Month: April 2022

Biotech Company Testing Gene Therapy to Cure Heart Disease

photog Current Events, Science

This article reviews a gene therapy that prevents clogged arteries in people who have a genetic basis for high levels of low density lipoprotein cholesterol.

Later this year, Verve Therapeutics of Cambridge, Ma., will initiate Phase 1 clinical trials to test VERVE-101, a new medication that, if successful, will employ gene editing to significantly reduce low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, or LDL.

…

The medication is targeted specifically for patients who have a genetic form of high cholesterol known as heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia, or FH, caused by expression of a gene called PCSK9. Verve also plans to develop a program to silence a gene called ANGPTL3 for patients with FH and possibly those with or at risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

They’ve done the testing in monkeys and soon they’ll be trying it out on humans.  This is getting closer to the stuff that was science fiction fifty years ago.  A single intravenous treatment alters the DNA sequence of the patient’s liver cells and permanently cures a condition that would otherwise require statins and dieting and eventually stents and surgery to keep the patient alive.

I’m waiting for the gene therapy to cure my congenital laziness.  But the work-ethic-impaired never get consideration for our disease.  So unfair.

 

 

 

 

 

The Leftist Journalists are Starting to Cover the New Right

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I just read an article in, of all places, Vanity Fair.  The writer went to the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando back in October and interviewed Curtis Yarvin, Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance and Blake Masters.  He was trying to find out what the New Right is all about.  The journalist sounds like a progressive, which would be no surprise.  But it is apparent he has figured out the nuance that differentiates the New Right from what passed for conservatives back before 2016.  And so, the very long article (about 9,600 words!) provides an interesting account of the New Right through the eyes of a member of the leftist media elite.

The writer was surprised at how many of the attendees were in their twenties.  I found it amusing to hear how shocking it was for him to see all these young and hip people “falling under the spell” of evil Nazis.  Of course, a lot of this shock may be for the benefit of his leftist readers at Vanity Fair.  If he didn’t feign surprise that young people could find fault with the world that the Left has created, he might be drummed out of Vanity Fair and have to get a real job.

But beside the entertainment value of this mirror on the New Right, I was excited to know that the Left has become extremely worried about the increasing popularity of what they think of as extreme right-wing politics.  Or maybe they’ve been aware all along and they hoped if they ignored it, then it would go away.

One thing I notice is that the part of the New Right that this reporter covered is the least threatening branch.  Specifically, Peter Thiel and his proteges are the most respectable, least controversial group that could still be labelled as part of the New Right.  Even Curtis Yarvin, for all the screeching that the Left has done about his “racist” statements in the past, is more of an intellectual figure than a revolutionary.

By keeping the rest of the New Right out of the mainstream media’s view maybe they’re trying to preselect who is acceptable and thereby limit the damage from the upcoming elections.  But either way, the Left knows that anger and disgust over what they’ve done in the last two years is pervasive and is creating a groundswell of support for the new ideas coming out of the New Right.

But as much as I’m interested in the success of New Right candidates in the November election, I’m much more focused on the concrete steps that red state leaders are making to push back against unconstitutional federal laws and actions.  Inevitably there will be a showdown between Washington and these rebellious local leaders.  I think this is where we’ll see the first true test of cultural resistance to the globalist, anti-freedom regime.  And the state leader who gets the feds to blink is going to be man to watch in the future.  Maybe it’ll be DeSantis, maybe someone else.

Until then it’s interesting to see these first indications of the Left’s panic.  The network pundits now openly admit Biden’s poll numbers are abysmal.  And they list all the same factors that we’ve been talking about for more than a year.  Inflation, crime, foreign policy incompetence, supply chain failures, COVID tyranny and woke lunacy.  So, this act that they’ve kept up, that all of this is just a COVID hangover, has collapsed and at this point they’re praying for the Stupid Party to implode.  Usually, I’d think this likely.  But somehow, I think we’ve finally reached critical mass and things are going to change in a meaningful way.  All I have to do is hold out until November and things will come into clearer focus.  Fingers crossed.

Warner Bros. Cancels CNN+. Chris Wallace Vying for Fredo’s Old Job

photog Current Events

Sometimes the Universe proves it has a sense of humor.

Insufferable elitist and phony “straight journalist” Chris Wallace lost his gig at CNN+  when the rug was pulled out from under that fledgling crap journalism outlet by their new owner.  Imagine!  Warner Bros. Discover didn’t want to pay a billion dollars to run a streaming service that only a hundred thousand viewers signed up for.  By my math each viewer would have to bring in more than ten thousand dollars in revenue each year to make that break even.  Do you think there is anyone who would pay ten grand to watch Anderson Cooper give parenting advice or Don Lemon interviewing drag queens or Chris Wallace telling us how much smarter than us he is.

With any luck the cancelled “stars” will have to compete against each other to snag the few slots available on the incredibly shrinking network CNN.  Of course if they’d like to squeeze a little extra revenue out of the situation they could televise the competition.  I could imagine Cooper and Lemon squaring off in the ring with those weapons from the classic Star Trek episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion.”   Those two losers mincing around the stage attacking each other with giant can openers would be worth a few bucks I guess.

Well, things are looking up.

The Batman (2022) – A Science Fiction – Fantasy Movie Review

photog Movie Reviews, Reviews, Science Fiction / Fantasy, SF&F Movie Reviews , , ,

Last night I went to go see the “The Batman” with my two older grandsons.  We hadn’t gone to the movies since before the whole COVID mess and I figured with them on Easter vacation from school it was now or never.  They’d heard good things about the movie.  I was skeptical about it because Batman was being played by Robert Pattinson.  And I remember he’d been the actor in those lame Twilight vampire movies that teenage girls were so excited about a while ago.  But I figured it would still be fun hanging out with these descendants of mine.

So, we met up after their work hours.  These two guys are working on their holiday and doing nine hours a day of manual labor.  I told them I was embarrassed that I never had the work ethic they have at that age.  I drove to the nearest cineplex for the last night of the movie’s run.  But I wasn’t familiar with the town or mall it was in, so I was amazed to see that the mall was almost completely empty.  All the biggest chain stores like Macy’s and Target were vacated and even most of the smaller stores were boarded up.  It felt like we were walking onto the set of a zombie movie.  There were barely a dozen people walking around in the mall at 6:45 at night.  The theater was empty except for the ticket seller, popcorn girl and the ticket taker.  It was pretty creepy.  But they still got their popcorn and drinks.

The plot of the movie revolves around the familiar scenario of Bruce Wayne acting as an avenging angel stalking the streets of Gotham City fighting against organized (and disorganized) crime as the caped crusader.  In this iteration James Gordon is a police lieutenant who has teamed up with Batman to allow the city to benefit from Batman’s vigilante activities.  The current crime spree is a series of high-level city government officials being murdered by the Riddler.  The mayor, police commissioner and district attorney are murdered gruesomely and their killings are videotaped by the Riddler and shared with the public on-line.  The Riddler highlights the corrupt activities of the men he’s murdered and announces that he will be “unmasking” the full depths of the partnership between organized crime and the present city administration.

Batman starts following clues that the Riddler provides specifically for him.  And in the investigation, he meets up with Selena who has her own secret identity as the Catwoman.  They become romantically involved, sort of, and together they discover the link between Batman’s father and the crime boss Carmine Falcone (played ably by John Turturro).  We find out that Falcone is also Selena’s father.   Mixed up in Falcone’s vice trades like drugs and prostitution is Oswald “Oz” Cobblepot also known as the Penguin.  The Penguin ends up shedding light on the origins of Falcone’s control of City Hall.  The details of this old history illuminate the basis for the Riddler’s campaign of vengeance against the city’s power brokers including Bruce Wayne.  By the end of the movie, it’s clear what the Riddler was up to but it isn’t in time to prevent a plot to blow up the sea wall that keeps the river out of Gotham’s downtown.  And it also barely allows the foiling of a massacre at a political rally being held for the reform candidate running for mayor.

Of course, Batman must almost single-handedly prevent thirty, gun wielding acolytes of the Riddler from shooting Gotham’s citizens like they were literally fish in a barrel.  But in doing so he learns that his negative role as a vigilante seeking vengeance is too limited to help save Gotham City.  And that he must become also a positive force to help people survive the mayhem all around them.

So, what did I think?  Well first of all, this movie is almost three hours long.  That’s really long.  And the movie is unrelentingly bleak.  Bruce Wayne in the few scenes when he is not Batman looks almost suicidal.  There are no lighter moments in this movie at all.  There is a grittier and uglier feel to this movie than, for instance, in Nolan’s Dark Knight movies.   On the other hand, the action scenes are very well done.  This Batman apparently has a much more capable armor than the Dark Knight had.  He is blasted by machine guns and even a shot gun and not only survives but doesn’t even show any damage to his suit.  And a chase scene on a crowded expressway is pretty spectacular, even if absurdly unrealistic.  On the negative side, Selena does utter the phrase “white privilege” at one point which annoyed me mightily.  But on the whole the movie is an effective and enjoyable Batman movie.  I recommend it to fans of the genre.

Leaving the theater, we were the only people in the huge mall except for a guard who escorted us to the only door still open in the building.  Our car was the only vehicle in this enormous parking lot and as we walked through the eerily empty space, we reflected on its resemblance to some of the darker corners of Gotham City that we had recently visited.  We spent the long ride home discussing the pros and cons of the film and all decided that it had been a worthwhile expedition.  I got them home an hour later than I had estimated and their parents told me of the unbelievably early hour they had to get up for work the next morning.  I felt awful getting them home so late but the boys still claimed it was worth it.  Score one for nonconsecutive generational male bonding.  Now, bring on the great grandsons.

Howie Carr Gloats at Impotent Rage of Boston Maskers

photog Current Events, Humor , ,

Howie Carr is one of a very few sane New England journalists.  He loves tweaking the Left in Boston.  I just had to quote from an article he posted mocking the anger and fear expressed by commenters on the Boston Globe over the judge ending air travel masking.

“I’ve had two vaccines, and two boosters, and have already booked my fifth, sixth and seventh shots. Whenever I step outside my mansion in Lincoln, which I haven’t done since February 2020, I wear 17 masks, all N95’s, but now I am terrified that I will be infected by a MAGA supporter in the tourist section of my next flight to Martha’s Vineyard. P.S. When will Trump be tried as a war criminal?”

Now obviously he’s exaggerating what he read in the Globe comments section.  But based on what I know of these people it’s pretty close to reality.

Kudos to Howie.