Category: Other News and Views

Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world, is populated very densely, and has a very high number of visitors going to and from China. Yet the number of deaths this year in Japan have actually been, overall, decreasing, showing no impact at all from COVID.

A large portion of Hertz’s revenue comes from car rentals at airports, which have all but evaporated as potential customers eschew plane travel.

Hospitals are not overwhelmed; most of us will be exposed anyway since we can’t sequester until there’s a vax; and we know which groups need protection from worst outcomes. Is the public health benefit from broad lockdowns at this point worth such extreme damage to livelihoods?

Lloyd Blankfein
Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs

In a time like this, when everyone seems to be afraid of dying from COVID, it’s interesting to read about a culture where death was not feared, but was, under certain circumstances, actually welcomed. That was the case with Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, which was the real culture of Japan not so terribly long ago. In fact, up to World War Two Bushido was still very much in evidence.

So you never thought the world could just come to a halt? Sometimes even the most absurd scenarios envisioned in fiction don’t seem crazy enough. Atlas was never more relevant than right now.

Atlas Shrugged was rated as the second most important book for American readers by one major study, behind only the Bible. The author, Ayn Rand, is one of the most original and insightful philosophers of modern times, and the only one who glorifies work, achievement, individualism, and free markets.

If you think the worldwide lockdown is such a wise thing, you should read this article about suicides in Thailand, one of many developing countries where the poor are suffering terribly to keep richer old people alive.

Thousands of people will lose their jobs.
Other people will die from heart disease as a result of the lockdown.
A woman will be beaten by her husband as domestic abuse cases rise and frustration and boredom reach intolerable levels.