And Now For Something Completely The Same

     (Apologies to the greats of Monty Python.)

     It is a terrible mistake ever to trust a government agency that has a medical or “public health” ambit. Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy applies to such agencies with lethal force:

     Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people:

     First, there will be those who are devoted to the goals of the organization. Examples are dedicated classroom teachers in an educational bureaucracy, many of the engineers and launch technicians and scientists at NASA, even some agricultural scientists and advisors in the former Soviet Union collective farming administration.

     Secondly, there will be those dedicated to the organization itself. Examples are many of the administrators in the education system, many professors of education, many teachers union officials, much of the NASA headquarters staff, etc.

     The Iron Law states that in every case the second group will gain and keep control of the organization. It will write the rules, and control promotions within the organization.

     When the “bureaucratic organization” is a government agency, there is no true separation between that agency and the rest of the government – and therefore, no separation between the agency and the dominant political power.

     In no case will such an agency be permitted independence from the priorities of the ruling power. Regardless of the issues at hand, the priorities of the ruling power will be treated as superior to the nominal mission of the agency. This will hold true even in a life-and-death emergency.

     That brings us to these bits of reportage:

• New Media Rule: “Don’t Say Gay”
• Why Do Democrats Lie So Damn Much?
• Monkeypox: The Next Public-Health Failure.

     Ace comments incisively:

     During the covid lockdowns, schools, churches, movie theaters, parks, beaches, and gyms were closed, and people were fined, fired, and arrested for attempting to go to these places.

     But asking gays to limit their number of partners?

     That’s too oppressive.

     Not avoid sex altogether, mind you — just settle down with one f*ckbuddy during the pandemic and avoid sex with multiple partners.

     No, no, no. Gay men cannot be asked to do that, just as blacks could not be asked not to riot during the height of covid transmission. No member of a protected leftist group can ever be asked to stop doing anything they want to do in the interests of public health.

     The crashing irony here is that the Democrats are perfectly willing to sacrifice the lives of male homosexuals – at first, the genuinely at-risk group for monkeypox, virtually to the exclusion of any other cohort – as long as they can be confident of homosexuals’ votes.

     This is one of those subjects – couple it with my previous piece, please — where all a commentator need do is point to the writing on the wall. Of course, it helps to be historically literate:

     Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand.
     Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.
     Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God which was at Jerusalem; and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them.
     They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone.
     In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.
     Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another.
     The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake, and said to the wise men of Babylon, Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom.
     Then came in all the king’s wise men: but they could not read the writing, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.
     Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled, and his countenance was changed in him, and his lords were astonished.
     Now the queen, by reason of the words of the king and his lords, came into the banquet house: and the queen spake and said, O king, live for ever: let not thy thoughts trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed:
     There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;
     Forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and understanding, interpreting of dreams, and shewing of hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel be called, and he will shew the interpretation.
     Then was Daniel brought in before the king. And the king spake and said unto Daniel, Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought out of Jewry?
     I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.
     And now the wise men, the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they should read this writing, and make known unto me the interpretation thereof: but they could not shew the interpretation of the thing:
     And I have heard of thee, that thou canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler in the kingdom.
     Then Daniel answered and said before the king, Let thy gifts be to thyself, and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing unto the king, and make known to him the interpretation.
     O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father a kingdom, and majesty, and glory, and honour:
     And for the majesty that he gave him, all people, nations, and languages, trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew; and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he set up; and whom he would he put down.
     But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him:
     And he was driven from the sons of men; and his heart was made like the beasts, and his dwelling was with the wild asses: they fed him with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; till he knew that the most high God ruled in the kingdom of men, and that he appointeth over it whomsoever he will.
     And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this;
     But hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou, and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified:
     Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.
     And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
     This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
     TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
     UPHARSIN; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.

     [Daniel 5:1-28]

     We too are being “weighed in the balances:” in our case, for tolerating rampant perversion and the flaunting thereof, in defiance of all we know about Man and medicine…and for permitting Usurpers to steal our Republic and raise perverts and perversion to power over the rest of us. Judgment could arrive at any time. But do have a nice day.