It’s Dangerous to be Ruled by Fear (Barf lire)

Donald Trump’s first instinct when it came to the coronavirus was to dismiss the threat as overblown, over there, and “totally under control.” His second was to use the pandemic as an opportunity to show off his world-historical leadership skills by treating the virus as a threat on par with World War II.

Both reactions were driven by politics, not evidence. The first was unquestionably wrong. The second needs to be questioned aggressively before we impose solutions possibly more destructive than the virus itself

The fourth estate has become the fifth column.

Journalism calling itself an “estate” is anti-constitutional.
The dirty little secret is that the First Amendment, like the Second and all the first eight amendments, were intended to change nothing. They were intended to do just the opposite - to assure that no change in anyone's rights would be excused by the Constitution. The Ninth Amendment essentially says so explicitly:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
The First 8 Amendments enumerate only those rights historically abused by tyrants. The Ninth Amendment covers all other then-recognized (common law) rights. Including the right to sue for libel - which was fully understood from the adoption of 9A up to 1964 - when the Warren Court unanimously signed on to Justice Wm. Brennan’s fatuous claim that
". . . libel can claim no talismanic immunity from constitutional limitations. It must be measured by standards that satisfy the First Amendment”
The claim that the First Amendment modifies libel law is as fatuous as a claim that the Second Amendment modifies laws on armed assault would be.
“Estates” refers to nobility or established religious priesthood. The First Amendment refers to your ability, and mine, to spend our own money promoting our own values, ideas, and beliefs without deliberately lying about anyone else.

the late Christopher Hitchens’s brother Peter dares to speak out:

22 Mar: UK Daily Mail: PETER HITCHENS: Is shutting down Britain – with unprecedented curbs on ancient liberties – REALLY the best answer?
•Our columnist is renowned for independent thinking. It will enrage many, but here he offers a highly controversial personal view
We are warned of supposedly devastating death rates. But at least one expert, John Ioannidis, is not so sure. He is Professor of Medicine, of epidemiology and population health, of biomedical data science, and of statistics at Stanford University in California. He says the data are utterly unreliable because so many cases are going unrecorded.

He warns: ‘This evidence fiasco creates tremendous uncertainty about the risk of dying from Covid-19. Reported case fatality rates, like the official 3.4 per cent rate from the World Health Organisation, cause horror and are meaningless.’ In only one place – aboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess – has an entire closed community been available for study. And the death rate there – just one per cent – is distorted because so many of those aboard were elderly. The real rate, adjusted for a wide age range, could be as low as 0.05 per cent and as high as one per cent.

As Prof Ioannidis says: ‘That huge range markedly affects how severe the pandemic is and what should be done. A population-wide case fatality rate of 0.05 per cent is lower than seasonal influenza. If that is the true rate, locking down the world with potentially tremendous social and financial consequences may be totally irrational. It’s like an elephant being attacked by a house cat. Frustrated and trying to avoid the cat, the elephant accidentally jumps off a cliff and dies.’

Epidemic disasters have been predicted many times before and have not been anything like as bad as feared...

I also know that dissent at this time will bring me abuse and perhaps worse. But I am not saying this for fun, or to be ‘contrarian’ –that stupid word which suggests that you are picking an argument for fun. This is not fun.

This is our future, and if I did not lift my voice to speak up for it now, even if I do it quite alone, I should consider that I was not worthy to call myself English or British, or a journalist, and that my parents’ generation had wasted their time saving the freedom and prosperity which they handed on to me after a long and cruel struggle whose privations and griefs we can barely imagine.
If you want to comment on Peter Hitchens click here.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8138675/PETER-HITCHENS-shutting-Britain-REALLY-right-answer.html

President Trump needs Prof John Ioannidis on his covid-19 team.

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