Our precious bodily fluids, or, “Trust the Experts”

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Instapundit:

OUT: ONLY WEIRD, ANTI-SCIENCE CONSPIRACY NUTS WORRY ABOUT FLUORIDE IN WATER.

IN: US government report says fluoride at twice the recommended limit is linked to lower IQ in kids.

… The report, based on an analysis of previously published research, marks the first time a federal agency has determined — “with moderate confidence” — that there is a link between higher levels of fluoride exposure and lower IQ in kids. While the report was not designed to evaluate the health effects of fluoride in drinking water alone, it is a striking acknowledgment of a potential neurological risk from high levels of fluoride.

The long-awaited report released Wednesday comes from the National Toxicology Program, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. It summarizes a review of studies, conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Mexico, that concludes that drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter is consistently associated with lower IQs in kids.

….

The report said that about 0.6% of the U.S. population — about 1.9 million people — are on water systems with naturally occurring fluoride levels of 1.5 milligrams or higher.

“The findings from this report raise the questions about how these people can be protected and what makes the most sense,” Malin said.

The 324-page report did not reach a conclusion about the risks of lower levels of fluoride, saying more study is needed. It also did not answer what high levels of fluoride might do to adults.

The American Dental Association, which champions water fluoridation, had been critical of earlier versions of the new analysis and Malin’s research. Asked for comment, a spokeswoman late Wednesday afternoon emailed that the organization’s experts were still reviewing the report.

Fluoride is a mineral that exists naturally in water and soil. About 80 years ago, scientists discovered that people whose water supplies naturally had more fluoride also had fewer cavities, triggering a push to get more Americans to use fluoride for better dental health.

In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan became the first U.S. city to start adding fluoride to tap water. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and continued to promote it even after fluoride toothpaste brands hit the market several years later. Though fluoride can come from a number of sources, drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say.

Officials lowered their recommendation for drinking water fluoride levels in 2015 to address a tooth condition called fluorosis, that can cause splotches on teeth and was becoming more common in U.S. kids.

Separately, the Environmental Protection Agency has maintained a longstanding requirement that water systems cannot have more than 4 milligrams of fluoride per liter. That standard is designed to prevent skeletal fluorosis, a potentially crippling disorder which causes weaker bones, stiffness and pain.

But more and more studies have increasingly pointed to a different problem, suggesting a link between higher levels of fluoride and brain development. Researchers wondered about the impact on developing fetuses and very young children who might ingest water with baby formula. Studies in animals showed fluoride could impact neurochemistry cell function in brain regions responsible for learning, memory, executive function and behavior.

In 2006, the National Research Council, a private nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., said limited evidence from China pointed to neurological effects in people exposed to high levels of fluoride. It called for more research into the effect of fluoride on intelligence.

After more research continued to raise questions, the National Toxicology Program in 2016 started working on a review of the available studies that could provide guidance on whether new fluoride-limiting measures were needed.

There were earlier drafts but the final document has repeatedly been held up. At one point, a committee of experts said available research did not support an earlier draft’s conclusions.

“Since fluoride is such an important topic to the public and to public health officials, it was imperative that we made every effort to get the science right,” said Rick Woychik, director of the National Toxicology Program, in a statement.

Malin said it makes sense for pregnant women to lower their fluoride intake, not only from water but also from certain types of tea. It might also make sense to have policy discussions about whether to require fluoride-content on beverage labels, she said.

But the CDC, as usual, is here to reassure us:

Rent control

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DOJ rentals lawsuit may be an effort to 'set up national rent control,' conservative warns

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Friday filed a lawsuit against a rental software company that offers an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for landlords to use in assessing rental market prices as they determine what to charge renters.

The DOJ suit alleges that RealPage violated antitrust law by contracting with "competing landlords who agree to share with RealPage nonpublic, competitively sensitive information about their apartment rental rates and other lease terms to train and run RealPage's algorithmic software," which provides recommendations on apartment pricing and terms. It also accused the company of maintaining a monopoly in the market for commercial revenue management software, and the DOJ seeks to "end RealPage's illegal conduct and restore competition for the benefit of renters."

The suit comes as the Biden-Harris administration last month pressed Congress to force corporate landlords to choose between abiding by a 5% cap on rent increases or losing federal tax credits. Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has also called for a ban on the use of algorithms by rental companies, which her campaign said lets them "collude with each other and jack up rents dramatically."

RealPage has denied those allegations, saying that its software merely advises landlords about whether they should set rent for a given unit higher or lower. It added that it does not encourage them to keep units off the market and only uses nonpublic data in anonymized forms to prevent landlords from getting insights into their competitors' pricing, which the company believes complies with antitrust law. 

"RealPage’s revenue management software is purposely built to be legally compliant, and we have a history of working constructively with the DOJ to show that," the company told FOX Business in a statement. "In fact, in 2017 when the DOJ granted antitrust clearance for our acquisition of LRO, the DOJ also analyzed extensive information about our revenue management products without objecting to them in any way. We continue to educate the DOJ about our revenue management products, which operate fundamentally the same as they did at the time of that 2017 review."

The company said on its website that its customers "decide their own rent prices, always have 100% discretion to accept or reject software price recommendations, are never punished for declining recommendations, and accept recommendations at widely varying rates that are far lower than has been falsely alleged." 

RealPage also noted that as of May 2023, only 6.7% of rental units nationally used its AI Revenue Management (AIRM) or YieldStar tools, while 3.7% used its Lease Rent Operations.

Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, criticized the DOJ's investigation of AI rental software companies and told FOX Business that the probe "smells of an effort to set up national rent control, which has been discussed by other parts of the Democratic Party."

Norquist added that the software's suggestion is not compelling landlords or renters to offer or sign leases at the suggested rate.

"Everybody can ignore it, and will, if it doesn't make any sense," he said. "Which is why it's so ridiculous for people whose answer is government-imposed, mandated prices to suggest that when somebody says, 'here's what prices look like right now,' that that's somehow collusion and causing a problem."

Stephen Moore, a senior visiting fellow in economics at the Heritage Foundation, told FOX Business that consumers use algorithms to determine the best deals for products they're buying, including airfares and lodging, because they are efficient tools to match supply with demand and have value in the housing sector as well.

"What the Department of Justice is saying is that it should be somehow illegal for landlords to use algorithms and software to figure out how much they can charge for their rental units," Moore said. "If that is the case, then we should also outlaw consumers being able to do the same thing. And there are benefits to these algorithms because it matches, in an efficient way, the consumer who values the product the most with the seller who wants to sell the product. In this case, it's a rental apartment."

"Having a really efficient, real-time pricing management system where prices can change moment by moment, just like the price of a stock does, enhances consumer and business welfare at the same time," he added.

Moore said that addressing inflation and the resulting high interest rates would be a better way to deal with high housing costs.

"The most important thing they could do to lower rental prices is to stop borrowing trillions of dollars a year," Moore said. "Because what's happening is, the reason that rental prices and housing prices are going up is because the mortgage rate has gone way up, it was 3% when Trump left office, and now it's 6.5%, so people are paying twice as high a mortgage payment, and that really significantly deters their ability to afford a new house, or in this case apartment."

#MeToo! — Connecticut’s own idiot AG has, of course, signed up for what he hopes will be a share of the spoils.

And then there’s this related item:

HOME BUILDERS TELL VP HARRIS HER HOUSING PLAN NEEDS TO ADDRESS REGULATORY BARRIERS

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) responded to Vice President Harris' housing plans that were unveiled Friday as part of her economic agenda and found that while some elements of the proposal are positive, it fails to address a key policy area holding the housing sector back.

Harris' plans featured up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers, which she said would be provided to more than four million people over four years if she wins the presidency. She also called for building three million new housing units and would provide tax incentives for the construction of new homes for first-time buyers and a $40 billion home construction innovation fund.

Carl Harris, chairman of the NAHB and a custom home builder from Wichita, Kansas, said in a statement that while the vice president's focus on housing and homeownership is "commendable," her plan doesn't address regulatory barriers that impede the industry from building more inventory.

"Unfortunately, the plan makes no mention of reducing onerous federal regulations that add to the 24% cost burden on single family home construction or the almost 41% increase on the construction of a multifamily unit," he explained.

Stop them before they kill again — power-mad, fear-mongering bureaucrats, that is

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Northeastern towns issue voluntary lockdown to prevent spread of mosquito-borne disease

Eastern equine encephalitis can be deadly, health officials warn, but cases are 'extraordinarily rare'

Four Massachusetts towns — Douglas, Oxford, Sutton and Webster — have enacted a voluntary evening lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of a potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease.

The decision comes after the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) confirmed the first human case of Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) since 2020 in Worcester County. 

On Wednesday, the Oxford Board of Health voted to support the recommendation for people to remain indoors after 6:00 p.m., effective immediately, through Sept. 30, according to a public health advisory shared with Fox News Digital.

"It is the Board of Health’s responsibility to protect the public health, and we take EEE very seriously, and we are strongly encouraging residents to follow these recommendations due to the severity of EEE and the fact that it is in our community," a spokesperson for the town of Oxford said in an email to Fox News Digital. 

"So far this year in Massachusetts, there has only been one human case of EEE, but throughout the state, mosquitoes have tested positive for EEE."

“Voluntary ” — but, remember those COVID cards? They’re back.

The lockdowns are considered recommendations, and there will be no enforcement if residents do not comply, the town spokesperson said.

"However, if they want to use town fields outside these recommendations, they will have to show proof of insurance and sign an indemnification form."

Oxford is working with the other three critical-risk communities, with all four issuing these same recommendations, the spokesperson confirmed.

"Schools are working to reschedule and adjust their sports schedules so practices and games occur before these evening times and on weekends," the email noted.

And mosquito repellant doesn’t work on lightning.

Dr. John Ayers, vice chief of innovation in the Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, confirmed to Fox News Digital that EEE is "serious but extraordinarily rare."

"Without any overt prevention measures, cases remain substantially rarer than being struck by lightning," he said.

"While evening lockdowns could be protective, other options would be educating the public of the risk, encouraging mosquito repellent usage, and spraying to prevent the prevalence of mosquitoes," he advised.

Ayers added, "I don't think there is anything you can do to meaningfully lower your individual chances of illness, because they're already so low."

"Identity and motive unclear"

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"Who could have done this? und warum?"

At least 3 dead and 8 injured in knife attack at festival in Germany

“The attack happened Friday at 9:40 p.m. local time during a celebration for the city’s 650th anniversary. The "Festival of Diversity" [hahaha] began Friday and was to run through Sunday.”

“Vielfalt sind wir”

Herbert Reul, minister of the interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, told the press the attacker "out of nowhere" stabbed people randomly.

The dead are one woman and two men, and eight people were severely injured, he said.

"I also have great sympathy for all the people who had to witness this; it must have been terrible images. … " Kurzbach said. "I ask you, if you believe, to pray with me and if not, then to hope with me.”

God forbid he offend the non-believers.

UNRELATED, AND PURELY COINCIDENTAL, HERE’S ANOTHER REPORT FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY:

The Daily Chart: Border Control in Sweden

Completely unreported in the American media, Sweden has quietly closed its border for further “migrants” and “asylum seekers.” The Inquisitive Bird substack tells much of the story:

The number of immigrants in Sweden have greatly increased over the last few decades. Between 2002 and 2023, the share of the Swedish population that was either foreign-born or had at least one foreign-born parent increased from 21% to 35% (SCB). This has led to a natural question whether immigration has contributed to the worrying crime trends in the country. As we will see, data confirms this suspicion. The police have also spoken openly about the challenges arising from gang activity related to the immigrant influx. As a consequence, the public attitude about immigration and crime has shifted. . .

Now in 2024, Sweden’s borders are relatively closed. Projections indicate that in this year, Sweden will receive the lowest number of asylum seekers since 1997. The number of residence permits have also greatly decreased. For the first time in 50 years, Sweden is now experiencing net emigration (i.e., more leave than arrive).

Here are a couple of graphic displays of Sweden’s immigrant problem:

I thought no further disclosure of White House graft could surprise me; I was wrong.

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Kamala’s brother-in-law fleeced taxpayers for billions to give to left-wing groups and lawyers

NYPOST

Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, may be the current world-class champ of presidential-family shady dealings, but not for long. 

If Kamala Harris wins the White House, her brother-in-law, Tony West, who is married to her sister Maya, is poised to claim the crooked crown.

Like Hunter, West learned his craft in the Obama years. 

Then head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division, he invented a new form of what 19th-early 20thcenturies Tammany boss George Washington Plunkett famously called “Honest Graft.”

It was simple. 

Until 1977, Congress had to approve any settlement of a civil suit against the Federal government over $100,000.

But in that year, seeking relief from the burgeoning volume of suits to review, Congress removed the cap, handing the Justice Department a permanent blank check to pay settlements unilaterally, in any amount, out of an account known as the Judgment Fund.

Run by the Treasury Department, the Judgment Fund’s secrecy is so complete that our often-penetrated CIA might study it for lessons. 

The limited data released omits recipients, the facts underlying the case, and often the lawyers involved.

By statute, attorneys’ fees awarded need not be disclosed. 

A Government Accountability Office study concluded that “no one knows the number of claims processed by the federal government each year.”

Still, for three decades, the integrity of Justice’s officials sufficed to prevent abuse. 

Then, in 2009, Tony West took over the department’s Civil Division, the division that litigates and settles lawsuits. 

Once West arrived, his deputy emailed colleagues asking “can you explain to Tony the best way to allocate some money toward an organization of our choosing?”

Settlements became the vehicle for paying off political allies.

For example, in late 2010, after a Supreme Court victory, DOJ lawyers were on the cusp of winning a decade-long fight against discrimination claims by 91 Hispanic and female farmers. 

That’s when West intervened and, as The New York Times put it, “engineered a stunning turnabout.” 

DOJ agreed to a $1.33 billion settlement which included thousands of farmers who had never claimed bias. 

The deal was made over the “vehement objections” of the department’s career lawyers.

The Times’s investigative report described West’s settlement as a “runaway train, driven by racial politics . . . and law firms that stand to gain more than $130 million in fees.”

The projected settlement size ballooned to over $4.4 billion as additional plaintiffs were added, including Native American farmers. 

The government’s statistical expert was appalled: “‘If they had gone to trial, the government would have prevailed . . . It was just a joke. . . . I was so disgusted. It was simply buying the support of the Native Americans.’”

This dirty deal also inflated the number of claimants, creating a $60 million windfall for the plaintiff’s lead lawyer, a member of the Obama/Biden transition team.

But West did not just bilk taxpayers. He shook down corporations, too. 

In a series of bank settlements, his team added increasingly aggressive provisions requiring the institutions to make nearly a billion dollars in mandatory donations to Democrat-supporting activist groups.

Donations were given double credit against required targets, incentivizing these payments over direct relief to victims of the housing crises.

West’s team specifically structured the terms to ensure that they would benefit only their political allies while leaving conservative groups ineligible. 

An internal email shows West deputies rewording a settlement’s donation provisions to ensure the bank could not select a “conservative” property rights organization as a recipient.

Over time, West grew even more brazen. 

A 2016 Volkswagen settlement required the company to fund a $2 billion White House electric car initiative that Congress had specifically rejected. 

The largesse delighted liberal groups. 

An email circulated saying they ought to build a “statue” to West and “bow down to this statue each day after we receive our $200,000+.”

In this legal shakedown, California’s attorney general at the time, Kamala Harris, was an active participant, cosigning the agreements for her state.

The Biden-Harris Administration has continued West’s “Honest Graft” tactics to reward political allies on the taxpayers’ dime. 

In 2021, a billion-dollar settlement with illegal immigrants claiming emotional distress was scotched only after public outcry. 

Even then, DOJ quietly agreed to pay attorneys’ fees to the ACLU lawyers in the long-running case.

Recently, the Department agreed to pay $2 million to FBI Agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page for releasing their anti-Trump texts to Congressional investigators worried about political bias. 

The pair claimed a violation of the Privacy Act, but the messages were sent on their government-issue phones which contain clear banner warnings that users lack any reasonable expectation of privacy.

DOJ had ample basis to litigate this case to completion before surrendering hard earned tax dollars to the disgraced FBI agents.

This form of civic corruption is not bipartisan. 

At the start of his administration, President Trump’s Attorney General banned settlement slush funds, while one of the early acts of the Biden-Harris DOJ was to rescind that ban.

… Meanwhile, the Tony West-invented, Biden-Harris operated “Honest Graft” machine pours taxpayer billions into left-wing activist groups, and West is said to be Harris’s White House counsel-in-waiting.

Hunter Biden step aside.

Who knew? Watermelons are now a symbol of solidarity with Palestinian terrorists — or something

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Black and Arab progressives are GOING TO WAR on social media over Kamala Harris

I’m all for internecine warfare between the progressives, and it’s fun to watch, as shown below, but what really intrigues me is the transformation of the lowly watermelon from a derogatory term for blacks (nope, never understood that) to a sign of solidarity for the pro-hamasians). Personally, I prefer my own definition, one that I think is of my own coinage, but probably lifted from someone else, “Watermelon — a raving environmentalist: green on the outside, red on the inside”.

In any event, here’s what’s sprawling across the patch now:

Essentially, the rub is that black activists think it's anti-black if you don't vote for Kamala Harris because she now identifies as black instead of Indian.

And it gets better:The pro-Palestinians have even taken to calling black people colonizers

Which has resurrected discussion of the trans-Saharan slave trade.

I'm as embarrassed to admit ownership of a pair back in 1980 as I am to confess that I wore a Nehru jacket to my 9th Grade prom in 1968, but a reader in Taos feels differently

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He does, however, object to this symbol of Eastern Preppiness being manufactured by Chinese slave labor. (Better that the six-year-olds digging up Congolese cobalt for Nantucket habitues’ Teslas be put to sewing garments in their spare time? — Ed)

The East is Red–Nantucket Red.

… Regardless of their huge popularization, Bickerstaff continued wearing his Reds at  dressy and not so dressy events, until they finally wore out. He never considered replacing them, especially after jumping ship to Taos. That is, until last week, when he shrugged his shoulders, muttered “what the hell,” and ordered a new pair of Reds from Murray’s.

They arrived soon and the Tatler was delighted with them, as they looked identical to his old ones from long ago. One thing he was curious to know was, were these lovely Reds still made on-island, as his original pair were. Alas, they were not only not made on-island, these essential New England artifacts are now made in China.

Bickerstaff can understand if, owing to their popularity, and no doubt having difficulty in these times finding skilled needle workers, and the like, especially among young people wanting to learn a trade, the Murrays had to go off-island. But in China, where the factories use forced labor, prisoners of war, and even children to man their sweatshops? In addition, there’s the god-awful Chinese government to consider, which supports some of the worst people on earth, and some of America’s worst enemies.

Hey Murrays, (they still own the company), why, in your search for cheap labor did you not consider other countries in the Far East, such as Bangladesh, India, Timor Leste, Kazakhstan, Nepal and others, where democracy and human rights are respected, and labor is affordable? Why patronize such a cruel and easily bought dictatorship as China?

The topic of this garment has, believe it or not, been debated for some time: the Wall Street Journal even published a fair and balanced discussion of the issue in 2021:

Not many pants out there are as instantly recognizable as Nantucket Reds, the deep-pinkish trousers that originated on Massachusetts’s tony Nantucket Island in the 1960s. That’s when the original—and as purists would argue, only—Reds retailer, Murray’s Toggery, began offering pants inspired by the sun-bleached sailcloth of French fishing boats. Since then, the style has been adopted by a mess of brands, from Ralph Lauren to Bonobos.