongside that is an increasing fear people have of each other, and a need to control each other, based on this fear. It is a cultural disconnection that is palpable to me, there is something that is badly missing here, and I fear very few of us have ever experienced it personally. So very few of us even recognize that it isn't here.

In other news today, California's Governor Newsom said publicly today that he has concerns about efforts to put medical decision making in the hands of the state:

“I’m a parent. I don’t want someone that the governor of California appointed to make a decision for my family,” he told reporters after his speech at the California Democratic Party Convention.

Although he didn’t mention the bill explicitly, his comments indicate he doesn’t support a bill by state Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, that would require the California Department of Public Health to sign off on doctors’ medical exemption requests. If the Legislature passes the bill, it would need Newsom’s signature to become law.

This could be good news.

 

 

 

Daily Log: My Favorite Thing in the World

 

 

...for today.

Sometimes I am shocked by something that I already knew, but hadn't directly experienced in a while. Like this: The Japanese totally get comfort food. Like, at a level that is kind of superhuman. Beyond the biggest pile of mashed potatoes and Thanksgiving stuffing you can imagine. Way better than that. And even better: Comfort food that doesn't leave you feeling as if you've just swallowed a tub of grease and starch that will be oozing out your pores over the next few weeks. Superhuman.

So it looks like CBD is legal in Japan. I almost wept when I learned it. What that means is that it is POSSIBLE that my family could go and live there for a few  months. Our daughter takes CBD for seizures, so it's deal breaker if someplace we want to go won't allow it. But now... I have dreamed of going back to Japan for - wow, almost 20 years now. The last time I was there was in 1999 or 2000, when my parents visited me in Hong Kong and we took a short trip to Kyoto. Before that, I had lived there for a couple of years. 

It's hard for me to express what is so incredible about that country. But one big part of it is simply that it is civilized. Civilized in a way that most Americans have never experienced. Civilized like: Not having to worry about getting mugged or raped; not having to worry that an encounter with the police might end with your death; not being barked at and treated like cattle in airports... I could go on. 

And sometimes I am so tempted to just pick up and go live there again, this time with my family, for a year, or two years... until... what? Until "this" blows over? Until the US regains its sanity? But who thinks that is ever going to happen? And the scariest part about it is that the people around me don't seem to mind what's going on all that much. They seem, for the most part, to accept this authoritarian police-state culture as normal. But I know it's not. I've been to Japan.