In addition to all the scary things going on in the world, there are a lot of amazing and beautiful things going on in each of our lives, if only we stop to appreciate them. In honor of those many awesome things I offer this "hymn" to celebrate the end of this day, "Dream of the Return," by the Pat Metheny Group.
Andrew Sullivan points out that the NYT has finally decided to have a mature reasoned discussion about transgender medical treatments. Hopefully, reasoned discussion involving pro's and con's and real evidence will be the new narrative on this topic, now that Abigail Shrier has been treated like a piñata for two years for the crime of doing what the NYT is finally now doing.
An excerpt from this NYT article:
The new standards state that clinicians should facilitate an “open exploration” of gender with adolescents and their families, without pushing them in one direction or another. But the guidelines recommend restricting the use of medications and surgeries, partly because of their medical risks.
Puberty blockers, for example, can impede bone development, though evidence so far suggests it resumes once puberty is initiated. And if taken in the early phase of puberty, blockers and hormones lead to fertility loss. Patients and their families should be counseled about these risks, the standards say, and if preserving fertility is a priority, drugs should be delayed until a more advanced stage of puberty.
[Added Jan 14]
"Here’s the truth that the NYT was finally forced to acknowledge: “Clinicians are divided” over the role of mental health counseling before making irreversible changes to a child’s body. Among those who are urging more counseling and caution for kids are ground-breaking transgender surgeons. This very public divide was first aired by Abigail Shrier a few months ago on Bari’s Substack, of course, where a trans pioneer in sex-change surgery opined: “It is my considered opinion that due to some of the … I’ll call it just ‘sloppy,’ sloppy healthcare work, that we’re going to have more young adults who will regret having gone through this process.” Oof.The NYT piece also concedes another key fact: that puberty blockers are neither harmless nor totally reversible . . .
I would think that, just as a general rule, minors making permanent, life-changing decisions should receive more psychological treatment than adults. How on earth is this not the default? In what other field of medicine do patients diagnose themselves, and that alone is justification for dramatic, irreversible medication?"
This excerpt is from Thoughts of the Human Mammal, Substack Website of Dan Palmer.
Question by Dan Palmer: "What advice would you give your younger self?"
Peter Bogossian:
One word, “parrhesia.”
Always speak openly and honestly, especially in the face of adversity. As Hitchens wrote, “Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity… the grave will supply plenty of time for silence.”
If you want to have a life worth living, work to make relationships worth having. The only way to do that is through parrhesia. Be honest. Be open. Have unwavering integrity. Never be sneaky or false. Don’t lie. Be more concerned with what is true and less concerned with what people think of you. Know that every time you’re not forthright you’re committing an injustice by bringing yourself and those you love further from the good life. Only if you say what you mean will people know what you mean. And only if others say what they mean will you know what they mean. You cannot have an authentic relationship unless someone knows what you mean and you know what they mean. And if you don’t have authentic relationships, you’ll never be truly happy or truly in love because other people won’t know you for who you are but for who they think you are. Parrhesia cuts through all of this. It’s an indispensable condition for a good life and a prophylactic against most sorrows.
Additional note from Wikipedia:
Parrhesia was a fundamental component of the democracy of Classical Athens. In assemblies and the courts Athenians were free to say almost anything, and in the theatre, playwrights such as Aristophanes made full use of the right to ridicule whomever they chose.Elsewhere there were limits to what might be said; freedom to discuss politics, morals, religion, or to criticize people would depend on context: by whom it was made, and when, and how, and where.
When you win a seat in Congress, it bestows you with the magical power to see the future, enabling you to beat the S&P 500. Report by Whales.com:
Today's comments by the CDC's Director Rochelle Walensky suggest that there is very little risk vaccinated people, and that there is not a good reason to keep worrying about serious illness or death from COVID if one is vaccinated. You can watch her make these comments at this video. Here is an excerpt:
ABC "GOOD MORNING AMERICA" HOST: I want to ask you about the encouraging headlines we're talking about this morning, a new studying talking about just how well vaccines are working to prevent severe illness. Given that, is it time to rethink how we're living with this virus if it is potentially here to stay?
CDC DIRECTOR ROCHELLE WALENSKY: A really important study if I may summarize it, a study of 1.2 million people who are vaccinated between December and October demonstrated that severe disease occurred 0.015% of the people who receive their primary series. And death in 0.003% of those people.
The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities.
So really these are people who were unwell to begin with.
To put these number in perspective, here are these two risk numbers converted to x out of 100,000:10/100,000 vaccinated people will experience "severe disease" as a result of COVID.
3/100,000 vaccinated people will die of COVID. This website lists 50 maladies more likely to kill a vaccinated person than COVID.
Did major media outlets report this good news? I suspected that left-wing media would suppress these statistics and I was correct.
The New York Times has not mentioned Walensky's comments. Instead, here's today's NYT headline: "Covid Live Updates: U.S. Hospitalizations Break Record as Omicron Surges U.S. insurers must cover eight at-home tests each month, the Biden administration says. Chicago’s public schools canceled Monday’s classes."
NPR also fails to mention Walensky's comments. Instead, today's headline are: "How to get insurance to pay for at-home COVID tests, according to the White House."
The Washington Post has not mentioned Walensky's comments either, except in a story that buries the lede, titled: "Rochelle Walensky is not good at this." Today's other WP headline: "U.S. poised to break record 142,000 covid-19 hospitalizations: But it may get much worse. Already struggling hospitals could house about 300,000 covid patients later this month if models are correct."
MSNBC did not report on Walensky's comments either. Instead, here is the MSNBC COVID headline: "Supreme Court killing Covid vaccine mandates leaves Biden with (some) options."
Walensky's comments have been widely published in other publications, none of them known as left-wing sources. For now, I will spare you my highly cynical thoughts about why this good COVID news is not being reported by left-wing media, but it didn't surprise me in the least.