By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: For years I have been watching what little intelligence the human race ever had slowly evaporate before my eyes as governments built up arsenals of thermonuclear and biowarfare weapons that they cannot use without destroying us all. So many important social needs are forsaken, such as a national health service, in order to acquire useless weapons of mass destruction. My opinion of human intelligence is currently being reinforced by the hysteria over the attempts, however inadequate, to protect us from the consequences of a virus about which little is known.
The precautions of social distancing, masks, and closedowns are under attack both from uninformed laypersons and from some doctors and scientists. It is better to do nothing, they say, because the precautions cause more deaths from suicides caused by depression resulting from social isolation and from people afraid of going to hospitals for treatment of other life-threatening issues than die from Covid-19. Moreover, the precautions shut down the economy, which threatens life in additional ways, and prevent “herd immunity” from forming. According to this view, it is better to accept the deaths and illness in order to gain immunity.
'Amazingly enough, this ridiculous feudal custom still exists.'
Authored by Simon Black: During the summer of 1215 in a riverfront meadow near London, some of England’s top barons gathered to confront King John and force him to sign a contract guaranteeing their rights and freedoms.
The contract became known as the Magna Carta. And one of its key provisions (#43) gave the Barons protection against something called ‘escheat’.
In medieval times, ‘escheat’ referred to the property being forcibly passed to the King if its original owner died without heirs.
So if a Baron passed away without a son, his domain would pass by escheat back to the crown.
Over time, kings vastly expanded the use of escheat; anyone convicted of a crime would have their property seized by escheat. Occasionally someone’s son or daughter could be pressed into servitude by escheat.
It was like a medieval version of Civil Asset Forfeiture: the King took whatever he wanted, for any reason, and people had no rights.
