We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
In the LA Review of Books, Andrew Scull on All We Have to Fear: Psychiatry's Transformation of Natural Anxieties into Mental Disorders.
It's a good summary of what has been going on in my field these days. One quote:
This reliance on symptoms, and on the simplistic approach of counting symptoms to make a diagnosis, creates a bogus confidence in psychiatric science. Such categories have an element of the arbitrary about them. When Robert Spitzer and his associates created DSM III, they liked to call themselves DOPs (data-oriented persons). In fact, DSM’s categories were assembled through political horse-trading and internal votes and compromise. The document they produced paid little heed to the question of validity, or to whether the new system of categorizing mental disorders corresponded to real diseases out there.
Over 50-years ago, my Bar Mitzvah was in a small, poor Orthodox synagogue in Brooklyn. The training was by rote and the surroundings were typical of the Diaspora, what my Grandparents built in the freedoms of the US but, still, seemingly far removed from the deepest meaning for a young boy.
Since my eldest son was born, I’ve been determined that he experience and understand much more that he could carry through life. His Jewish education has been far more enriched. I’ve saved my airline miles since then, and next April, right after Passover, our family is going to Israel for Jason’s Bar Mitzvah. It will be on the Haas Promenade overlooking Jerusalem, where one can see its history and present. We’ll be traveling all over Israel for the next two-weeks, its wondrous and even miraculous diversity and beauties, several thousand years of history side-by-side with one of the world’s most advanced countries built with blood, sweat, tears, courage, and brains.
I made such a trip in my 40s and it changed and enriched my life. That’s my prayer and gift to Jason for his Bar Mitzvah.
This video captures some of that, in English, Jerusalem Of Gold, the third verse:
But as I sing to you, my city, And you with crowns adorn, I am the least of all your children, Of all the poets born. Your name will scorch my lips for ever, Like a seraph's kiss, I'm told, If I forget thee, golden city Jerusalem of gold.
Chorus
Oh, Jerusalem of gold, and of light and of bronze, I am the lute for all your songs.
As a small aside, I want to draw your attention to an important post I made last Saturday, A new age in viruses dawns, because when a computer virus can actually lock up your machine — which means you can't download and run some handy fix-it program — the rules change. There remains an easy solution, but you'll have to be ready beforehand.
So, here's how last Thursday went:
I hated selling my stocks for the tumor operation, because they're one of the few things my dad left me, but they obviously had to go. The last time I talked to the broker, a few years ago, I was told they were worth around five grand.
Or $3,284 on today's market. That's all I got for them, after the fees were paid and the dust settled. Welcome to the New Economy, Doc.
I talk to the broker on the phone, he delivers the bad news, I hop into my car to do some errands and the battery's flat as a pancake. $523 worth of diagnostic fees, labor, and a new alternator later, I'm back on the road.
I got the battery jumped that morning from a neighbor and drove it to the local fix-it shop. One of the guys was making a parts run and gave me a lift home. There's an email waiting for me from the guy I do my bread-and-butter work for (Web site maintenance), informing me that the Powers That Be at corporate headquarters have nixed this season's event and there goes my steady income for the next few months.
I've had better days!
As for my operation, I'm penciled in for Sept 4th. The good news is that I went up to a hospital in Miami a few weeks ago and the tumor hasn't gotten any worse.
The bad news is that I'll have to push back the operation if I don't have the funds. I still have a month and a half to go, but it'll be close. Losing the Web job really hurts. The good news there is that they'll have to do their next event in October, so I'll be able to make some money while I'm healing.
My original post on this worrisome subject is here. I could sure use some help with my donation fund. As I've noted before, if I can repay you by helping you with something online, like setting up a blog or web site, just tell me in the comments to email you and we'll take it from there.
"“INSERT NAME OF REPUBLICAN TO BE DEMONIZED HERE is the worst, vilest, sexist, homophobic, God-worshiping, Second Amendment-supporting, budget cutting, evilest human being I’ve ever known in my life.”
Obama was a silver-tongued orator in the campaign, but he lacked a silver bullet in the presidency. He was a darling on the stump, a dud in office. This is not a remarkable view. It is held in the White House itself.
Re-posted from Springtime, but late-summer/early fall is the best time for lawn repair in most of the USA. We are refreshing one of our raggedy lawns, next week, with power-seeding with a tough sports turf seed (tough enough for the dogs and kids and occasionally the horses), and doing the aerating at the same time. Then Milorganite. By Spring, it will be perfect and crowd out the weeds. You can rent a power-seeder and an aerator for a few hours very cheaply, anywhere.
I will spare our readers my usual springtime lawn-restoring post, and bring a new topic to your attention: Power Lawn Seeding. This machine injects grass seed to a proper depth in an existing lawn or a new lawn. It's overseeding, but with far more effectiveness than surface scattering.
It will quickly give you a new or refurbished lawn, and sort-of aerates it in the process but best to arerate at the same time. We happen to need about 1/2 acre done this way due to stream flooding in a storm last fall. Services like Lawn Doctor can do it, or you can rent the machine for cheap and do it yourself.
Naturally, you have to either pray for rain or water it regularly for a few weeks.
Re lawn fertilizing (which must be done 2-3X/year), I enjoyed the credentials of the person who wrote up this piece:Dawn West holds a B.A. in English from Harvard University and teaches writing at Oregon State University.
Taking a little break from some heavy-duty, sweaty yard work to offer a kudo to the youngest pupette who has just completed an eight-week spell of 14-hour days since her return from Czecho, with the last two weeks 5 pm to 8 am in NYC - Harlem. Her second Indie film job, third major film job (she worked on The Avengers). A few other commercial film jobs too. Now wants to move to LA after graduation in the Spring. California is much cheaper than NYC.
I want my kids near, but they have to do what they have to do.
She got home from work in the city today at 10 am while we were at church. She is in bed right now. We admire hard work here and do not respect leisure too much - well, unless it is energetic. Which side of the camera does she like to be on? Either. Writing, camera, acting. All good. We will all hear from her one of these days. She is beautiful, tall, smart, deeply planful about life (as I have preached), and ambitious. Kids surprise you. Mystery seeds.
Later...Typical. She just woke up. 5 pm. Driving way down now to Brooklyn to film a live music performance of a friend's band for a late-nite ad and for Youtube. Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where the cool kids hang out these days. (In my time, Williamburg was all Hasidic Jews. Not now. How does she know how to get to Williamburg? Beats me. I do know how to get to Peter Lugar's, Junior's, and the BAM, but who doesn't?) Just had time to feed her some fancy Mexican take-out. Lobster chimichangas or something. She liked it. You just can't keep up with the kids today... The youth today are go-getters, Ayn Rand readers who like Ron Paul, think Obama is a twit for losers.
Maybe she will have time to rest when she gets back to school. But I doubt it. They are very demanding there, just like real life.
One cool thing about life: You get to set the speed of your own treadmill. I admire those who set it high, feel kinda sad about those who set it low.
Many of the finest and most honest minds – conservative and liberal -- in and out of academia have argued, and sometimes succeeded, that campus speech codes often cross the line to suppression of First Amendment freedom of speech. The excesses in the wording of such codes, their arbitrary and often biased application, and the fear of usurping a constitutional right, together send chills up the spine.
Nonetheless, in court cases, private colleges have more leeway to enact speech codes than do public colleges, as they are not as subject to the First Amendment prohibition on government interfering with free speech. In the face of opposition to speech codes per se colleges, both public and private, have turned to anti-harassment policies. These seemingly turn the offense from the speech to the impact on those sensitive, and in effect make judging the offense even more subjective.Alongside, many campuses have instituted judgment procedures that deny those charged from confronting their accuser or, in some cases, even appearing to defend themselves. In many cases, those supporting such near star-chamber exercises in speech or behavioral prejudice are those judging for the kangaroo procedures. And, alongside these, liberal and leftist faculty have denied tenure or opposed research by those who have empirically challenged cherished thoughts or prejudices.
So, understandably so, any further enlargement of speech codes or definition of hate speech raises hackles among almost all those who have battled the present excesses. Further, most opponents have cause for little faith that in the prevailing leftist or hypocritical atmosphere on campuses that an enlargement to anti-Israel speech and actions that are anti-semitic would be enforced or fairly.
The occasion for the current discussion is the report by members of the University of California Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture, and Inclusion task force on Jewish students (which I reported here). It recommends that a definition of anti-Semitism like that of the European Union be adopted to provide guidelines and current anti-harassment policies be enlarged to contain such guidelines.
Libertarian law professor Eugene Volokh, in opposition to the recommendation by the task force – from leaders of ADL and NAACP, still points out the elephant in the room. “[T]his is speech which does happen, which doesn’t generally lead to wide condemnation and counterprotests. The call for suppression by university, it seems to me, stems precisely from the fact that this speech isn’t suppressed by social pressure…” In other words, unlike speech and actions purportedly hostile to Blacks or Hispanics or gays, such equivalent or worse speech and actions against Jews or pro-Israeli students and faculty are not treated as seriously in the dominant left-leaning environment on campuses. Professor Volokh fears that such an enlarged anti-harassment policy, given the campus atmospherics, may lead to its use to further abuse free speech regarding other groups or causes.
These are, indeed, worthy arguments, paralleling many others. However, they still leave the elephant in the room, campus leadership ignoring or even encouraging vile anti-Israel speech and actions that are anti-semitic, and failing to enforce college rules that already exist to prohibit faculty use of college websites to promote such vileness.
Free speech advocates correctly assert that more free speech by those opposed to the anti-Israel forces is the best medicine. Many individuals and groups have used their free speech to expose such excesses. But, the offense persists, and as the task force report makes clear has created fear among pro-Israeli students and faculty and denial of academic and social opportunities.
The task force report just calls for exploration of reasonable guidelines, to “clearly define hate speech in its guidelines, and seek opportunities to prohibit hate speech on campus. The President should request that General Counsel examine opportunities to develop policies that give campus administrators authority to prohibit such activities on campus. The Team recognizes that changes to UC hate speech policies may result in legal challenge, but offer that UC accept the challenge.” U of C President Mark Yudoff summarily rejected the challenge: “I believe our current policies may go as far as they can, given constitutional limitations.”
This brings us back to the root cause, the runaway leftist environment on many campuses. No one expects that to change in any foreseeable future. Pro-Israeli students and faculty, and such taxpayers and tuition-payers, are on their own. Let’s, at least, hope that more see this challenge for what it is and step up their support for individuals and organizations that speak out against anti-semitism on campuses.
It's the best stone- and brick-cleaner, but it has to be handled carefully. I am cleaning a hearth with it.
When you buy it, buy goggles and gloves. It's actually a solution of hydrochoric acid - same thing your stomach is full of.
You can't let it near bleach - the combo produces chlorine gas which will kill you. So it is fun to use. You really do not want it on your skin either.
In case you're looking for some lightweight Sunday fun, I added four horrific disaster vids to my Special Vids page yesterday:
Crossroads — Two airliners defy all odds and collide in mid-air. What makes it interesting is that it wasn't the usual faulty part or pilot error this time around. It was cultural.
Flying On Empty — As much as I like powered flight, I like the concept of gliding even more. The fact that this particular glider weighs 264,000 pounds just makes it all the more fun.
The Gimli Glider — Speaking of 264,000-pound gliders, do you know what 'slipping' an airplane is? It's a little hard to describe. Try "flying sideways — on purpose." See picture below. According to the vid, this was the first time an airliner without power had ever gone into such a heavy slip during a landing. And survived.
Mistaken Identity — Okay, so how does one of the most modern warships in the U.S. Navy mistake a gigantic civilian airliner for a twenty-times-tinier, ten-times-quicker enemy jet fighter and shoot it down?
Damn good question.
Home site is here, art gallery is here, Special Vids page is here. Enjoy!
This airliner is coming directly at you — sideways
Kids know that weirdos are weirdos. Life is not fair. Never was, never will be. I feel sorry for the outlier kids. Painful, but builds character. My kids generally have been embracing of the outliers.
The Killing - The battle to define Mitt Romney is over—and Romney lost
Too genteel to punch back? Should call them out as liars and as degrading politics. "Your campaign is disgusting and beneath the dignity of American politics. Shame on you."
6:35 Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
6:41 Then the Jews began to complain about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."
6:42 They were saying, "Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, 'I have come down from heaven'?"
6:43 Jesus answered them, "Do not complain among yourselves.
6:44 No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me; and I will raise that person up on the last day.
6:45 It is written in the prophets, 'And they shall all be taught by God.' Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
6:46 Not that anyone has seen the Father except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.
6:47 Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes has eternal life.
6:48 I am the bread of life.
6:49 Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.
6:50 This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.
6:51 I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh."
Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan as his Vice-Presidential running mate sets up a stark choice for the voters come November.
Many of us would have liked to have a running mate who would bring fire-and-brimstone along with humor to puncture the Obamaists' pretensions and lies. On the other hand, especially with the legacy media so in the tank for Obama and with Obama's V-P Biden already so widely seen as a clown, that would have played on Obama's field of seeming buffoonery. Romney, instead, has chosen to appeal to the thinking electorate who realize that we're in deep trouble and to offer them solutions that are drenched in facts. Romney knows that Obama will appeal to his base of know-nothings and gimmee-mores. Romney's choice appeals to the rest of us. That isn't to say that Paul Ryan will be boring. Just remember how Ryan confronted Obama to his face and dismantled him on Obamacare. And, have no doubt that the outside PACs and commentators who have exposed the recent and ongoing Obama smears will continue to raise them to ridicule that even the legacy media can't ignore.
The stark choice will become more and more evident, between continuing the policies that haven't worked and sink us deeper and insult decency and common-sense versus policies that with dignity further our initiative and freedom to excel.
If the average American can’t handle complexity in his or her own life, and only government experts can … then government must direct the average American about how to live his or her life. Freedom becomes a diminishing good. But there’s a major flaw in this “progressive’” argument, and it’s this. It assumes there must be someone or some few who do have all the knowledge and information. We just have to find, train, and hire them to run the government’s agencies.
Friedrich Hayek called this collectivism’s “fatal conceit.” The idea that a few bureaucrats know what’s best for all of society, or possess more information about human wants and needs than millions of free individuals interacting in a free market is both false and arrogant. It has guided collectivists for two centuries down the road to serfdom — and the road is littered with their wrecked utopias. The plan always fails!
Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots. Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills We trekked and picked until the cans were full, Until the tinkling bottom had been covered With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.
We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre. But when the bath was filled we found a fur, A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache. The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.
RNC Chair: 
So, here's how last Thursday went:
The State Gambling Addiction
I will spare our readers my usual springtime lawn-restoring post, and bring a new topic to your attention: 
The Science of How Music Enchants the Brain, Animated
John 6:35, 41-51
Rhino poachers
Blackberry Picking