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.
The following appeared at Contentions blog today. I'm reprinting it all for you to read. If you belong to one of these denominations, you might contact your local church's leadership and demand that this letter be protested. As this commentary says, "It should be specified that in most cases, these positions are largely the work of a small group of left-wing activists that dominate the public affairs policy work of their churches. Most rank-and-file members of Presbyterian, Lutheran and Methodist churches are, like most Americans, strong supporters of Israel and have little idea that this assault on Israel is being done in their name. But it is incumbent on them as well as other decent church leaders to denounce this letter and other BDS activities."
If you are not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
For mainstream American Jewish groups, it has long been an article of faith that strong alliances with liberal Protestant denominations with whom they shared a common agenda on domestic issues is integral to the safeguarding of the security and the rights of the Jewish community. That has been tested in recent years, as some of their liberal Christian partners debated supporting efforts to boycott, divest and sanction the state of Israel. But the latest instance of liberal Christians attacking Israel ought to cut the cord completely.
Tonight will be our one chance to see Ryan and Biden face off. Unlike the last debate, where every MSM op-ed in the Central Galaxy predicted an Obama slam-dunk, I note that no one is predicting such an outcome tonight.
Because two things are true:
1. As everyone knows, Romney is extremely gaffe-prone. Just ask any objective, independent MSM reporter. But Romney won't be there tonight.
2. As everyone knows, Biden actually is gaffe-prone, and just because the protective MSM won't admit it doesn't make it any less true. It could pop out at any second.
Personally, if I were a Democratic operative, I'd be terrified.
I wonder if we'll see the words "draw" or "tie" tomorrow. If I were an MSM writer, I'd already be composing my "It was a draw" article. You know Ryan won't actually 'lose'; the only question is whether or not Biden will, and as long as he doesn't say anything too outlandish or (as they'll say in future elections) pull an Obama, they'll figure a tie is more than satisfactory.
One thing I think we'll see tonight is how much more of a 'regular guy' Ryan is, as referred to the heartless number-cruncher he's usually portrayed as. We'll need that since Biden's 'Regular Joe' persona is well crafted. Despite it being a complete lie, he really does come across as the working man's best friend in Congress.
If I were his press agent, I'd have the Callous Lady come in to rub small callouses on his hands. Then I'd have a cued reporter ask him about them at the next televised press conference.
"Say, Joe, are those callouses on your hands?"
"Uh-yup! I got dem choppin' me up some firewood!"
Whutta guy!
The show starts at 9 Eastern. More details here. It should be streamed from both that link and YouTube. On the subject, I would note that there are different streamcasts available. The first one I tried during the last debate was plastering these insipid Twitter comments across the bottom of the screen. I hunted around and found a 'clean' version.
For your reading pleasure, I highly recommend this article. That's the kind of post that actually sways voters.
Keller seems to have written his glowing essay about the Liverpool Protocol, How to Die, without talking to any practicing American doctors. He is writing as an advocate of Obamacare, and speaks as if American doctors won't let people die while the English people will.
If he had spoken with American doctors, he would know that most American internists do something very similar with patients whose condition is hopeless, and do so routinely. Daily. Everybody dies. American hospitals have plenty of patients with "DNR" (Do Not Resusitate) orders on their charts, and hospice units and hospice centers are common in the US.
I see two exceptions, occasionally. One is when the family or patient is adamant about "Do anything and everything." These tend to be people who don't know much. The second is with some terminal cancer patients. I have seen terminal cancer patients, with widespead metastatic disease in the ICU, dying while the latest cancer chemotherapy is still being pumped into their veins. It's pitiful.
Generally, doctors know when to give up and do not view death as an enemy. Unfortunately, Bill Keller seems to be addressing a straw man.
Hey, if you've been hoarding Krugerrands since Nancy Pelosi hove into view, have I got good news for you! Marketwatch says gold's at $17,727 an ounce right now. Think of all the ammo and beans you can buy with a pound or two of your wife's melted jewelry today.
Into each life some rain must fall, though. I wonder what a gallon of gas is going to cost tomorrow now that a barrel of oil is worth $9228. I'd fill up today before they change the signs, if I were you. Marketwatch. For the Lulz.
Not since World War Two has a great economy been as mismanaged as badly as the EU has fouled up the eurozone. For the hundreds of thousands of Europeans who have lost their jobs and life savings, the consequences of that mismanagement are very real. Is the answer to this catastrophe really “more Europe?” Do the authorities in Brussels really need more power — or deserve more public trust?
Today's announcement of the inaugural journalistic losers who won the Walter Duranty Prize for Journalistic Mendacity merits recognition:
First Place: Anna Wintour, Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Magazine, and Joan Juliet Buck, Author "For their stunning achievements in exemplifying the spirit of Walter Duranty, for their combined use of gumshoe reporting, headline packaging, impeccable timing and fearless dismissal of facts to produce Vogue's 2011 cover story, "Asma al-Assad: A Rose in the Desert."
First Runner Up: Bob Simon, 60 Minutes/CBS "For the gross distortions in his CBS' 60 Minutes episode, "Christians of the Holy Land."
Second Runner Up: Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic "For his unsupported accusation, unfounded claims and multiple blog postings asserting that Trig Palin is not Sarah Palin's own son."
Last April, I wrote that the qualifications for the new Walter Duranty Prize for dishonest reporting that caused great harm should parallel Walter Duranty's infamous career. At least the first and second prize losers who won meet the criteria, but the third place loser who won dates back 4-years, doesn't involve foreign policy or foreign affairs, and -- simply -- is such a disregarded fool that he doesn't even merit being beneath contempt. Further, my suggestion of the fourth qualification, to also honor a journalist who really merits it for courage and insight, was not taken up. Below are the four qualifications that I proposed:
1.In parallel to the reportage by Walter Duranty, the prize for dishonest reporting should be reporting on a foreign country. Walter Duranty’s infamous whitewashing of the starvation and death of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-3 will be hard to exceed, but there are enough terrible instances of widespread state brutality today that journalists who espouse the state line or distort the facts should be the priority.
2.In parallel to the reportage by Walter Duranty, the prize for dishonest reporting should be to a bureau chief for a major news agency, newspaper, or other prominent media, as Walter Duranty was the longtime bureau chief in Moscow for the New York Times. This ties the responsibility directly to the owners of the venue.
3.In parallel to the reportage by Walter Duranty, the prize for dishonest reporting should be the recipient of an award for journalism, as Walter Duranty was of the Pulitzer Prize for his. This ties the responsibility to the journalism profession.
For the presentation and more about the winning losers, read here. The recipients were not at the award ceremony, unless they were under the tables in their normal poses.
We proffered, on Monday, the theory that the media made a big deal about Obama losing the debate so as not to admit that Romney positivelywon with overwhelming presence, presence of mind, and firepower against a perfectly acceptable Obama presentation. To focus on Obama's loss is to diminish Romney's success - that's what we said. When winning a tennis match because your opponent had a broken arm, you deserve no credit - but Obama had no broken arm.
Just one more good Maggie's insight, utterly ignored by the world outside our farm and our friendly coterie of readers.
Today, Ann Althouse posts the same theory. What happens? She gets linked by Insty and then para-quoted by Rush on the radio. Dang! Rush doesn't even know we exist!
I know it's small of me to even care, but, darn it, life isn't fair. (And no, I don't think Ann reads Maggie's. Wish she did because she's likeable enough.)
Forty years ago, affirmative action (designed for Americans With Some African Genetics) was instituted on a temporary basis in an effort to make up for years of presumed socio-economic marginalization, or as compensation for a history of American slavery, or as a political maneuver, or something.
As a concept, it seems unconstitutional on its face. Today, it seems like insidious nonsense (eg, Is Obama more a black man or a white man? Or does the one-drop rule apply?).
The progressives on the Court are likely to desire to continue this unconstitutional entitlement for another 40 years or, God knows, forever. Why? Who knows? A reflex to condescension? Justice Kennedy is probably the swing vote. Here's Justice Kennedy and Affirmative Action.
I think affirmative action is insulting and condescending. Some related items:
Fire Dept of NYC required by judge to alter entry exam until racially balanced. I've seen plenty of Irish, Italian, and Hispanic NYC firemen, some black guys, but never an Asian fireman (are Indians also Asians? At some point, one can begin to sound like a Nazi with all of this genetic obesession).
NAACP goes after admissions policies at NYC's three elite high schools (once majority Jewish, now overwhelmingly Asian): NAACP Tries to Kill the Golden Goose.
Because of all of the bright and ambitious new Asians, the gene counters are beginning to categorize Asians as "White." It's all insane because we're all the same species of ape: Homo semi-sapiens.
It must be clear that I hate the idea of racial or ethnic discrimination in academia or in employment of any sort, but it doesn't happen these days because people will hire anybody who can get the job done. However, I think there are two subtle factors which might be holding back opportunities for Americans with African genes: 1, you can't be sure they aren't affirmative action applicants and, 2, if they don't work out in a position, there can be hell to pay to get rid of them because of their privileged situation. Just ask any HR department about this.
Firing Barack Obama for poor performance would go a long way towards integrating Americans with Some African Genes into the normal mainstream of American life. The Peter Principle knows neither skin tone nor gender.
A new comet has been discovered that is predicted to blaze incredibly brilliantly in the skies during late 2013. With a perihelion passage of less than two million kilometres from the Sun on 28 November 2013, current predictions are of an object that will dazzle the eye at up to magnitude —16. That's far brighter than the full Moon. If predictions hold true then C/2012 S1 will certainly be one of the greatest comets in human history, far outshining the memorable Comet Hale-Bopp of 1997 and very likely to outdo the long-awaited Comet Pan-STARRS (C/2011 L4) which is set to stun in March 2013.
Comet brightness prediction, as evidenced by comets Kohoutek in '73 and Hale-Bopp in '96, both of which failed to live up to expectations, is a very imprecise science at best. Many comets have large 'outbursts' at great distance but tend to wane as they get closer to Earth. But both of the upcoming ones mentioned in the article look promising.
Astronomers predict that the comet will pass just 1.16 million miles from the Sun as it swings around its perihelion, or closest approach. (This may seem like a lot, but remember—the Sun is big. If we were to scale the Sun down to the size of Earth, the comet would pass well within the orbits of dozens of satellites.) The close approach will melt enormous amounts of the comet’s ice, releasing dust and gas and forming what should be a magnificent tail.
One of the most wonderful things which will come with a Romney presidency is that Romney will finally, once again, separate Church and State. The president, finally, will just be a man. Not a perfect man. Not a prefigurement of Jesus. Not a prophet and not a savoir.
Just a man. A good man, and a smart man. But ultimately just a man.
Sesame Street, a non-profit arm of PBS, makes over $200 million in profit each year. I think the show is retarded but, regardless, why does it need my money? Furthermore, I think the idea of government support of media is profoundly un-American. The nation and the world are going to hell, and Obama is advertising about Big Bird. Romney only brought it up as an example of something we ought not to be borrowing money from China to support.
They sure aren't. That's why we don't term them "diseases." But it's more complicated than that. Psychiatrists address most complaints which concern the mind.
Some are caused by wiring abnormalities in the brain (eg autism, PDD, probably schizophrenia), some by brain damage (eg strokes, Alzheimers, hydrocephalus, trauma). Many complaints seem to combine brain vulnerabilities of some sort with the mind and personality of the person (eg OCD, Bipolar spectrum problems, severe depressions, etc etc). However, most often in outpatient settings we deal with complaints which appear to be "all in the mind" or mostly so (eg neuroses, personality problems, relationship problems, character flaws and weaknesses, fears and phobias, addictions - first in the mind, then engraved in the brain -, emotional immaturity, major life dilemmas, milder and reactive forms of depression, etc etc).
Dalrymple's post is about Dr. Oliver Sachs' determination not to label his symptom as a neurotic one. There is much comfort in believing that one's complaint is "physical" or, as we often term it, "organic."
In fact, many Psychiatrists today seek to over-medicalize Psychiatric complaints. Did your beloved spouse of 60 years just die? Oh, you have Depression, a chemical imbalance requiring 40 mg of Paxil daily.
Our trademark term "Psycho-utopianism" refers to the idea that we would all be thoroughly happy and fulfilled in life were we only given the right drugs or psychotherapy. Reality would be undone, and Eden restored.
Thus there can be a sort of conspiracy between patients and Psychiatrists (perhaps aided and abetted by the structure of the DSM and the drug companies) to view all or most complaints and symptoms as external or alien to the mind, so to speak, instead of, often, embedded in it or part of it. Part of oneself, that is.
During one of my residency inpatient rotations, we were to sit with hospitalized schizophrenics, addicts, and Borderlines for 4 hours/week. We were instructed not to attempt any "therapy" or to try to fix anything, but just to use the time to try to comprehend where they were coming from, what was going on in them, and how they were interacting with us. This was a remarkable experience in more ways than I have time or space to write.
The neuroscience craze of the 1990s grossly overpromised future clinical usefulness. My advice to the neuroscientists is to be as humble as Eric Kandel because Oliver Sach's hysterical paralysis will never be located in brain matter just as my love for tennis never will.
Related: Was it really me? - Neuroscience is changing the meaning of criminal guilt. That might make us more, not less, responsible for our actions
And just why do I remember it well? Because a Republican was in the White House at the time so the MSM went nuts over the escalating gas prices and every third article was about high gas prices and if only we had a reasonable person in the White House gas prices would be lower — and accompanying the articles came a bunch of cartoons and photochops and GIF animations on the subject which I faithfully collected in my Art Gallery and have occasionally looked at over the years.
That's why I remember it well. I cheated.
In honor of those glorious days of yesteryear, I have forthwith ported over said Gallery collection for your whimsical sighing over happier times gone by, back in the good old days when gas was a mere $3 a gallon.
On Columbus Day, Mitt Romney went to the Virginia Military Institute to outline a starkly different foreign policy vision from President Obama’s approach of apologizing for America, ignoring Islamism, mistreating our allies and embracing our enemies.
Is that a temporary bounce? Or is it that people just hadn't seen unfiltered Romney and were happy to see a credible, appealing alternative to the Obama administration? At the least, it tells me that many people are openminded about considering Romney.
Contrary to many or most news reports, I don't think that Obama "lost" the debate. To emphasize that is to minimize Romney's positive accomplishment. I think Romney "won," won by being a more impressive, knowledgeable, and serious figure.
By the way, where are all the Obama bumper stickers this year?
The despairing but amusing and detailed post at Zero Hedge begins with this fine paragraph:
The majority of Americans seem OK with just waddling through life, accepting the lies and misinformation blasted from the boob tube and their various iGadgets by their owners, gorging themselves to death on Twinkies and Cheetos, paying 15% interest on their $10,000 rolling credit card balance, and growing ever more dependent on the welfare/warfare state to provide and protect them from accepting personal responsibility for their lives. A minority of critical thinking people have chosen to question everything they see and hear being spewed at us by the propagandist mainstream media, the corporate fascist government, and the powerful banking cabal that has an iron grip upon our throats as they choke the life out of the global economy in their never ending desire for more riches and more power.
Read it all. He predicts decline, mostly due to American character weakness and degeneracy.
Among many other wonderful details, the book undermines the notions that the Europeans arrived to find a primeval land on which the Indians left hardly a footprint. Quite the opposite is true. For example, the Northeast Indians had 100-acre cornfields, scattered wherever the soil was rich, and did massive burnings of their woodlands every year to rewind forest succession, for game management, and to clear the underbush. They viewed the woods as their gardens and farms, and when they made fields, they cleared them to the point of removing the stumps. No slash-and-burn: permanent farm fields that were hard-won with stone axes and fire. The Pilgrims took advantage of their abandoned fields in Massachusetts.
Similarly, the Amazonian Indians turned the rain forest into their own orchards. At least 20% of the Amazonian forest is believed to be dominated by fruit- and nut-bearing trees planted by Indians for their use. That's not to mention their manioc plantations. And the South American Indians, like the Meso-Americans, developed massive irrigation systems to support their populations.
There was little of the New World that had not been shaped by Indian activities, except for the mountains and deserts - and the Incas populated the Andes quite successfully.
I also liked learning about the Indian prophet Deganawida, the Northeast "Peacemaker" born, it was said, of a virgin birth. Hiawatha, the great Indian orator and politician, was one of his followers. Some of those folks are some of my ancestors.
Finally, the book got me interested in Cahokia, the largest Indian city north of Mexico with a top population of 15-20,000 farmers. The mound-building city in Illinois was abandoned 300 years before Columbus. Image on right is what Cahokia's mounds looked like.
(For a variety of reasons, many mysterious, the New World experienced enormous population declines from their millions before Columbus, making conquest and colonization immigration a much easier task. European illnesses like the common cold and flu viruses which could be fatal to Indians just made it all worse, it seems. )
Facebook Fought SEC 
Man, does this tick me off.
Ya gotta laugh about this PBS/Big Bird thing.
I have just finished reading 
Finally, the book got me interested in