Today---Tuesday, June 2---we canceled the "From the Stacks" livestream I normally do every Tuesday at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Cornwall Alliance's Facebook page. Why? Well, the official explanation went like this: "Dr. E. Calvin Beisner had an unfortunate battle with poison ivy during which the poison ivy won." Various folks posted condolences and wished me well. I'm thankful for their condolences, but, really, the poison ivy didn't win. True, I'm a "wounded warrior"---you should see all the … [Read more...]
Coronavirus and the Cornwall Alliance
Coronavirus. If you’d predicted six months ago that I’d be spending vast amounts of my time on this subject, I’d have said you were crazy. But you’d have been right. For me, that word has, in under three months, gone from never-before-encountered to encountered dozens to hundreds of times a day. Doctors and nurses, of course, all knew the term—for a family of viruses that cause common colds and seasonal influenzas. But most of us just knew of “cold germs” or “flu bugs.” Now suddenly … [Read more...]
Anthony Fauci: When Politics Trumps Science
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States became a very public event, the one face that has become most familiar to Americans is that of Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and perhaps the second most polarizing figure in the crisis, next to President Donald Trump. To progressives and those at least on the moderate left, Fauci is the Great Hero, the man who has struggled mightily against the wiles of the deranged Trump in order to … [Read more...]
The Poor Take the Hardest Hit from Lockdown: Report from India
I live India. It is not uncommon for me to come across those who live in abject poverty. But the coronavirus pandemic has shown me, and others, how bad the consequences of poverty can be. The nationwide lockdown began in March last week. It is scheduled to end in May. But the damage is already done—not only by the coronavirus, but also by the loss of livelihood for millions. It is estimated that 300 million in India are under the poverty line. Many others are daily wage laborers. Day … [Read more...]
Enough Already With The Help
Yours truly was one of many who early on cheered the government for aggressively curbing everyone’s activity to slow the spread of COVID-19. At the time, it seemed such a clear choice between life and death. Admittedly, I was squeamish endorsing government controls, something I’ve spent decades writing to oppose. What could possibly go wrong? As Benjamin Franklin said: “Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety deserve neither Liberty nor … [Read more...]
Choosing the Economy over People’s Lives?
The current novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has stimulated all kinds of questions. As more and more people begin to demand that the more extreme measures to curb its spread---those that are shuttering a large part of our economy---come to an end, one of the most common is whether such thinking involves prioritizing the economy over lives. Is it not pro-life to insist that we continue the widespread shutdown of our economy in the name of saving lives? That's what drew this email from one … [Read more...]
How Many Uninfected People Will the “War on the Coronavirus” Kill?
Following is the text of Cornwall Alliance’s first “From the Stacks” livestream program with Founder and National Spokesman E. Calvin Beisner on Facebook, April 7, 2020. We post it here because Internet technical problems made some parts inaudible to viewers. Today, let’s talk about the novel Coronavirus, or COVID-19, and our governments’ responses to it. I’m going to argue that our governing authorities need to expand the sources from whom they seek advice about how to deal with this … [Read more...]
Does Fighting Global Warming Help or Hurt the Poor?
Want to "bring nothing but misery to poor people, especially in the developing world"? Simple: Just follow the advice of the international cabal of UN leaders and their organizations calling for drastic action to fight global warming. The harangue is familiar everywhere by now: Global warming will harm everybody, but it'll harm the poor most of all. Curbing it will help everybody, but it'll help the poor most of all. Is that true? Not according to Dr. Mikko Paunio, an expert on public health … [Read more...]
Does the San Francisco Jury Verdict against Monsanto Spell Doom for Roundup?
Now that jurors in a San Francisco court have awarded a man $289 million in damages in his lawsuit against Monsanto (and its parent company Bayer) claiming that his exposure to Monsanto's Roundup weedkiller gave him cancer, some people wonder whether the Cornwall Alliance will reverse its view that Roundup (the brand name for the active ingredient glyphosate) is not a carcinogen. The answer: No. The reason: Because the case provides no convincing evidence that glyphosate causes … [Read more...]
How Do I Protect Myself from Insect-borne Diseases?
Having recently moved from a suburban area nestled in a major metropolitan region to a semi-rural area amid forests, farms, a nature preserve, and even a swamp, I’ve become a little more conscious of the need to take proper precautions against insect-borne diseases. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports, “Disease cases from mosquito, tick, and flea bites tripled in the US from 2004 to 2016. Nine new germs spread by mosquitoes and ticks have been discovered or introduced since … [Read more...]
