Selective attention
I ' m certainly not going to let this blog get bogged down in discussion of the Syrian civil war. If you want to read reasonably detailed but succinct accounts there is this from the BBC, which uses data from various sources including the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights;The Council on Foreign Relations; and for a more international view, theInternational Institute for Security Studies. They are all in agreement on the main points. The war began with peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in March, 2011, which the Assad government violently repressed, sparking widespread uprisings nationwide that quickly evolved int...
Source: Stayin' Alive - March 10, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
The Unintelligible Psaki ‐Biden Theory of Oil Prices
Alan ReynoldsJust as Congress was poised to ban imports of Russian oil, President Biden got the jump on them with an executive order. Despite the delay, it was the right thing to do as a national expression of moral outrage over Russian military atrocities.The White House repeatedly explained its two ‐week inaction by suggesting that U.S. gasoline prices depend on how much oil we buy from this one minor source of imports.In late FebruaryReuters reported, “As the White House developed the sanctions package… [officials] were concerned about the possible impacts of a loss of Russian oil supply at a time of rising...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - March 9, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Alan Reynolds Source Type: blogs
A Renewed Nuclear Deal With Iran: Turning Back the Clock?
Diplomats from Europe, the United States, Russia, China, and Iran are in Vienna trying to revive the Iran nuclear agreement of 2015. But even if negotiations succeed, the post-deal environment could be much more unstable than it was seven years ago. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - March 4, 2022 Category: Health Management Authors: Dalia Dassa Kaye Source Type: blogs
Moral Philosophy, and some pragmatism
The objective was to install a regime more congenial to North American and European interests, which in the view of the perpetrators included being friendly to Israel. What they got was social collapse and a horrific civil war, followed by a regime more friendly to Iran. There are a couple of points that might make a minor moral distinction between this war crime and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. One is that the majority of the Iraq population did want an end to the Saddam Hussein regime, although they invaders didn ' t really understand anything about Iraq and in particular that there wasn ' t any common national ident...
Source: Stayin' Alive - February 28, 2022 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Kidney, Money, and the Sh ī‘ah Implementation of the Rule of Necessity
Zahra Takhshid (University of Denver), Kidney, Money, and the Sh ī‘ah Implementation of the Rule of Necessity, 19 UCLA J. Islamic Near E. L. (2021): In the U.S., over 43,000 people die every year waiting for a kidney. In Iran, however,... (Source: HealthLawProf Blog)
Source: HealthLawProf Blog - February 10, 2022 Category: Medical Law Authors: Katharine Van Tassel Source Type: blogs
Only 46 Percent of Employment ‐Based Green Cards Went to Workers in 2020
Alex NowrastehThe immigration system of the United States favors family reunification even in the so ‐called employment‐based green card categories. Under current interpretations of U.S. immigration law, family members of immigrant workers must use employment‐based green cards. Family‐based immigration is the norm across the developed world. Japan is the onlyOECD country that has more immigrant workers than immigrant family members, but the difference is larger in the United States that other countries. Instead of a separate green card category for the spouses and children of workers, those family mem...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - January 26, 2022 Category: American Health Authors: Alex Nowrasteh Source Type: blogs
The Macro View – Health, Economics, and Politics and the Big Picture. What I Am Watching Here And Abroad.
December 23 2021 Edition ----- There are two issues affecting the globe. The acute one is the Omicron variant of COVID19 which is really going ‘bonkers’ around the world. What flows is not going to be good I suspect. It is certainly spreading like crazy as we move towards Christmas but maybe the disease caused is not quite as bad.
The more chronic is the fading power of the US and the rise of the axis of China and Russia and also Iran which are making the world less stable and safe. Right now Australia seems to be in a degree of denial about the risks attached to both. Our PM seems to be in denial about the risk and t...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - December 23, 2021 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
In Remembrance of Linda Whetstone
Ian V ásquezLinda Whetstone, a great champion of global liberty, passed away last week. She dedicated her life to expanding freedom through tireless activism, the promotion of classical liberal ideas, and through her example, which epitomized the spirit of liberalism. Linda was the president of the Mont Pelerin Society (MPS), c hair of the Atlas Network, and was on the board of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London. She served twice on the selection committee of Cato’sMilton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty (with awards going to the Ladies in White Cuban dissident group in 2018 and to Chinese market ‐li...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 20, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Ian V ásquez Source Type: blogs
I Must Have Missed The Memo Explaining That The Iranians Were After Our Health Data!
This appeared last week: https://healthitsecurity.com/news/cisa-iranian-government-sponsored-threat-actors-targeting-healthcare CISA: Iranian Government-Sponsored Threat Actors Targeting Healthcare The US and its allies are warning healthcare entities about Iranian government-sponsored threat actors targeting Microsoft Exchange and Fortinet vulnerabilities. By Jill McKeon November 17, 2021 - US cyber officials along with allies from Australia and the UK issued an advisory warning the healthcare and transportation sectors about an Iranian government-sponsored advanced persistent threat (APT) group that has been exploit...
Source: Australian Health Information Technology - November 26, 2021 Category: Information Technology Authors: Dr David G More MB PhD Source Type: blogs
Afghan Refugees Are Being Recruited to Join an Iranian Paramilitary
As Western policymakers consider how to deal with Afghan evacuees, including former members of the Afghan security forces, they might consider how to prevent adversaries such as Iran from recruiting Afghan refugees for dangerous and destabilizing operations. Greater attention to these risks may become increasingly important as refugee flows from Afghanistan continue. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - November 23, 2021 Category: Health Management Authors: Karl P. Mueller; Andrew Radin Source Type: blogs
Congress Seeks to Halt US Weapons in Yemen
Jordan CohenOn June 2, 2015, Saudi fighter jets dropped six bombs in Yemen – four on Uqba bin Nafie School and two on Al‐Masnah Health Clinic. The led to the destruction of the school and health clinic and a civilian casualty. While a minimal amount of opposition fighters in the school died, there is no record of these fighters entering the health clinic. The tools used to commit these attacks were US ‐made, laser‐guided Mk‐82 warheads.These same bombs were used in an August 2018 airstrike on a school bus in Yemen that killed dozens of children. Moreover,ReliefWeb, documented 27 unlawfu...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - November 19, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Jordan Cohen Source Type: blogs
The War in Afghanistan Has Not Ended If “Over the Horizon” Operations Continue
Jordan CohenSecretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and said that despite not having U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the difficulty of “over the horizon operations” can be overcome by using intelligence from “a variety of sources. ” These types of operations rely on intelligence and the ability to station U.S. soldiers in partner countries. In return, the U.S. is technically still fighting, though without directly risking American lives. If this continues, it means that the U.S. is not withdrawing from Afghanistan, instead choosing to continue fighting a losi...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 13, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Jordan Cohen Source Type: blogs
Biden ’s Visa Ban for Africans
David J. BierThe Biden administrationis planning to roll out a new policy in November that denies the right to travel or immigrate to the United States to anyone in the world who is unvaccinated. It will replace various nonsensical travel bans on Europeans, Chinese, Iranians, Brazilians, South Africans, and Indians, but a majority of the world (57 percent) has not received even a single shot of any of the vaccines, andonly 1.9 percent of people in low ‐income countries have received at least one dose. This includes pretty much the entire continent of Africa.Currently, everyone —vaccinated or not—traveling to ...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 20, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: David J. Bier Source Type: blogs
Eight Reasons For Ending Joe Biden ’s Travel Bans
Ryan Bourne and Brad SubramaniamBack in July, Ioutlined why Joe Biden ’s crude COVID-19 travel bans on non-Americans coming from Europe, India, and a few other countries no longer made any sense from a public health perspective.Talk in Washington at the time was of lifting these restrictions by September. Well, here we are, mid-way through that month and the restrictions are going strong. Officials and diplomats now seem to think October or even Thanksgiving are the earliest potential dates for their removal. Some ponder whether the political incentives might point towards inactionuntil the mid-terms...which would mean b...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - September 16, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Ryan Bourne, Brad Subramaniam Source Type: blogs
More Laughing, More Thinking
By KIM BELLARD
There was a lot going on this week, as there always is, including the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the beginning of the NFL season, so you may have missed a big event: the announcement of the 31st First Annual Ig Nobel Awards (no, those are not typos).
What’s that you say — you don’t know the Ig Nobel Awards? These annual awards, organized by the magazine Annals of Improbable Research, seek to:
…honor achievements that make people LAUGH, then THINK. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people’s interest in scie...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 15, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Ryan Bose-Roy Tags: Medical Practice Research health research Ignobel Kim Bellard Source Type: blogs
