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 thing is, tho, that the moral or ethical question of entering consequentially into a stranger's life is not the same question as whether or not one is lonely."
His excellent phrase "entering consequentially into a stranger's life" got me thinking. As a psychotherapeutically-oriented shrink, most of my work is to "enter consequentially into strangers' lives," and that is a privilege and sometimes a frightening position which I am paid to do as a professional person.
Most adults are cautious, aren't we? - about who we permit into our lives, and to what extent. We may make exceptions with relatives, clergy, or people with white coats, but, generally, our interpersonal lives consist of concentric circles, admitting few to our inner sanctum.
The reason for that is, of course, because confiding in someone, being emotionally intimate with someone, cannot be inconsequential for normal people. Relationships affect us and affect our lives, so they are a serious matter and potentially dangerous.
Loneliness is painful. Lonely people, sad to say, and substance-abusers may be less discriminating about whom to let in. Fact is, though, closeness is always somewhat risky for both people involved because we humans get attached and thus vulnerable.
Buddy's comment, however, was on the topic of Sugar Daddies and mistresses, sort-of about the idea of sexual intimacy rather than personal or emotional intimacy. There is the hooking up culture of course. A college student recently told me that if he strikes out and doesn't get laid by a different girl each night of Spring Break in Nassau, he will feel like a loser. But I do not mean to be discussing purely recreational or athletic alcohol-infused sexual adventures.
What I am wondering about is whether it is possible for a Sugar Daddy and the gal, over time, not to form an affectionate attachment despite the basic free-market win-win foundation of the relationship. Or even regular co-workers.
Perhaps some people are more capable of inconsequential intimacy or exploitative intimacy than others. Not perhaps. Definitely.
This is a bit of a gripe piece. I know when I was younger, there were people in the organization I worked who felt I was a cocky and outspoken employee. But I was effective and that allowed mobility, and I developed a good reputation over time. As time has gone on, younger people have moved up and I've noticed a considerable bit of 'ageism' on the part of younger folk, so forgive me if I engage a bit of my own.
Not too long ago, I was teaching a class within my company. I encourage Q&A, as well as comments and interruptions as long as they are on topic. At one point, a young man stopped me to ask, "Wouldn't we be better off if we just got rid of the older executives who don't understand new media, and started fresh from scratch?"
I smiled, and replied very simply, "No."
He took offense and commented that younger people knew more, were more adaptable, etc. I again smiled and said, "I know what you're thinking. I was there once, too. We do tend to think, when we're new to the workforce, that business is messed up and we know a better way. Frankly, we probably do when we're younger. But there are a few things lacking when we think this way. For example, experience and perspective. While I can understand you point of view, and to some degree you're correct, the reality is altogether different and it may take time to understand, let alone accept, this."
He was not happy with my response, and his interruptions eventually disrupted the class and we never finished. I had to speak with his director about his behavior. Eventually, he left the company to go with a smaller start-up firm. I hope he found what he was looking for.
He wrote treatises on chess, math, and other things too. Imagine what sort of website he could have had, had he only invented the intertunnels too. Everybody knows that Sippican invented the intertunnels.
Double entry sounds like tax cheating, but it is not. It is about credits and debits. (It does not refer to the private, personal books for cash receipts that many unscupulous Lefties use to dodge Uncle Sam and rip off their neighbors.)
I suppose if I asked for a mere shred of sympathy for our president because of the sticky wicket Syria has become, I'd get laughed right off the stage?
I thought so.
From Theo's, I suppose this just about sums it up:
Welcome to the Middle East, indeed.
(by the way, I hope you don't mind my interrupting, but it just now occurred to me to ask: What countries are in the Middle West? Kansas?)
With Bush's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, although still sectarian, at least the battle lines were fairly well drawn. If even half of the above pic is true, we are a long, long ways from those former days of innocence. And I have no reason to think the entire thing isn't right on the money. What a friggin' mess.
As she has a hundred times before, our own Klondike Queen nailed it:
In laying out the case for military strikes on Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday had praise for the French, who he called “our oldest ally,” but snubbed any mention of the British, who have long believed they enjoyed a “special relationship” with the U.S.
When you're forced to praise the weak-ass French as being staunch allies, you know the End Times are near.
Which isn't to say all Brits are particularly happy with their Parliament's decision:
Remember how France refused to support us in the Iraq War and patriots were calling for French fries to be renamed "freedom fries"?
Turnabout's fair play:
Britain, a U.S. ally in the war in Iraq, might watch from the sidelines if Washington launches a Syrian strike and turns to France for a European stamp of approval. (Could we see the debut of “liberty muffins’’ a decade after the derisory “freedom fries”?)
Back to our president, remember how the MSM labeled President Bush a 'warmonger', 'baby-killer', with his 'immoral war' and all the rest?
From CNN's web site this morning:
This time, with a Democrat in the White House, it appears the rules have changed. Poor President Obama is already war-weary — and he hasn't even done anything yet. But he's tough and gritty and 'determined' to see Truth and Justice prevail. Must be nice having the MSM cover your ass.
My personal fantasy:
(ring-ring!)
"Good morning, this is Susan, Sarah Palin's assistant."
"Hi, this is President Obama. Can I speak to Sarah for a sec?"
"Sure, she's right here. Hey, Sarah, President Deadbeat's on the phone!"
"Good morning, Mr. President, this is Sarah. How may I help you?"
"Could you pop by the White House later today? I'd like to have you standing beside me when I repeat your message to the world."
Weekends are a real wasteland around here, especially in the summer, and double-especially the holidays, so I hate to burn up my valuable little horde of links. Instead, I'll list a few link sites. Then you may wallow and bask in glorious linkdom to your heart's content.
On a right-wing site, the first two to mention would probably be Drudge and Instapundit. Both are somewhat eclectic, in that right under the article demanding we immediately nuke Syria is a link to how hot Madonna looks in her new grillz.
Next up might be Real Clear Politics, and what's to note is that when it comes to sections like their 'Tech' and 'History', they're actually a fairly 'deep' site, with a specific search usually pulling up lots of goodies.
Leaving news and history behind, the next step might be one of the 'why' sites, like Life's Little Mysteries.
The next step down the ladder would be a site like Linkiest, which runs the range from the inane to the brilliant.
Although he's shut down for the time being due to family problems, I think the best political cartoonist out there these days is the Hope and Change guy. Going through the archives is a blast.
Another great cartoonistartist textmeister is the guy who does the Text From Dog site. For just quick text messages, some of it's quite clever.
As for my own links pages, I have a collection of my video posts here, one of computer tips here, and a 'best of' here.
Well, that should keep you busy for a few minutes.
A little over a month ago, I posted a piece on Seth Klarman's call for a change in economic policy. The bizarre action in stock and bond markets indicate something is amiss. Is 'tapering' going to tank the market (undoubtedly, if done properly)? Will our increasingly likely involvement with Syria have implications in the economy (of course)?
What all these questions imply is that we're spending too much money, somewhere, on 'stuff', rather than productive capacity. Production is what creates consumption and demand, not vice-versa as Keynesians suggest. The very first consumer had to produce (via hunting/gathering) what he/she consumed before it could be consumed. This is not a chicken-egg question, it's self-evident. Your desire to consume a hard-boiled egg may create the demand needed to have someone, somewhere to boil an egg and sell it to you. This desire, however, cannot be stimulated by providing you with cash or the means to purchase or make the egg. Before you can create that demand, you have to know it can be produced either by yourself or by someone else who you can purchase it from. If the recipe for a hard-boiled egg doesn't exist, but you desire it, your entrepreneurial spirits may be stirred to become a cook and make this for all to enjoy. That process leads to the development of consumer desire for the product.
Today, however, our government believes desires of this sort are generated by moving money, with the benefit of a 'central brain' in Washington, D.C. to guide the money into places where it can be used to increase consumption, which will drive production. This guided shifting of cash will lift all boats. Not all the money will be shifted from the rich to the poor, but some will be shifted from the future into the present, making the present more productive, and the future that much more productive because we'll borrow from tax revenues generated by increased taxes on the future rich.
Aaron Clarey prepared a useful chart showing how well this works, how much GDP we get per government dollar spent.
The problem with Keynesianism is its core belief that you can properly shift money to productive areas through a reasonably well guided government process. There are some who claim borrowing from the future limits future productive capacity, due to payments on interest. This is true to a point. One has to remember entrepreneurs borrow from the future to increase productive capacity. That concept is not flawed in business. The reason it is flawed in government is at least two-fold:
1. Dead-weight loss. A government has to pay for bureaucrats to shuffle the money from the taxpayer to the areas of productive value, and is not incentivized to do it in a timely or useful manner. An entrepreneur will do this more efficiently, realizing any wasted money is lost potential. 2. Perfect knowledge. None of us have perfect knowledge regarding what will yield great productivity. More entrepreneurs fail than succeed, but the risk and responsibility falls upon them and their investors. It's only logical that government will fail more frequently than it succeeds if it tries to use money to increase productivity. This is why Solyndras are more common than not. But the problem is the risk is absorbed by taxpayers, not investors, who may not have wanted to see the money go to a Solyndra, while the responsibilty should be borne by the politicians, but is never assigned to them in full. More importantly, government reassignation of revenues is not a tool of progress, as some politicians claim, it is a tool for resistance to change.
Markets are conducive to evolutionary improvement. Government empowers those who want to resist change.~Arnold Kling
The government's failure shouldn't be a surprise. If he was an entrepreneur, the massive failure of Obama's economic policies should almost be expected.
It is the source of the money he is using to pursue his goals that are at issue. All investors may be taxpayers, but not all taxpayers are investors. It is wrong to force them to invest when the odds of failure are high and they have no say about who gets the money.
Taxing Peter to pay Paul is using Peter for Paul. It is corrupting. Modern governments have been encouraged to think that any abuse of Peter is just fine, that Peter is a slave available for any duty that the ruler has in mind. ~Deirdre McCloskey
Sleep patterns in humans are culturally-established. Some cultures have their siesta, for example. Many American males like their weekend naps.
European families, and many American families up until the early 20th Century, often shared beds unless they were prosperous. In the old days, Europeans had two sleeps - a first and a second. Two sleeps with sex or prayer, or both, in between. Both sounds good to me.
The cutting-room sweepings suggest the chief errors in Dylan's recording career were his tendencies to discard gems and cede power to producers. Stripped of overdubs, the new Portrait has a mellow, natural beauty. In stark, porous arrangements, the music is vibrant and urgent, driven by Dylan's raw, potent vocals.
Every now and then some zealot suddenly decides those horrid anonymous commenters need to be put in their place. Here's a typical screed, which asks:
So, is it OK that so many bloggers and commenters use pseudonyms? Are their opinions godlike? Or, are they just afraid to reveal themselves completely?
Yep, that's your only choice, folks. Either your opinion is godlike — or you're afraid to reveal yourself completely. No other choice will do.
...and others just want to be rude or snarky or such without responsibility, accountability or consequence.
Consequence? So, you read an article that really makes your blood boil, you let the blogger have it with both barrels, then it turns out a devoted acolyte takes severe umbrage at your comment, looks up your real name and hunts your ragged ass down with his 12-gauge shotgun, literally giving you both barrels for daring to call the great god blogger "a lowly scumdog". Ho-hum, just another consequence in the life of the average blog commenter. Or former commenter, in this case.
The days of anonymous commenting on The Huffington Post are numbered. Founder Arianna Huffington said in a question-and-answer session with reporters in Boston Wednesday that the online news site plans to require users to comment on stories under their real names, beginning next month.
It's quite the noble mission, all in all, meeting the highest of standards and setting an exemplary example for blog sites throughout the world. There's only one tiny little piece missing from this otherwise brilliant plan:
Our mighty leader has taken off for the faraway land of Italia for ten days, leaving you in the clutches warm, caring hands of the staff.
Which is exactly what staffs should have.
While it won't be the circus we had when the big guy went out to the Cape a while back (20 posts in 5 days was a bit much even for prolific ol' me), we'll still have fun.
As far as Bulldog goes, ol' Droolie is pawin' at the ground and slobberin' at the bit in anticipation of the mountains of adulation and heaps of scorn that go along with being a modern-day blogger. And who could resist such a temptation?
And the rest of the gang should be pitching in unless they're also out of town. Barrie in particular has been on fire lately.
Oh, and it wouldn't be an official "while the cat's away" vacation without opening up the Maggie's Farm Smut Guide for the duration.
The case of Army Pvt. Bradley Edward Manning, who insists his name is now Chelsea Elizabeth Manning because he wants to spend his 35 years behind bars as a woman, just won’t go quietly into the Fort Leavenworth prison night.
Meanwhile, Fox News host Gregg Jarrett said on air — and in response to the growing pressure from various entities who are sympathetic to Manning — during a segment a few days ago, “I don’t do what Bradley Manning wants me to do.”
Neither does CNN. Executives announced its reporters and anchors would continue to call Manning a “he” because the soldier, who’s in a Fort Leavenworth military prison for releasing classified documents to WikiLeaks, is not actually taking hormone therapy or undergoing any medical procedure that would change his gender.
+1 for Dylan Thomas reference.
The post is on The Washington Times site, and although they didn't mention themselves in the article, the above illustrates they're not jumping on board either.
Say, speaking of gender-based issues, it appears one of those "black" guys you read about named something like Marty Louie King has been in the news lately. He apparently made some famous speech about "I'll have an ice cream", which I'm sure was appreciated by dairy manufacturers throughout the country. If I'm reading this right, he was actually the founder of the Democratic Party.
People have been writing articles recently on "What Dr. King would think if he were alive today". I think my answer would be, he'd throw up.
As I understand it, there's a large country to the north of us called something like "Canadoi"? "Kanaday"? Something like that. Anyway, they're pretty proud up there because they won the War of 1812. In other words, what you may have learned in school about its outcome is purely a demographic issue, open to interpretation.
Sadly, though, like we have our anti-America rebels down here, they, too, have the same type of degenerates allowed to speak out due to that silly 'freedom of speech' business, like this treasonous subversive: The Real Legacy of 1812? It Never Happened Again
Finally, on a fun, upbeat note, were you aware a million Muslims are going to march on Washington to celebrate 9/11 and complain about how bitterly and angrily they're treated (oh, and don't forget "constantly spat upon") here in America?
Well, as a means of showing their support for this noble cause, my buddies Jimbo and Shorty and the rest of the boys have offered to pitch in.
Say, I have a rather delicate question for you guys:
How many push-ups can you do?
And I don't mean those tough chin-has-to-touch-the-ground military type; more like 'camp style' push-ups, where you go down most ways then back up.
How about 25?
And you're not even breathing hard?
The point, of course, is that it's one thing to sit there in your elite ivory tower, claiming how America should get off its collective butt and start exercising and eating better...
Salif Keita is "an afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the "Golden Voice of Africa" but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita."
He was scheduled to appear at a charity fundraiser in Israel for albinos. Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) zealots tormented and threatened him, which is their common tactic to get artists not to appear in Israel. The "Golden Voice of Africa" used his voice, via his albino foundation, to tell off the BDSers. This is what he experienced:
August 22, 2013 Dear Sacred Music Festival, Hadassah Hospital, Salif Keita fans, On behalf of Salif Keita and the Salif Keita Global Foundation, we would like to thank you for organizing a magnificent unifying music festival, and a visit of the albinism treatment center in Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Mr. Keita will not be able to attend either events because of the cancellation of his show at the Sacred Music Festival. Although, the show was cancelled, Mr. Keita (and his foundation for albinism) would like to convey his most sincere apologies to all concerned, such as the concert organizers, the Albinism Treatment Center and especially all his wonderful and diverse fans in Israel. The reason for the cancellation is not one which was made by Mr. Keita, but by his agents who were bombarded with hundreds of threats, blackmail attempts, intimidation, social media harrassment and slander stating that Mr Keita was to perform in Israel, “not for peace, but for apartheid.” These threats were made by a group named BDS, who also threatened to keep increasing an anti-Salif Keita campaign, which they had already started on social media, and to work diligently at ruining the reputation and career that Mr. Keita has worked 40 years to achieve not only professionally, but for human rights and albinism. Of course, we do not agree with any of these tactics or false propaganda, but management’s concern is to protect the artist from being harmed personnally and professionally. Although, we love Israel and all his fans here, and the fantastic spirit of unity of the Sacred Music Festival, as well as the important work your hospital is doing for albinism, we did not agree with the scare tactics and bullying used by BDS; therefore management decided to act cautiously when faced with an extremist group, as we believe BDS to be. In addition, Mr. Keita is not a politician who plays for governments, but a musician who performs for his fans who are of all faiths and origins in Jerusalem. It is unfortunate that artists like him are threatened by this group who falsely claim to defend human rights, when they should take their concerns to governments or ask for support of their cause in a lawful way, and not by endangering the freedom of expression of artists, or using harrassment and intimidation of artists who play for peace and for all people, in order to bring some kind of justice to the Palestinians they claim to represent. Since Mr. Keita, during his stay and performance in Jerusalem, had planned to visit the Hadassah Hospital and albinism center, he had also planned to make a donation of certain goods to the hospital which he would still like to offer. The boxes are already in Jerusalem and were shipped for his planned visit to the hospital. The modest donation consists of about a couple of hundred new UV protected sunglasses, as well as UV protected clothing, swimgear and hats for patients with albinism. Again, we thank you for your invitation to Jerusalem, and are deeply saddened and disappointed by the outcome of this planned performance and visit. We hope that you will receive this donation with the love it was intended to bring to the patients, as we determine a future time to be able to perform in Israel, and visit your important center for albinism and skin cancer treatment. Sincerely, Salif Keita and Coumba Makalou The Salif Keita Global Foundation INC Washington, DC
While elsewhere in Africa, at a South African university, members of the BDS there "sing, “dubula e juda” (“shoot the Jew”) as concert attendees to hear an Israeli saxophonist were entering the music hall, according to a newspaper affiliated with the university.
Despite the hateful rhetoric, Muhammed Desai, coordinator of BDS South Africa, rejected the notion that anti-Semitism played a role in the group’s protest, telling Wits Vuvuzela that “the whole idea [of] anti-Semitism is blown out of proportion.”
Our historical knowledge is really a history which praises, ends up praising, ourselves—how much wiser [voice drips with sarcasm] we are, how we have seen through the errors of the past…Hegel already knew this danger of history, of the historical human being, when he said that every German gymnasium professor teaches that Alexander the Great conquered the world because he had a pathological love of power. And the proof that the teacher does not have a pathological love of power is that he has not conquered the world. [laughter] We have set up standards of normalcy while speaking of cultural relativism, but there is no question that we think we understand what cultures are, and what kind of mistakes they make.
Accountants know who he was. He was a pal of Leonardo, and 
People always talk about the places they'd like to see or to visit. It's a big world. Most everybody has a bucket list.
