@narratives@noted.do
What's Inside This Mental Breakdown of Writing? Here, you'll find my wandering thoughts on economics, geopolitics, culture, technology, and daily ideas. Plus, I'll be dropping little peeks behind the curtain on my novel and nonfiction projects.
Withhold judgment until you've gathered information from diverse, reliable sources. Truth rarely lives in one perspective alone.
Always seek understanding, not certainty, consult multiple sources before reaching any conclusion.
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And why is this information coming from this individual?
And is there any reason why this information is expressed?
"It now appears most of us need about 5,000 units a day if we avoid the sun. The government was off by a factor of ten; an 'order-of-magnitude error.' Mistakes of this scale are rare in medicine." - John Cannell, MD, author of Athlete's Edge: Faster, Quicker, Stronger with Vitamin D "It is becoming increasingly clear to researchers in the field that vitamin D is strongly linked to several diseases. Its biological sphere of influence is much broader than we originally thought. The nutritional guidelines for vitamin D intake must be carefully reevaluated to determine the adequate intake,…
"I think the court belongs to the Canadian people and it should reflect the Canadian people... The law is an 'organic' entity that grows and transforms in keeping with the evolution of societal views, known as the 'living tree' doctrine." - Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada "Our Constitution is not a static, immutable text. It is a living document, and its meaning must be discerned and applied in light of the evolving values and circumstances of our society." - (While this quote is from Barack Obama and applies to the US Constitution, the…
"Guys get injuries and there's a reason why these injuries happen. A lot of time you're going to get your knee injuries and your ankle injuries, but sometimes if a guy's back is hurting it might be because his core isn't balanced with his back." ~ Andre Reed "The knee is a marvel of engineering, and when it fails, it reminds us how much we rely on its intricate mechanics for every simple movement." - Dr. Robert Johnson (Orthopedic Surgeon) "Every step becomes a negotiation when your knees are not cooperating. It's a constant recalibration of your world." - Anonymous Patient "The body…
“Strikes are the expression of a healthy democracy; they are pressure valves that keep economic injustices from festering.” - Thomas Geoghegan “In the long run, labor disputes help modernize labor relations and force companies to address inefficiencies they would otherwise ignore.” – Richard Freeman, economist “Lockouts and strikes are painful, but they clear the ground for innovation, renegotiation, and a reset of expectations that benefit productivity in the long term.” - Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winning economist “When workers strike, they shine a light on hidden inefficiencies…
“I gave Ukraine anti-tank busters, and Obama gave them blankets.” - Trump “We’re helping Ukraine. Just so you understand, we’re sending them military help and equipment.” - Trump “We’re supporting them with weapons. That’s more than the last administration did.” - Trump “My administration provided lethal aid to Ukraine, while the last one refused to.” - Trump “I’m the one who gave Ukraine the anti-tank weapons. No one else did that.” - Trump “I’m proud to say, for decades, I was the first president who didn’t start a new war.” - Trump “We achieved peace through strength. No new wars,…
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." - Dwight D. Eisenhower "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social…
"When goods do not cross borders, soldiers will." Frédéric Bastiat "We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war — apparently to protect some special interest — and who expect our trading partners not to retaliate." - Ronald Reagan "We cannot turn back. We cannot close ourselves off from the world. That’s not the way the world works. Our future lies in open economies and open trade." - Barack Obama "Tariffs are simply taxes on consumers, and their burden falls most heavily on those who can least afford it." - Thomas Sowell A conscious move towards protecting…
"The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy." - Montesquieu "We've become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that's been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I've ever seen in my life." - Jimmy Carter "Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty." - Plato To more effectively oppose autocratic or oligarchic state leaders, you must organize…
"The struggle for freedom is ultimately not resistance to autocrats or oligarchs but resistance to the despotism of public opinion." ~ Ludwig von Mises "The history of liberty is a history of resistance." ~ Woodrow Wilson "It is from the numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the…
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority." ~ Benjamin Franklin "Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth." ~ William Faulkner "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism." ~ Howard Zinn "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. "Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly." ~ Mahatma Gandhi "Dissent is the mark of…
I talked about the consolidation of power in the hands of the corporate bureaucracy, as distinct from the stockholders. To this view, I still strongly adhere. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith "What is true is that the idea of power corrupts. Power corrupts most rapidly those who believe in it, and it is they who will want it most. Obviously, our democratic system tends to give power to those who hunger for it and gives every opportunity to those who don't want power to avoid getting it. Not a very satisfactory arrangement if power corrupts those who believe in it and want it." ~ Gregory…
I came across the article in Harper's magazine about this new canonized Catholic saint. A well-written article, discussing the life of this young devout teenager. His final words to his mother were: Mom, don't be afraid. Since Jesus became a man, death has become the passage towards life, and we don't need to flee it. Let us prepare ourselves to experience something extraordinary in the eternal life. ~ Carlo Acutis So full of faith, and so good to his mother. For a fifteen-year-old boy to die saying that, it's a testament to a profound interior life. Not only was he accepting death, he…
"When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner." ~ Baron de Montesquieu "The peculiar danger of executive power is that it executes." ~ Michael Parenti "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, selfappointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of…
It doesn't make any sense to have such high tariffs against Asian countries. You place tariffs on goods coming from Asia, and right away you find prices go up on things that you buy like electronics and clothes. A tariff is a consumer cost which increases inflation which is a higher cost of goods and services without the common person's pay improving or increasing with inflationary costs. To the ordinary consumer in America or Canada, this could mean your weekly shopping food visit will cost more, the new cell phone with all the bells and whistles that you wish to buy would cost much…