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.
That is from What is it like to be a man? A quote:
A conviction in physicalism, and the possibility of science fully explaining conscious experience in the future, is extraordinarily widespread among contemporary philosophers, almost to the point of constituting a professional creed (though there are some notable exceptions). Implicit in this position is the deeper conviction that for conscious experience to be truly understood – for anything to be truly understood – it must be understood scientifically, that to understand a thing in an essential way is to understand it scientifically. Such an attitude is bound up with that common belief among modern philosophers, traceable to the logical positivists, that their discipline is merely an auxiliary to the more fundamental work of the sciences, a belief adequately summarized by Jerry Fodor as “the world picture that the natural sciences have a sort of priority…to which other discourse is required to defer insofar as it purports to speak literal truth.”
A reader reminded me about the Kettle Fallacy (aka Kettle Logic) in a comment about the contradictory defenses of Obamacare. It is a so-called informal fallacy - flawed premises rather than logical errors - whose name derives from, of all people, Sigmund Freud.
It would term this fallacious effort as a sub-category of the "baffle them with bullshit" informal fallacies. Via Wiki:
Freud relates the story of a man who was accused by his neighbor of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition and the three arguments he offers.
That he had returned the kettle undamaged; That it was already damaged when he borrowed it; That he had never borrowed it in the first place.
The three arguments are inconsistent, and Freud notes that it would have been better if he had only used one.
Those on the inside know that, when Dems talk class warfare, they are always winking at the bankers and at the ultra-wealthy, and hoodwinking naive populist voters. (I have nothing against the bankers. They are necessary for almost everything, but it would be fine with me if their politics were more balanced.)
I think many citizen supporters of the ACA are well-intentioned -- they believe that this program will increase insurance coverage, reduce prices, and make Americans better off. After all, that's what they've been repeatedly told by their leaders. I don't believe that advocates of ACA among the political class are well-intentioned at all, nor do they believe what they've said about it. That's why Congress specifically insisted on exemptions for themselves and their staffs. That's why union leaders and some big businesses have been crying for exemptions. That's why Obama himself is exempt. They know it is a bad plan and also know the implementation is being bungled badly. But their goals never were to fix problems in health care and to make Americans better off. Their goals have always been power and wealth, to be had at the expense of the America people.
Excuse me, but they are trying to follow your law, Mr. President. This is like blaming the banks for giving the high-risk mortgages that the government forced them to offer.
In my case, I do not want the government standard insurance. I want my cheap, old-fashioned major medical with a high deductible. It makes sense to me, and I like to pay my doctors.
But so are many or most of the 500,000 gay guys in New York City, of every skin color. A lot of it is about stylin' and profilin'. There is some mileage in that.
My baby Sis, on the right, sent me this pic she found of us messing around with boats many years ago. I was helping her tune her Laser's rigging. We both remain happy to mess with boats of any sort, anytime. Sail or power. We have a feel for water. In adolescence, this one particular sis of mine was a great sailboat racer (Lasers, as in photo) but always scowling. Tough competitor. Happily, she outgrew the scowl, hasn't really scowled for years, has three cool, scowling kids now, and a distinguished career.
Lightnings were my racing boat. Our threesome of young fellows even got into Sports Illustrated, with my cuz as skipper. We took strategic risks, often, to break from the pack and we studied the winds, currents, and tides. Wonderful boats for learning seamanship, and seaworthy in most weather including those nasty summer squalls which always added excitement and danger.
I consider basic seamanship to be a fundamental adult life skill, along with swimming, shooting, tennis, land navigation, quoting Shakespeare and the Bible, catching and cleaning a fish, how to start a fire, play an instrument, budgeting, fundamental principles of cooking, handling tractors on hills, riding a horse, public speaking, log splitting, using correct grammar when called for, handling tools, appropriate grooming, dressing, and manners including table manners; pleasing social conversation, making basic judgements about other people, making a Martini, and a few other things - most of which which I have not yet perfected but there is still time.
I suppose every person has his own idea about the Basic Life Skills needed to negotiate the world effectively. I know some who would even include Golf!
The youth need parents to teach these things - or to pay to have them taught. It's called parenting, and it can't be outsourced. It's a serious enterprise.
The Unbearable Lightness of Obama - The president didn't know the NSA was spying on world leaders, but he's found time for at least 146 rounds of golf.
On a recent trip West to visit our elder scholar, now spending his time in Oxford, Ohio, we decided to break up the 10 hour drive with a stop at Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's signature work. It is no surprise Smithsonian Magazinelisted it as one of the 28 places to see before you die (I'm surprised there are only 28, but glad I checked this off).
I've always felt it was a place I needed to see. I was correct. It lived up to every expectation. Pictures don't do it justice(but I'll share some anyway). The story enhances the visuals to a degree I had not prepared myself. You could visit this several times a year and get a substantially different feel each time.
Wright had something very particular in mind when he built this, and he clearly achieved what he set out to accomplish. It wasn't easy. He exceeded budget, there were disputes, and Wright was not easy to work with all the time. But the owners of the home, the Kaufmans, had bought into his vision, and the results are spectacular.
While their original budget was only $35,000, total costs eventually topped $155,000 (roughly $3mm today). While it would be nearly impossible to build this structure today due to environmental impact issues (this structure has been assessed regularly has having a negligible impact on the environment, which says something about environmental regulations, as well as Wright's ability to deliver on a vision), the costs would clearly be far higher than the inflation-adjusted figure of $3mm. In addition, you'd have to account for the costs of ego, which were significant in this project.
For difficult patients who need more than outpatient treatment or short-stay stabilization. Over the years, I have found Gould Farm to be very helpful to patients: Gould Farm.
Yesterday a friend emailed me his photo of sunset from a Dominican Republic resort. He called it Paradise, I don't know why. Cheap but excellent ceegars? Paradise for me is a cold, wet duck boat on a northern marsh, but there are times, I must confess, when the sub-tropics and tropics are appealing. For example, I do love Bermuda and the Everglades.
Mrs. BD is planning a winter trip to Islamorada, but I have sort-of lost my enthusiasm for fishing - I just like to know that the fish are there - and I will not sit on a beach for more than five minutes although I am happy to swim in salt water. Might be good bird-watching, though.
Tallis' "40 Part Motet" - officially Spem in alium numquam habui (c.1556) is a Renaissance motet, not a medieval motet. Thus no real rhythm, but plenty of flow.
Mrs. BD and I had to hustle down to The Cloisters after church to hear their special installation of Tallis' most famous work. One speaker per voice - 40 speakers - and you walk all around and hear each individual voice, or stand in the middle to hear the blend in the acoustically-superb old stone Spanish apse. We did it 2 1/2 times.
It is a popular event. Most people listen to it twice.
The government offers me a $40,000 check to go on electronic medical records. I won't do it. Who would open up to me if I did?
For the same reason, I keep minimal notes anyway and just enough to refresh my memory. From The
Electronic-Medical-Records Wreck-Doctors have their own Obamacare nightmare to deal with:
As I’ve mentioned previously, my own primary-care physician in Colorado Springs quit her regular practice and converted to “concierge care” because of the EMR imposition. Dr. Henry Smith, a Pennsylvania pulmonary doctor, also walked away. “Faced with the implementation costs and skyrocketing overhead in general,” he told me, “I finally threw in the towel and closed my practice.” He said, “As EMRs proliferate, and increased Medicare scrutiny looms, medical documentation is evolving from its original goal of recording what actually was going on with a patient, and what the provider was actually thinking, to sterile boilerplate documents designed to justify the highest billing codes.”
Many docs today are spending more time on computer screens than they are with patients.
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On a recent trip West to visit our elder scholar, now spending his time in Oxford, Ohio, we decided to break up the 10 hour drive with a stop at Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's signature work. It is no surprise 
