Few things in the mail

 

Howard caught this egret shot up in Marin.

Kip shot this picture of Galway Cathedral in Ireland this week.

Tommy stopped by on his bike yesterday.

Anthropic

Well, so much for the no war President. So easily manipulated by Netanyahu. As I said when we invaded Iraq, much easier to start these sorts of conflicts than to finish them or get into that tedious, pesky stuff like running a country. Just lob a big missile in and see what shakes down later, I guess. Hope for the best.

And on to the next opponent, Denmark, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, NATO, take your pick. Whoever the daffy old octogenarian sets his errant mind on next.

I really don't feel like riffing on current events but kudos to the man at Anthropic for adhering to his internal red lines that disallow use of his technology to mass spy on ordinary Americans or in autonomous weapons systems.

“No amount of intimidation or punishment from the Department of War will change our position on mass domestic surveillance or fully autonomous weapons,” Anthropic spokesman

So rare to see a red line these days. Looks like a dangerous system in the best of hands.

...even AI’s creators “do not understand how our own AI creations work,” as Amodei once put it — or what they’re capable of. The risk, then, is not just that powerful AI would enable the government to “make a mockery” of the Fourth Amendment’s right to privacy by assembling “scattered, individually innocuous data [about individual Americans] into a comprehensive picture of any person’s life—automatically and at massive scale,” according to Amodei. Or that, in matters of life and death, “fully autonomous weapons cannot be relied upon to exercise the critical judgment that our highly trained, professional troops exhibit every day.”

The risk is also that whatever the phrase “all lawful purposes” encompasses today, it can’t possibly keep up with what AI could do tomorrow.

“Demanding unconditional access before [these] systems are ready is not an assertion of authority. It is a wager that the unknowns will not matter,”Thomas Wright, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, explained in the Atlantic. “The danger is not that Silicon Valley will wield too much power over the military. It is that neither will fully understand the systems it is rushing to deploy — and that the consequences of that ignorance will be tested not in a laboratory, but on the world.”

I read a government official try to explain this surveillance business the other day who admitted that there are a lot of gray areas here. I see a clear attack on our civil rights and freedoms, the rights to not be searched or unreasonably surveilled without warrant or probable cause. And as this article in Scientific American points out, there is a lot to be mined in those "gray areas."

The company was founded in 2021 by former OpenAI executives who believed the industry was not taking safety seriously enough. They positioned Claude as the ethical alternative. In late 2024 Anthropic made Claude available on a Palantir platform with a cloud security level up to “secret”—making Claude, by public accounts, the first large language model operating inside classified systems.

The question the standoff now forces is whether safety-first is a coherent identity once a technology is embedded in classified military operations and whether red lines are actually possible. “These words seem simple: illegal surveillance of Americans,” says Emelia Probasco, a senior fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. “But when you get down to it, there are whole armies of lawyers who are trying to sort out how to interpret that phrase.”

All that personal liberty stuff goes out the window so easily. If the government has the technology, they will use it and justify it, no matter what are the supposed legal constraints. And if it is a right wing government, the Supreme Court will most probably back them up.

Was reading today about a mass surveillance project going on right now on highways 8 and 80 in San Diego, which is scanning every license plate that goes by and assembling a massive database. Ostensibly it is to further the war on drugs and find missing children, yada, yada. 

Citizen response was predictable, "Who cares if you have done nothing wrong." This surrender and blind meek acceptance of government intrusion is the way our personal rights evaporate on the road to a fascist state.

Let me know how that goes.

Peter Thiel is clearly the devil, Dario Amodei at least gives one hope.

*

Funny postscript. After banning Claude, U.S. used it in its military strikes.

*

John Bolton on the Iran strike.

Top Shelf

We are all different. Some people thrive on vegan or vegetarian diets. I have tried it before, for two protracted periods and it is not for me. My body needs red meat to thrive. I know that for some of you that lands me on a lower evolutionary rung and for that I apologize. I will probably be reborn as a rock. But it is what it is.

For the past few years I have been buying large subprimal hunks of beef and breaking them down myself. Why? I can select the right piece of meat with the most marbling and best color for one thing. And have you priced beef at the grocery store or bought a steak in a restaurant lately?

Prices are through the roof. 

I rarely will buy a steak in a restaurant although I did buy an extravagant bone in rib eye at the Tee-Off which was damned good although exorbitantly expensive. 

I was hungry and out of town.

Trust me, this is a lot cheaper.

When I first started cutting my own beef I favored ribeyes. 

About thirteen dollars a lb. 

But I found that there was too much wasted fat and they sort of dissolved on the grill. 

I then switched to New York strips, which I love and which were a little cheaper at around ten bucks a lb. 

Nice, firm, less fat, better texture. Toothy.

My dad was a steak and potatoes guy and growing up we ate a lot of top sirloin. 

It is a cut that seems to have gone out of favor with the general public who are ribeye mad  right now but I like it a lot and it is a heck of a lot cheaper. Love the strong beefy flavor.

I have been craving it lately. 

Perhaps it reminds me of my dad and childhood?

Anyway I decided to buy one recently at Costco Business and break it down.

Eighteen lbs at $6.69 a lb. for choice, 

Far and away the least expensive meat we have purchased.

A pound of steak for less than the price of a big Mac.  

You get me?

But also a hunk of beef that requires far more expertise trimming and breaking down than anything I am used to.

It is a bit of a chore.

I split beef with Jim and Debbie, my cohorts in steak.

This one had the best marbling and beautiful fresh color.

We all took turns trimming and it went really well.

We watched a couple YouTube movies and coached each other and I am very proud of every one of us!

We separated the culotte or picanha section, the most prized beef in Brazil with its gorgeous fatcap.

Love the apron!

We made beautiful baseballs out of the tenderloin, long strips of the picanha, pulled the mouse steak and trim for stir fry.

I think we ended up with about 18 steaks. 

Jim likes his a little thinner than I do. 

We adjusted.

He threw a small one on his super hot grill to test our work.

Perfection!

We made a picanha the next night at home and it was delicious. 

I wish we had left a little more flatcap on it as it makes the steak so buttery.

Next time.

I haven't tried a baseball cut yet but it will happen very soon.

With vacuum sealed New York, Ribeyes and now Top sirloin steaks filling our freezer, we are good to go for the next four or five months at minimum.

Can't wait.

Noth - New Yorker

 

Schwing Auditorium

Yesterday was the 49th anniversary of the most amazing concert I ever witnessed, 2/26/77. San Bernardino.This is a song called Estimated Prophet, which was introduced that night, among other new songs. To say the night was transformative is a clear understatement, as most anyone who was there will tell you.

Where does the time go?

Lemon chicken with artichokes, fennel and potatoes.

Leslie has been a bit under the weather and she asked me to cook her dinner last night. She found a recipe she wanted to try. She hasn't been eating much of late and I was happy to cook her some protein.

Here is the recipe for lemon roasted chicken with artichokes, potatoes and fennel.

I was reasonably faithful to the script, added some garlic of course. I used the olive oil that was in the marinated artichokes. Didn't have fresh parsley but did have fresh thyme. I went with yukon gold instead of purple fingerlings, delicious if chromatically lacking.

I did a two minute broil at the end and the skin crisped up beautifully.

Had one snafu when I tried to one hand the tray out of the oven to add the vegetables, fifteen minutes in and the liquid spilled and tipped and I burnt my upper arm a tad.

A first. 

Hopefully not to be repeated.

Leslie loved it. (The food, not the burn.)

I liked it too but will doctor it next time, add a bit more spice for our customary flavor palette.

Perhaps paprika and red chili? Maybe cayenne.

It was wonderful but a little European wimpy. Loved the fennel, which we used to grow.

But the chicken could not have been better cooked.

First 15 minutes at 450°, then thirty five more with the vegetables before the broil phase.

Can't wait for leftovers tonight!

Working Man Blues

I got back last Monday evening from my shows in Palm Springs and Santa Barbara. There was no break between them so I was on the road for a long while and am pretty burned out. Hadn't had one of these back to backs in a year and they take both energy and logistical planning.

Thankfully Alyssa let me do my laundry on the day between the shows. Made more sense to stay in Encino then to drive all the way home.

Shows were very good, not great. As always, I sold nice material and bought nice material. Everything is sort of a blur at this point. Many regulars did not show up, I worry about some of them.

Here is the Palm Springs booth. 

Steve, my booth partner from Phoenix, and I went to the Art Intersect show next door and saw a lot of awful art with a couple nice things mixed in. We enjoyed talking to the owner of the Blue Rain Gallery and to the noted sculptor Geno Miles, who we ended up having dinner with later at Billy Reeds.

As always, Palm Springs is home to some very colorful people.

Barones didn't show again, must be boycotting.

A lot of very nice people did show including Mary, David and John, great friends and clients and some very good clients from Nebraska.

Caught Leanne at Trader Joes with her dog.

We went to the Vintage Flea Market Sunday, saw people I haven't seen in decades, a couple referred to me as an Original G which I will take and wear as a badge of honor.

Someone asked me why I hadn't retired yet?

The truth is number one, I can't afford to and number two, I really enjoy my job. Many of my retired friend are bored stiff and even the wealthy ones seem cash poor and on a fixed income.

Live already. Will do you know good when you are dead. And I will let you know when I have time to play. Still working...

Steve spotted this dog transfixed watching television in a Tesla and I had to snap a pic. 

Was in the car for several hours. 

Love the light.

Funny shot.

Santa Barbara was more of the same. 

Got my feet soaked in a mud puddle, rain was off and on, glad I brought extra shoes.

I went a little more modern than usual, having all the Modernism stuff in the van. Looked good. I bought a nice Mina Pulsifer that had been exhibited from 1963, a Norton Bush (I think), a neat Orrin white and a great Julian Ritter painting of Bacchus which I show on top.

Ritter was an immigrant from Germany who graduated from the Art Canter and two years later painted this in 1934 at the age of 25. He ultimately was destined for ugly clown paintings but he once had real chops as this painting shows.

Our best and most creative work is usually created in our twenties for some reason.

Dain Calvin did the show and he and his wife Sue and her cousin all came with, they had tickets for Lotusland, a place I still have never been.

We had a great dinner at one of my favorite bars, The Tee Off, perched at this spot on State St. since 1956.

Big Dave showed up one evening after visiting his son in Los Angeles and we had dinner as well.

All in all, a cool but exhausting foray.

I think that that is all I have right now.

Rob

female harrier and other birds (she's on the bottom)

 

Criticize the government on the internet, go to jail.

Bob D. sent this truly frightening story over, The Department of Homeland Security is demanding that Google turn over information about random critics.  A random critic, someone like for instance me,  gets caught in the crosshairs. 

This is very similar to what is happening to Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong right now, something that happens in fascist dictatorships. He criticized the government and got twenty years in the slam, a death sentence.

And there is no judicial review.

The US government has found a frighteningly efficient way to keep tabs on citizens who criticize the government: just demand their personal data from Google.

According to recent reporting from the Washington Post, a 67-year-old retiree sent a polite email to an attorney for the Department of Homeland Security urging mercy for an asylum seeker facing deportation to Afghanistan. The man, identified only as Jon, had read about the Afghani native’s case, and his fear that he would be persecuted should he ever return to his home country.

“Don’t play Russian roulette with [this man’s] life,” Jon told lead DHS prosecutor, Joseph Dernbach, in the email. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”

Five hours later, per WaPo, Jon received a response — not from Dernbach or the DHS, but from Google.

“Google has received legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account,” it read. The email advised Jon that the “legal process” was an administrative subpoena, issued by DHS. Soon, government agents would arrive at his home.

The subpoena wasn’t approved by any judge, and it didn’t require probable cause. Google gave Jon just seven days to challenge it in federal court — not nearly enough time for someone without a crack team of lawyers on retainer. Even more maddeningly, neither Google nor DHS had sent him a copy of the subpoena itself, leaving Jon and his attorney in the dark.

“How do you challenge a subpoena you don’t have a copy of?” an attorney Jon consulted, Judi Bernstein-Baker, told WaPo.

As DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the newspaper in a statement, the law grants the department “broad administrative subpoena authority,” meaning legal demands from DHS officials don’t need to pass independent review.

Truly frightening times we live in. This is just how it started before. 

The Distance

Not forgotten...

We have lost two wonderful guitarists recently, a man who may have no peer as a jazz finger stylist, Ralph Towner, and the guitar player from one of my favorite nineties bands, Cake, Greg Brown. Both were amazing players and will be certainly missed.

Nascent Meatballs

I decided to try something different and decided to make spaghetti and meatballs the other day, from scratch. I don't remember making meatballs before, I may have. I used this recipe from Natasha with a few adjustments.

Leslie had bought some really good grass fed ground beef at Sprouts for a great price. 85/15%. I went to Major Market and bought two mild Italian sausage. I didn't have white bread so I cut the crusts off sourdough and mashed that in my water.

I got a big mixing bowl and added my egg and cheese and mixed it all by hand. Diverting just a tad from the recipe I added dried basil, oregano and fennel seed. We don't do raw or cooked onion so I substituted a lot of onion powder. Added two 28 oz. cans of Cento organic crushed tomatoes.

I scooped the meatballs with the ice cream scooper and then gave them an additional hand roll.  Got about twenty or so.

It was here that things went slightly adrift.

I fried them in a bit of avocado oil but some lost their shape.

Might be lousy technique on my part, used tongs and a flat spatula, I am told chopsticks are the key.

I took the seared and browned meatballs out and put them on a platter.

Then I went about making my sauce, frying garlic after releasing my browned bits with a little marsala flambe.

I brought the sauce up to a quick boil and then left them in a slow simmer, after adding a bay leaf and seasoning with salt, pepper, red cracked pepper and a few other spices for taste.

I reintroduced the meatballs to the sauce and hoped for a beautiful marriage!

I also added a secret ingredient I have seen in some recipes, parmesan rind, which I removed at the very end with the bayleaf.

Added fresh basil at the finish and a lot of freshly grated parmesan.

We used bucatini, a favorite, not being able to locate the square spaghetti we recently bought at whole foods. 

Oh, well.

I'm biased but I thought that the dish tasted wonderful.

I can now go to my grave knowing that I am capable of making a good meatball.

I asked a few friends for comments on why my meatballs may have not held their shape?

Jim thought they might have been too dry, said to use ground pork instead of sausage.

Wagman thought I should add cold water, like he does.

I think one egg was not enough of a binder and my rather diminutive egg was small for all that meat but who knows?

Will try again. 

My wife wants me to add mushrooms next time.

Leslie had a nice rose pinot noir that we paired with the dish.

Awful good.

Monday the ninth

I received a letter from a dear friend overseas the other day, slightly edited here for your perusal:

Hey, how closely are you following the current China situation? If you come across good sources of timely info please share with me. 

I'm also somewhat surprised you haven't written anything (I've seen) about the fact that the three super powers all having leaders choosing now to push themselves into "Emperor/King/Tzar for Life".

I wrote him back a brief message:

Not doing a lot of politics right now but I'm staying aware.

He: 

Cool, thanks for the update. I noticed that there hasn't been ONE single word about China on CNN's website...fucking amazing! Made me wonder if anybody back there had even been aware of what's uP?

Me: Everyone is fatigued

He:

Great excuse! But it just shocks me that it's not TOP of the news anywhere in US! Just to check, I just went through Fox News website - same story! I know you are one of the best read individuals I know in America, so figured I'd check in. If Washington DC suddenly and quietly was ringed with opposition troops, 2 top generals 'disappeared', Supreme Court stood up to Trump and all opposition figures spoke out against him it would be the top story...meanwhile the only story on Fox is about the threat of China's infrastructure projects and CNN doesn't even cover it! The coming days will be 'interesting', to say the least!

*

Hmmm. Great excuse? Let me just respond as best as I can. Politics is completely tribal today. It doesn't seem to matter what the policies are, just what team the other guys play for. I tend to hate the policies of Donald Trump. From coal emissions to black lung, his administration has neutered the CDC, FDA, CFPB, EPA and a hundred other governmental agencies that were designed to protect the American public.

The sight of ICE separating five year olds from their parents and transporting them to measles ridden gulag holding tanks, thousand of miles away, completely nauseates me. He is traumatizing helpless children in a way that will never be completely healed.

They do not have it coming.

We have a broken immigration system and have not had the political balls to make meaningful changes for over thirty years. But to arrest people on the final leg of citizenship and deport them for traffic tickets or maybe because they are dark skinned Somalians seems quite un-american to me. We are breaking our word and not playing it straight.

We have alienated our allies and made friends with every dictator and autocrat in the world, fanning the flames for non nativist anger and hatred. Our tariffs have upset long term trading partners and wreaked havoc on our farmers, who are now being subsidized once again by the American taxpayer.

Having said that, I made a conscious decision in November of 2024. I would lie back, for my own mental health. I would not respond to every excess of the current regime and prefer to watch them self immolate over the long term, which I believe is slowly happening.

Just wait and see how fast his cohorts jump off the Trump ship!

Instead of being a shrieking Cassandra, I would act as a bridge to my friends on the other side, of which I have many and try to meet them where they are and listen to their genuine concerns. While they are different than mine, their man was duly elected and that is how we do things in America.

If that means foregoing all the low hanging fruit of recounting all the tragic machinations of Trump, Inc., so be it. We will talk about birds, food and music and whatever mundane thing is on my mind or you can go somewhere else.

But I can not personally operate in a space of being constantly triggered, it is bad for my health, both physical and mental. I have to take a pass.

Not like I have much faith left in our country anyway. You elected him, have at it. But you better find somebody to pick that lettuce awful quick or you may not be able to afford a salad anytime soon.

Celebrate Chuck Negron

I was saddened to hear that Chuck Negron, the lead vocalist for Three Dog Night, had passed.  I saw them at least twice, maybe three times. Once with Steppenwolf I believe, maybe the Allman Brothers, Nitty Gritty and the Chambers Brothers. Way too long ago.

One of the absolute best cover bands to ever hit the stage but their personal story was even more remarkable. One leaves to become editor of Field and Stream Magazine and another, Chuck, becomes a stoned cold junkie and loses it all.

I heard a remarkable interview once between him and Howard Stern. Chuck, then in recovery after a long servitude to smack, recounted his bottom.

He was panhandling for change, basically in the gutter when he looked at the tall skyscraper behind him and realized that he had once owned the whole entire building. And now he was penniless.

Now that is a crash.

But he picked himself up. Good for him. Stuck around for the third act. A handsome man with one of the best voices in music.   

From the New Yorker

 

Good interview with Jorma Kaukonen

If you liked the music of the Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna you might enjoy watching this recent interview with guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. I know that I did. Long but informative. There is another written interview here. 

Leslie and I were lucky enough to see the Airplane play with Grace Slick at Papa John Creech's funeral and will treasure the memory forever. Sat at the bar with Jim Marshall. People forget what kind of an impact they made on the nation and the world in the psychedelic era, both with Signe and Grace.

I loved the music of the Airplane, my older sister Liz was a big fan and I remember waiting outside the Fillmore East for her after one of their shows. She was heavily dosed and laughing at invisible nothings in our apartment's kitchen when she got home.

Way back in Texas I remember our evil stepfather repeatedly smashing her white rabbit 45's and tearing down her yab yum poster. This was maybe 67.

Anyway I love Jorma's fingerstyle work, especially Quah, but have to admit that I am ambivalent about Hot Tuna. I saw them many times but their music could be quite monotonous and often put me to sleep. Any music that requires large amounts of unnatural stimulant to enjoy might not pass the acid test?

I once fell asleep at a Tuna concert and woke up an hour later and could have sworn they were playing the same song.

Anyway, the point I was going to make is that as mixed as I feel about listening to Hot Tuna live, I freaking loved my cousin Jorma's electric playing with the Airplane. I think it was revolutionary and he doesn't give himself enough credit for it. It was jangly and bit very hard sonically and defined the Jefferson Airplane sound.

I love his electric work at least as well as his acoustic work, which is also masterful.

Good News!

When you have had bouts of cancer for a long period of time, in my case 41 years, you sort of keep your head on a swivel. You are always looking over your shoulder. Because you never really know when your number is going to get called.

Suddenly you slide down a black and white chute in which you have to relinquish total control of your life and surrender to whatever. That is why I look forward to my semi yearly check ups with dread, always thinking the worst is about to happen.

Thankfully it appears I have dodged the latest bullet. I just looked at my cyto-pathology report and there are no reports of high grade urothelial carcinoma present. Yippee!

I have not talked to my doctor but I am sure she will agree that we made the right decision delaying the chemo for a month or two. It will certainly make my life and job a lot easier.

Thanks for all the support and good vibes.

John Lennon and his epiphone

Battle Is Over But The War Goes On

Paradise waits...

About a month ago I went to my cancer urologist for a long overdue check-up. Somehow I spaced on 2025. Unfortunately she found a new mass in my bladder, not sure if it is a big deal or not. So just to reiterate, for those of you scoring at home, I first got kidney, ureter and bladder cancer in 1985, lost a bunch of my left kidney and had about ten separate surgeries for literally hundreds of bladder tumors.

Wanting to find a more systemic approach to curing my cancer problem I switched doctors and started seeing Dr. Joe Schmidt at UCSD, our local teaching hospital. I became part of the first BCG research study.

Fast forward to 2009, the cancer returned to my kidney and I had the rest of it removed by my original doctor, now deceased, John Greisman. He accidentally cut an abdominal nerve , which gives me my present asymmetric Quasimodo like shape, my guts having fallen out on my left side. It's a good look.

Seven years ago, in 2019 my cancer returned. All the experts, including the man at Scripps Encinitas, Juma and USC Keck, said that I would have to have my entire bladder and prostate removed and would be peeing out my belly button the rest of my life on account of a new neo-bladder fashioned out of my large intestine.

I said no fucking way.

Juma actually told me that I was toast, he misread some liver masses, basically told me to call my friends and loves up and say goodbye.

Instead, I found an expert in Hillcrest, Carol Salem, and pleaded with her to get me back on BCG. She listened and I have bought myself seven years of pissing the old fashioned way with her help. 

God bless her.

I have had stage four tumors in the bladder wall several times in the interim but she has taken really good care of me and here I still am. We switched from BCG to a newer chemotherapeutic agent and have actually had better and less painful results.

For some reason the cumulative effects of the BCG knocked me on my ass and I am also very prone to urinary infections post infusion.

Last night we drove to Coronado to stay with Chip and Cecilia because I had an early 5:30 call at the hospital in Hillcrest. Had a last supper at a Thai place in Imperial Beach. Got up at 4:30 a.m. and made ready for my day, got there on time.

My doctor showed up around seven and I told her that I was pretty stressed out because I am usually worthless for three days after the procedure and in a lot of pain but I had to pack for the next round of shows which are coming up quick.

She made a management decision and the right call to hold off on the chemo for now. I will try to reschedule for early March before Texas.

Great nurses today, nice woman anesthesiologist. I asked her to be put under to the dulcet strains of the Grateful Dead's Help on the way and was whisked into LaLa land on a nice familiar ship.

I was discharged a few hours later. Haven't checked the biopsy results yet, might wait for her to tell me. Ignorance and bliss, you know? Leslie and I went to Jasmine at opening for some fresh dim sum, hot off the presses.

I actually feel really good, better than usual. Napped all day will try to get a couple things done tomorrow if I am not too miserable. I wonder how I will feel when the drugs all wear off?

Show must go on!

Bad guy

What a great idea

The Trump administration is suspending environmental review for new nuclear facilities. So what happens when you stick them on top of let's say, an active earthquake fault or a river that supplies potable water, is that just, my bad?

Remember this?

Or this?

Or even this?

Think we ever learn?

Chernobyl

Stefanie Hempel & The Silver Spoons

My fave fab harmony.

Shorebirds

 

Papa John Creach

Hey now!

Trump may have had his problems fixing the economy but at least he has brought the measles back. Polio can't be far behind.

The measles outbreak in South Carolina is showing little sign of slowing down. The state has confirmed 847 cases since the first case was reported in October, making the outbreak bigger than the one in Texas, which started just over a year ago.

Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina's state epidemiologist, points out that in Texas, measles cases grew over the course of seven months, while in South Carolina it has taken just 16 weeks to surpass the Texas case count.

When asked whether the potential loss of measles elimination status was significant during a press call this month, Dr. Ralph Abraham, the principal deputy director of the CDC, said, "Not really."

Abraham said losing elimination status would not impact how the administration tackles measles. He said the administration supports the measles vaccine, but "You know, the president, Secretary [Kennedy], we talk all the time about religious freedom, health freedom, personal freedom. And I think we have to respect those communities that choose to go a somewhat of a different route."

Two very scary articles on this administration and the current status of measles and polio.

Dr. Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist who was appointed chair of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month, said decisions on whether to receive a vaccine should be made by patients and doctors, not by mandate.

"We were concerned about mandates, and mandates have really harmed and increased hesitancy," Milhoan said. "Does it [need] to be mandated for you to go to kindergarten, that these kids have every one of these vaccines that are recommended? That should be individually based. That is what I do as a doctor."Co-host Tom Johnson asked Milhoan about his philosophy on individual autonomy with the example of a parent who chooses not to get their child vaccinated against measles and that child subsequently infects a different immunocompromised child. Johnson asked Milhoan if there is a line to cross where individual autonomy infringes on another child's safety.

“I would say I agree, there are two different things at play here. We don’t take one over the other,” Milhoan said. “Let’s just flip that the other way around. What if the child gets a measles vaccine to protect your immunocompromised child and gets a negative consequence from that? Wasn’t that your child causing that child to be harmed?

Pray harder people and enjoy your trip back to the middle ages.