Public skepticism isn’t something doctors need to “cure,” write medical ethicists Isabelle Freiling, Nicole M. Krause and Dietram A. Scheufele in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics. They argue the medical profession’s tendency to label all opposing views “misinformation” is “riddled with ethical pitfalls,” paternalism and political bias. Instead of being bullied or nudged, patients should be allowed to make their own informed decisions.

Toppling a Communist Empire for $2.7 Million
Though widely thought of as focused on waterboarding terrorists or poisoning foreign potentates, it was by smuggling paper that the CIA achieved its most monumental triumph. R.M. Gerecht in a book review for The Washington Free Beacon charts how the late Cold War-era operation to flood Poland with Western books, magazines, printing supplies and audio recordings fatally weakened the country’s Communist dictatorship, setting the stage for the downfall of the entire Soviet empire. Total cost: US$2.7 million.


