Latest Articles

What is Scott Gottlieb Smoking?
The FDA Commissioner seems not to have gotten the memo about crafting regulation to be smarter and less onerous.

November 18, 2018  •  Daily Caller

The FDA's just-unveiled Draconian restrictions on vaping products are an example of good PR but bad public-health policy. And regulators know better.

When he headed the FDA, Dr. Frank Young used to admonish his minions that there were times when common sense should modulate established policies and rules. That can be done in federal agencies via "enforcement discretion," a tool that regulators use to carry out their mandate in light of sometimes ambiguous laws and regulations.

Other officials have not been so wise.

Take Young's successor at the FDA, David Kessler, who chose a ludicrous case calculated to get him on the evening news in a virile demonstration that he was tough at enforcing the law.

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Bureaucrats Who Deserve A Salute
The military is a meritocracy that values competence, patience, discipline, and problem-solving.

November 13, 2018  •  Daily Caller

In a new Gallup poll, Americans' confidence in an array of U.S. societal institutions is largely unchanged, with the military continuing to earn the highest level of confidence of 15 institutions tested. (As usual, Congress is dead last.)

Maybe one of the reasons is that the military is more of a meritocracy than many other American institutions, one that values competence, patience, discipline, and problem-solving.

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Is 'Mindfulness' All In Your Head?
There's a physiological basis for mindfulness and similar approaches.

November 11, 2018  •  Fox News Opinion

How many times have you heard someone say to a person who is angry and agitated, "Hey, take a few deep breaths and chill." Well, it works, and there's now a physiological explanation for it. And for the popularity of the "mindfulness" phenomenon, which has spread rapidly worldwide. (A Google search for the word yields more than 138 million hits!)

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Turning Over A New (Organic) Leaf
Genetically engineered crops help farmers and feed increasing numbers of people, but the organic industry still rejects them.

November 5, 2018  •  Hoover Digest

Apologies for the bad link sent previously. This one works: https://www.hoover.org/research/turning-over-new-organic-leaf. (You need to click to advance to subsequent pages.)

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This Flu Season Should Serve as a Wake-up Call – We Need to Redouble Our Efforts to Prevent and Treat the Flu
There's too low a rate of vaccination and too little research

November 4, 2018  •  Fox News

Seasonal outbreaks of the flu cause thousands of deaths even in a good year, and the last flu season, 2017-2018, was a terrible one. It killed 80,000 Americans and sent 900,000 to the hospital, making it the worst influenza season in decades.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), show how much of an outlier it was: Previously, seasonal outbreaks since 2010, had killed between 12,000 and 56,000 and caused between 140,000 and 710,000 hospitalizations.

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