Pun Salad

As we look around the news today, searching for things to be thankful for, this might seem to be an odd choice. Noah Rothman was confused by the Israel/Hezbollah "cease-fire deal", but: Now It Makes Sense.

And at Patterico's Pontifications, JVW is even less complimentary: History Repeats Itself: Outgoing Democrat Administration Petulantly Screws Israel.

By "history repeating itself", JVW is recalling the 2016 US abstention from a UN Israel-condemning resolution by the outgoing Obama/Clinton/Kerry Administration, widely (and accurately) seen as a stab in the back.

And now…

You may recall that Oval Office pic we posted just last week:

Yes, that's FDR in the large middle portrait, surely it was Biden's decision to feature him so prominently.

Say what you will about FDR, at least he knew which side had to be ground into dust in World War II. Another area where Biden is hopeless.

So here's what I'm thankful for: in a few weeks, he, and Kamala, and Blinken, and Kerry will be headed out the door.

Also of note:

• Just a reminder. We should Abolish the FCC. TechDirt's Mike Masnick points out, the next FCC chair is already giving us new reasons to do that ASAP: Brendan Carr Makes It Clear That He’s Eager To Be America’s Top Censor.

  When Donald Trump announced that he was appointing current FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr to be the next chair of the FCC, it was no surprise. Nor was it a surprise that Trump tried to play up that Carr was a “warrior for free speech.”

  Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms, and held back our Economy.

  However, this is all projection, as with so much in the upcoming Trump administration. In reality, Brendan Carr may be the biggest threat to free speech in our government in a long while. And he’s not being shy about it.

  Carr is abusing the power of his position to pressure companies to censor speech he disagrees with, all while cloaking it in the language of “free speech.” As an FCC commissioner, he has significant regulatory authority over broadcasters, and he’s wielding that power to push his preferred political agenda. He has no real authority over internet companies, but he’s pretending he does. He’s threatening broadcasters and social media companies alike, telling them there will be consequences if they don’t toe his line.

  Well, that's a shame. Masnick's article is long and detailed, and the only glimmer of good news is that Carr won't actually have the power to do any of the things he threatens to do.

• Well, I guess she has experience. Monica Crowley's in a sycophantic swoon about our probable next Attorney General: Pam Bondi Is the Perfect Pick to End the Fentanyl Crisis.

  Um, not so fast, says Jacob Sullum, somewhat more believable: Florida Drug Deaths Rose Dramatically as Pam Bondi Did Her 'Incredible Job' of Reducing Them.

  […]Trump says she did "an incredible job" in "work[ing] to stop the trafficking of deadly drugs and reduce the tragedy of Fentanyl Overdose Deaths." Fox News likewise notes that when Bondi took office as attorney general in 2011, she "quickly earned a reputation for cracking down on opioids and the many 'pill mills' operating in the Sunshine State." It quotes state prosecutor Nicholas Cox, who notes that Florida "was the epicenter of the opioid crisis" at the time. Aronberg "credits his former boss as being the person 'most responsible for ridding the state of Florida of destructive pill mills.'"

  The implication that Bondi's anti-drug efforts succeeded in reducing overdose deaths does not find much support in data reported by the Florida Department of Health. The age-adjusted rate of "deaths from drug poisoning" did fall a bit after she took office, from 13.7 per 100,000 residents in 2011 to 12.1 in 2013. But then it resumed its upward trajectory, reaching 25.1—nearly double the 2011 rate—by the time Bondi left office in 2019. The death rate rose sharply in 2020 (as it did across the country), rose again in 2021, and declined slightly in 2022, when it was 34.9 per 100,000.

  In 2019, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Florida ranked 20th on the list of states with the highest drug death rates, down from 15th in 2011. But despite that relative improvement, Florida's rate as reported by the CDC rose by 66 percent during that period. In absolute terms, the number of drug deaths rose by more than 80 percent.

  Fun fact: in that same (2019) CDC data set, New Hampshire nabbed tenth place in the "Drug Overdose Death Rate", beating the pants off Florida.

  Further Fun Fact: More recently (2022 data), we've dropped to 21st place. But not because the OD death rate dropped in those three years.

  It rose, from 32 deaths/100K to 36 deaths/100K.

  It's just that many states are doing (even) worse and passed us in the rankings.

• To be fair… this is a Trump appointment I kind of like: Jay Bhattacharya at the NIH. According to Tyler Cowen:

  Trump has announced the appointment, so it is worth thinking through a few matters. While much of the chatter is about the Great Barrington Declaration, I would note that Bhattacharya has a history of focusing on the costs of obesity. So perhaps we can expect more research funding for better weight loss drugs, in addition to other relevant public health measures.

  Bhattacharya also has researched the NIH itself (with Packalen), and here is one bit from that paper: “NIH’s propensity to fund projects that build on the most recent advances has declined over the last several decades. Thus, in this regard NIH funding has become more conservative despite initiatives to increase funding for innovative projects.”

  I would expect it is a priority of his to switch more NIH funding into riskier bets, and that is all to the good. More broadly, his appointment can be seen as a slap in the face of the Fauci smug, satisfied, “do what I tell you” approach. That will delight many, myself included, but still the question remains of how to turn that into concrete advances in public health policy. Putting aside the possibility of another major pandemic coming around, that is not so easy to do.

  Bhattacharya has made a number of Pun Salad appearances over the years. Most recently, I linked to his Reason review of Anthony Fauci's memoir, headlined Anthony Fauci, the Man Who Thought He Was Science.

• In case you were wondering if women were better than men at long-distance swimming… I suggest you read Jeff Maurer's take: The “Women Are Better at Long-Distance Swimming” Talking Point Is Basically Bullshit.

  Gender denialism is currently the fuzzy testicle drooping out of the intellectual left’s gym shorts: it’s obvious, embarrassing, and people are wondering “are you gonna do something about that?” The debate over trans women in sports has made it clear that some on the left not only deny that male physiology confers advantages that perhaps can’t be reversed with hormones: They deny that male physiology confers any advantage in sports whatsoever. They seem to think it’s mean to admit that the average man is bigger, stronger, and faster than the average woman, even though everyone knows that, and it feels like we’ve suddenly decided to debate whether five is bigger than three.

  The latest clown to step into the biology denialist dunk tank is — oh, God, this one hurts — Neil deGrasse Tyson. That really sucks — I like Neil deGrasse Tyson! He produces the Carl Sagan-type wonderment that I often enjoy after a long day in the comedy mines.

  Maurer provides a clip of NdGT on Bill Maher's HBO show, where he attempted an argument from (scientific) authority. Maurer debunks convincingly, and amusingly.

• Whoa, really? Well, maybe. A few of the entries from Reason's "Abolish Everything" issue are out there. In the sense that (a) nobody's talking about them and (b) they probably won't ever happen. Still, Matthew Petti, Reason's lefty peacenik, advocates that we Abolish the Army.

  The people who created the U.S. Army did not want it to last forever. George Washington, the first commander of the Continental Army, wrote that "a large standing Army in time of Peace hath ever been considered dangerous to the liberties of a Country," though he supported a small frontier force. Other Founding Fathers struck similar notes.

  "Standing armies are dangerous to liberty," wrote Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 29. "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty. The means of defense against foreign danger have been always the instruments of tyranny at home," warned James Madison at the Constitutional Convention. "What, sir, is the use of a militia? It is to prevent the establishment of a standing army, the bane of liberty," said Elbridge Gerry during the debates over the Bill of Rights.

  No wonder, then, that they put an expiration date on any American army. Article 1, Section 8, Clause 12 of the U.S. Constitution states that Congress has the power "To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years." The next clause, authorizing the U.S. Navy, imposes no limits on spending. The message was clear: America needs a peacetime defense force at sea, not on land.

  A standing army might be useful if Canada ever gets obstreperous. But otherwise?