Social Issues

A 13-year-old boy who was left severely disabled following a routine vaccination has been awarded compensation by a United States Court.  The young man was left paralysed after being administered the hepatitis A and varicella vaccinations in 2009. Vactruth.com reports: After five long years of litigation, Health and Human Services (HHS), the Respondent in all vaccine injury cases, conceded that the varicella vaccination did in fact cause RD’s vaccine injury, transverse myelitis, which has left him a tetraplegic.

Just over a year ago, we reported that in what was set to be a pilot experiment in "universal basic income", Finland would become the first nation to hand out "helicopter money" in the form of cash directly to a select group of citizens.

As we close out 2016 and draw nearer to the end of Obama's 8 years in the White House, our commander-in-chief decided to celebrate by once again telling us all just how awesome he thinks he is via a lovely little tweet storm. 

As we look ahead to the future, I wanted to take a moment to look back on the remarkable progress that you made possible these past 8 years.

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 1, 2017

Historically, the United States has spent more money than any other country on healthcare.

In the late 1990s, for example, the U.S. spent roughly 13% of GDP on healthcare, compared to about a 9.5% average for all high income countries.

A couple of days ago we highlighted some of the ridiculous new state laws that will go into effect across the country starting today (see "Here Are Some Of The Ridiculous New State Laws That Will Take Effect January 1st - Happy New Year!").  And while there was plenty of lunacy noted within the post, apparently we overlooked one of California's finest achievements of 2016, namely the legalization of child prostitution.