More Linky Links

More stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Structural problems with healthcare won't be solved by chasing away California's biggest contributors.

- From the archives: Why small habits make a big difference.

- Are we losing our car culture? 

- Chris Partridge sues Michigan over firing during Connor Stallions sign-stealing scandal.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Health gains vanish withing 2 years of stopping weight loss drugs. Taking things like Ozempic regularly are habits and most benefits from most habits fade if you stop doing them. Exercise also doesn't cost you anything and doesn't need to be approved by insurance. (HT Cultural Offering)

- Demond Williams Jr.'s case will test viability of signed contracts. Fact that Williams agent dropped him as a client may point that entering transfer portal wasn't his idea.

- What's the price? I can see paying a little more for something but not 10,000% more.

- Fire Departments' new emergency: Affording their trucks.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- VDH: It's affordability, stupid? Funny how little you see the price of gas or eggs n the news these days.

-  Glenn Reynolds with some hospital tips. And ever more hospital tips.

- Kevin Kelly: Thinkism. Interesting perspective but if I reach 97 think I'll be thinking less about the Singularity and more about having to pee.

- The Brown University shooting remains unsolved.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share. 

- Jonathan Turley on California pushing a retroactive tax on billionaires even if they moved out of state.

- How NBA legend Michael Jordan is blowing up NACAR's monopoly. Excellent backstory to an important case.

- Wait - is this true or satire?

- Rand Paul's proposal to improve healthcare and lower costs.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Why Congress should let the enhanced ACA subsidies expire. Agree 100%.

- From the archives: Do other countries do it? A simple litmus test for RFK Jr's ideas.

- Antisemitism and Anti-Americanism are Evil Twins. Agree 100%.

- Energy and the EU. "National security requires AI. AI requires energy." Not a fan of solar though.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Market Forces (in Healthcare). He's not wrong.

- Tesla rebounds to finish September as the Model Y the best selling car in Europe.

- Peter Attia with a critical look at the lifespan-extending promise of psilocybin. Increasing lifespan by decreasing stress?

- James Madison - the father of the 1st Amendment (among other things). 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Glenn Reynolds on what is college good for? He's not wrong.

- From the archives: How Julia Child used First Principles thinking.

- Paul Graham on how people get rich. He thought enough of the essay to repost it - so I am too.

- DOJ charges 324 in $14.6 billion healthcare fraud scheme. Good - throw the book at them!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Joint Us-China statement on economic trade meeting. The very definition of a reciprocal trade agreement.

- RFK Jr. says Trump just did what no Democrat ever had the guts to do. This is a huge moment.

- VDH: The Decivilizing of America. It needs to be stressed that this was intentional.

- Should public sector unions have collective bargaining rights? On he fence on this issue. On one hand unfunded (or underfunded) retirement benefits for public sector employees is one f the biggest under reported stories of our time. On the other hand local and state governments call for high standards without wanting to offer commiserate pay.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Is the US Navy sleepwalking into defeat? Time to wake up.

- Deputy Director Dan Bongino with an update on the work being done at the FBI. Never forget he took a huge pay cut to do this work for the American people.

- Are we about to see huge pharma costs to the end-user get slashed? Will this also mean drastic reduction in healthcare costs?

- Germany halts surveillance of AfD amid US pressure. Sounds like they were caught in the act and called on their censorship.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- How the AMA screws doctors. Interesting read - I would like to see MAHA lead back to smaller doctor practices.

- From the archives: Elements of Effective Thinking.

- VDH on the passing Signal psychodrama. (HT Cultural Offering)

- Speaking of Signal. Talk about conflicts of interest.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Leadership lessons from the Army-Navy game. I highly recommend everyone attending this game at least once in their lives.

- VDH: The evaporation of the Obama mystique.

- Its time to break up big medicine. I'd also institute price transparency where providers have to publish costs so patients can shop based upon quality or price. More doctors and nurses and fewer administrators and lawyers.

- I'm sold on Pete Hegseth too. No better friend - no worse enemy should be America's slogan throughout the world.

Why Healthcare is So Expensive in America

Not to mention insurance costs. Meanwhile in Canada. (Graph via)

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- We used to call it skitching or bumper riding.

- Drugstores give out personal medical information to police basically on demand. That's bad - really bad. (HT Borepatch)

- VDH on can partisan lawfare destroy Trump? 

- Morgan Housel on respecting each others' delusions.

More Linky Links

More links I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Last week it was a call from the Left to take a closer look at RFK Jr. This week it's The American Conservative pointing out The Courage of RFK Jr. "The urgency of his message obliges all Americans of conscience - left or right - to listen."

- The Tablet on the alliance between Big Pharma and marketing firms that have replaced the maxim "first do no harm" with the phrase "show me the money." Make time to read this today!

- Trump says if re-elected he'll release ALL of the JFK assassination files. This is a direct result of RFK Jr. already being a factor in 2024.

- How we spend our days is how we spend our lives - choosing presence over productivity.

One in Ten Americans are on Antidepressants

That's way too many. If all health insurance policies came with gym memberships I think we could lower that number. (Graph via)

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- DOJ arrests SBF for running out of bribe money

-  Deep Fake is getting good - too good

- Healthcare is a captured industry Part 2 - must read thread.

- Great Mike Leach story

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Back to the Blue Books. Agree 100%. 

- Before Musk, Twitter was the worst run tech company in the world.

- Healthcare is a captured industry where you cannot trust the science. Must read thread!

- The media's silence on the Twitter Files is shameful. Shameful but not surprising.

Healthcare Spending and Life Expectancy by Country

Interesting look at healthcare expenditure vs life expectancy.

The US by far spends the most on healthcare ($10,921 per capita) but our life expectancy where we're 48th (basically tied with Thailand who spends $296 per capita) leaves a lot to be desired. The American lifestyle and diet probably have a lot do do with the poor healthcare ROI but also guessing the way we handle healthcare has a lot of fat that can be trimmed.

Peter Attia on Statins

Peter Attia (who I'm a fan of) responds to a recent JAMA Internal Medicine study that calls into question the effectiveness of statins.  

The subject of statins is a hotly debated one in medicine and in my opinion often where there's smoke there's fire. The issue is personal to me because, like many people my age, I'm on a statin. 

Peter's response raised a number of questions in my mind. First and foremost is his criticism that "a 4.4-year average treatment duration is very short." Short? That's longer than the average college undergraduate experience. How long does Peter want these studies to be? 10-years? For life? Because that's what a statin prescription is basically for - life! What about the ethics of those receiving placeboes in that "short" 4-4-year study? If stains were shown to be effective - what lasting damage could have been done to those who thought they were receiving real medicine?

The questions I would have like to had answered are; is Peter Attia on a statin? Besides exercise (Peter Attia is in excellent shape) what does Peter do in his own life to combat cardiovascular disease? Is Peter on any medications that are life-long prescriptions? If not - how would he feel being forced to take one? What about using natural supplements such as vitamin K2? 

Disappointed by the article. 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The truth about the Great Barrier Reef. It's actually pretty healthy - no matter what the eco-scaremongering people say.

- NY Governor Hochul declares healthcare worker shortage of her own making. So it went from "two weeks to flatten the curve" (so hospitals and hospital workers wouldn't be overwhelmed) to now the firing of unvaccinated healthcare workers which is overwhelming the healthcare system. Makes zero sense (and we're allowing it to happen) 

- On a related note.

- Jonathan Isaac is now one of my favorite NBA players. How can you argue against what he said?