MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'elites'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 02:56:02 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4361075&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F01%2Fin-his-own-words.html One of the under-reported stories from the 1960's is a fundamental change that took place at that time in the male rite of passage.  Ever since the first humans began the arduous trek from primitive tribal societies to civilized society, the male adolescent's progression to adulthood included some rite which demarcated childhood from manhood.  Most of the time this rite of passage was explicitly designed to evince the young prospective man's physical prowess and courage.  There is a clear line of communication from the young tribesman who was expected to kill a lion or bring down a buffalo by himself and the British aristocrat training at Sandhurst.  There were always those who did not take part in such rites, but for the culture's elites... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4361075 Tue, 18 Jan 2011 16:06:50 +0100 4361075 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4343206&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F01%2Four-post-modern-left.html The story of the week is the response of the Left-Liberal intelligentsia to the Arizona shootings.  By now, all but the most partisan recognize that the shooter was a seriously disturbed psychotic man who was responding to his own internal delusions and had no relationship with the Tea Parties, Sarah Palin, or any Conservative ideology.  The attempt to hijack this incident for political gain is noxious in the extreme; sadly, it is further evidence of the Left's need to demonize its opponents rather than engage their arguments.  There is a relatively simple reason why they need to follow this well marked path:  Leftism, as an ideology, has failed, is incoherent, and is truly post-modern; in other words, there is no core belief system for Leftism, there is merely ... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4343206 Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:30:00 +0100 4343206 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4304922&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2011%2F01%2Fthe-greatest-trick-the-devil-ever-pulled.html In the last century evil ideologies emerged which denied human nature and were consciously devoted to enabling the emergence of a "New Man," Utopia to follow.  These ideologies were socialist in nature and required that those who were not "part of the solution" would need to be removed so that the Utopian socialist vision could be realized.  We remember one of the versions of socialism, National Socialism, (collectivism based on ethnicity rather than class) as the most profoundly evil system, one based on the genocide of innocents.  Yet, while Communism has been responsible for more death and destruction than Nazism, the Left has managed to obscure its historical roots in genocide and retains the moral high ground in much of its... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4304922 Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:50:50 +0100 4304922 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3802444&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2010%2F07%2F29%2Fbad-science-mytype-ipad-research%2F I hate to give press to a “research firm” that doesn’t know the first thing about reporting statistics or basic methodology in their own “research” report. I guess that’s what happens when you get a bunch of people together who are mostly technologists, not statisticians or social scientists. This past week, MyType, a Facebook personality application that takes your data and then sells aggregated reports based upon your answers to their quiz, released a report about the iPad. They suggested that iPad owners and those looking to buy one were “selfish elites” while those who were iPad critics were characterized as “independent geeks.” You can already tell that this isn’t exactly going to be a scientific analysis, right? First... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3802444 Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:22:05 +0100 3802444 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3652482&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F06%2Fpassionate-intensity.html The best lack all conviction, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity. The Second Coming -- William Butler Yeats In the aftermath of the Turkish inspired Gaza "Humanitarian" incident, Israel has been attacked with a frenzied passion not seen since the days of the Third Reich.  A great many words have been written attempting to make sense of the reactions of the sophisticated, mostly liberal, European and American elites, which have at times mirrored the mindless rage of the Palestinians and their enablers.  Two of the more important discussions are worth highlighting. Walter Russell Mead has written a much linked post discussing the recurrence of a, perhaps naive, facilitation of atrocity, by those who Stalin once referred to as "useful idiots... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3652482 Thu, 10 Jun 2010 17:25:27 +0100 3652482 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3443773&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F04%2Fwestern-white-guilt-and-suicidal-moral-masochism.html We are all familiar with the person who "has it all" yet manages to ruin their life.  Not all such individuals have unconscious guilt which causes them to seek ways to punish themselves, but unconscious guilt as a motivator for masochistic, ie self damaging, behavior is an extremely common occurrence. The predominantly white European world from which our Civilization emerged was, like any civilization past, present, and future, comprised of many different elements.  Much that was evil was committed in the name of Western Civilization yet there are more people alive today, living in relative comfort and security, with more personal freedom, than any Civilization has ever managed before.  Our technological civilization would never have come into being ... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3443773 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 14:06:27 +0100 3443773 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3322425&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F03%2Favatar-the-glenn-beck-problem-and-ted-kaczynski-part-ii.html Avatar, "the Glenn Beck Problem", and Ted Kaczynski: Part I Avatar is a deeply religious movie and is nothing so much as a visual statement of Pantheism and Gaiaism.  In the movie, the biosphere is all connected, communicating through the trees.  Spirits/souls live on independent of the flesh and as a result there appears to be no gratuitous violence, warfare, or all the other ills fallible humans have been prone to.  In a paean to the idealized American Indian of contemporary myth, hunters apologize to their prey and thank them for their contribution to the people.  It is a lovely vision of a Godless religion, one that can be imagined to have evolved without benefit of a Deity.  It is scientific and decidedly amoral, in that morality requires choice... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3322425 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:33:37 +0100 3322425 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3287802&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F02%2Fwhat-are-you-willing-to-die-for.html [Update at end] In post-religious, secularized Western countries, the answer to the title question tends to devolve to "nothing" beyond the self and its interests.  Western elites are fond of instructing their inferiors to sacrifice for their Utopian ideal of the moment but sacrificing one's life for the "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness" for others is typically seen as the province of less well educated, less sophisticated, non-members of the elite.  America still has enough young people who value what this country has to offer that they are willing to put their lives on the line for us, but Europe has long since surrendered to the progressive forces of history and eschews self-defence of their ideals.   For Western elites, people who... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3287802 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:47:28 +0100 3287802 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3204946&cid=t_303854_109_f&fid=34817&url=http%3A%2F%2Fshrinkwrapped.blogs.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F01%2Fwhat-will-they-think-of-next.html The entire edifice of Anthropogenic Global warming is unraveling with amazing speed.  Watts Up With That? has been posing multiple posts daily which document fraudulent behavior by the IPCC and its minions.  Simon at Classical Values offers a nice summary of the metastasizing scandals thus far, and ends with a question: A Disaster Of Biblical Proportions The UN's IPCC has just taken a few more torpedoes below the water line. Well it turns out that the WWF [World Wildlife Fund] is cited all over the IPCC AR4 report, and as you know, WWF does not produce peer reviewed science, they produce opinion papers in line with their vision. Yet IPCC's rules are such that they are supposed to rely on peer reviewed science only. It appears they've violated that rule... ShrinkWrapped blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3204946 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:13:20 +0100 3204946 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2055762&cid=t_303854_87_f&fid=34825&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wesleyjsmith.com%2Fblog%2F2008%2F12%2Fblog-post.html I have an extended piece in the Weekly Standard on the Montana judge declaring it a "fundamental right" do "die with dignity"--e.g. to poison oneself with prescribed drugs--which as I noted in an earlier SHS posting about this, may be the only time that an advocacy propaganda phrase was elevated in a court ruling to the status of a constitutional right.In the piece I point out that much of the decision is, essentially about metaphysical opinions and concepts. From the piece:A premise of McCarter's ruling is that people have the right to decide for themselves what constitutes "dignity" according to their personal beliefs. After quoting the authorities she relied on--which would be too long to reproduce here--I state:In essence, Judge McCarter ruled that the individual's right to act upon su... Secondhand Smoke blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2055762 Sat, 20 Dec 2008 16:59:00 +0100 2055762