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.
Hostility towards mass immigration arises not just from fears of economic “progress”, but from instructive experiences of cultural incompatibility, social disadvantage, imported crime and terrorism and an uninvited threat to national identity. To brush aside such considerations as trivial, intolerant, nostalgic, racist, nasty and even Nazi exposes a faulty and counter-productive analysis, itself blinkered by global-growth criteria.
An economy is not a country. Although bankers may not appreciate this, voters understand it all too well.
Poverty is the normal human condition. Comfort and affluence and cheap carbohydrates are the exception. We take it all for granted, don't we? Even our "poor" are wealthy and comfortable as heck by world standards.
IN my last year on Wall Street my bonus was $3.6 million — and I was angry because it wasn’t big enough. I was 30 years old, had no children to raise, no debts to pay, no philanthropic goal in mind. I wanted more money for exactly the same reason an alcoholic needs another drink: I was addicted.
Antidepressants fail to help around 70% of depressed patients on the first try.
Antidepressants are now the treatment of choice for anyone with acute or chronic symptoms of "major depression," ie anxiety, disturbed sleep, hopelessness and helplessness, self-hatred, appetite loss, irrational guilty feelings, loss of sex drive, inability to concentrate, sometimes suicidal feelings, and inability to find pleasure or interest in things. In my experience, the vast majority of patients with a fair number of those symptoms feel better with antidepressants, but, in my view, medicine should never be given without psychotherapy of some sort.
Where it gets complicated is that 1. there are many kinds of depression besides major depression; 2., the personality type, and personal strengths and weaknesses can effect the way depression occurs, and whether it occurs at all, and, 3. life circumstances have a real impact on the ability to improve depression with medicine (if your business is going bust, or your child dying with cancer, no antidepressant will make you merry).
I'll try to keep it brief. The generic term "depression" runs the gamut from the heavily-inherited form that occurs in Bipolar Disorder (which is probably a brain-wiring abnormality), to the grief-like depressive reactions to life-events, especially loss, which occur in vulnerable people. In between are sad-sack people with chronic mildy depressed mood, and many people with chronic mood problems due to personality disordersor neurotic problems. My point is that there is not one "depression". The word refers to a group of symptoms, not a diagnosis.
Because depression is not a unitary phenomenon, different forms require different treatment approaches, whether psychotherapeutic or chemical, but the research says preferably both for severe depression.
It is not widely understood that the new SSRI antidepressants are not "mood elevators." They have no effect whatsoever on people without depression, which is why they are never abused.
I will have to follow-up with a Part 2 later, because this is getting too long, according to our blog rules. "Short and sweet." But some subjects are complex and nuanced, as our esteemed French Senator likes to say.
I asked one of my two entrepreneurial NYC pupettes what she did for fun on Saturday, since her New Year's decision has been not be be All Work And No Play (All Work is her natural tendency and pleasure, as is mine, so she decided to make one day per week a day for play to maintain a balance). She emailed me this report:
Dad:
Went to dim sum brunch at Hakkasan (one Michelin star). And got peach mimosas and macarons (not macaroons). http://hakkasan.com
We walked through Times Square and got some free chocolates at the big Godiva store.
Went to the MOMA and saw a few special exhibits, which included strange modern art that we didn't entirely understand (for example pile of trash and a man who recorded himself making faces with his belly), a Chinese film with nine screens - you lie on the floor and watch them all - you see each shot from nine angles.
Then we went to Tiffany's on Fifth Avenue to get my Christmas bracelet repaired - we hung out at the customer service lounge on the top floor while we were waiting for a specialist to help us and were served delicious cappuccinos. We wandered around the store afterwards and pretended we could afford everything.
We decided to walk to Columbus Circle along the park. On the way we stopped in a few art galleries and saw more strange art that we couldn't afford. My boyfriend almost got run over by a Central Park carriage horse who was running a little too fast, out of control, and making everyone nervous.
We went to the giant Whole Foods in Columbus Circle and bought a craft beer at the pub in the store - they have hundreds of craft beers on tap. Yum. We bought some craft beers for his roommates.
We walked around the big shopping complex there and I scouted out my business competition. We just did Christmas so no need to do any shopping, just looking.
We walked down through Hell's Kitchen and discovered a little Vietnamese place and decided to try it out - it was amazingly delicious. We got clay pot salmon and beef pho (noodle soup) and Vietnamese beer.
We walked a few more blocks but it was so cold we decided to pop into one of our favorite Korean restaurants (Danji) - they have delicious small plates. We got two orders of Kimchi (pickled veggies), beef tartare and two stiff cocktails (one with whiskey and jujubes) and one that was basically straight bourbon. We were warmed up and feeling pretty silly. We quizzed each other on Middle East country capitals and planned our next adventure to Asia.We loved our Japan adventure in Sept.
Then we ran back to my friend's apartment on 44th - being silly and laughing for no reason. I couldn't stop laughing - think it was the whiskey or maybe just joie de vivre.
Then we hung out with a few friends at his apartment for a bit - and watched a terrifying zombie show. Then we had the last of the macarons we had saved from brunch - they were incredible. Caramel, cranberry, almond. Just one more treat to celebrate our anniversary bc it was midnight at that point.
It's basically government day care, isn't it? Progressives relentlessly pursue their cradle-to-grave programs to turn all Americans into wards of the State (or serfs - we're already serfs, given the % of our labor we have generously voted to offer to our morally- and intellectually-superior Lords).
We wonder why we serfs do this. Perhaps we have so many immigrants with serf and slave heritages that they are comfortable with it or comforted by it, but not even Marx would have imagined Democratic Feudalism.
40:1 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
40:2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
40:3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD.
40:4 Happy are those who make the LORD their trust, who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
40:5 You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you. Were I to proclaim and tell of them, they would be more than can be counted.
40:6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
40:7 Then I said, "Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
40:8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart."
40:9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O LORD.
40:10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.
40:11 Do not, O LORD, withhold your mercy from me; let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.
A reader advised us that the Macaroni Pie in The Leopard was one local version of Timballo (or "Timpano"). There appear to be numerous local versions. I've never heard of it, but I want to try a good one.
Sometimes it's made with eggplant (aubergines), sometimes not. The version I had read about had hard-boiled eggs and chicken liver in it. Sounded delicious.
Here's a good post about Timballo. Lots of recipes pop up if you google "Timballo recipe."
Many of the recipes are made with Tagliarini, and almost sound like a molded Mac and Cheese with goodies inside, while some seem more like a molded lasagna.
Off topic, but during my research I stumbled on more tagliarini - the well-molded Bianca Tagliarini.
As is well-known, at least in New England, the Austrian von Trapp family (they dropped the von in the US) settled in Stowe, VT, where they opened the Trapp Family Lodge in 1950. The family, whose story is that of The Sound of Music, still owns and operates the Lodge.
White Food: “Anytime somebody orders a corned beef sandwich on white bread with mayonnaise, somewhere in the world, a Jew dies.”
To American women looking for relief from their endless homemaking duties, the invention of sliced bread in 1928 was the greatest thing since, well…since the invention of wrapped bread in 1915, which allowed consumers to buy bread never touched by (no doubt diseased) human hands.
My photo of one of the busy shoe stations came out too blurry to post, but here's a tip: The next time you're in Grand Central Station (Terminal, to be accurate) in NY, and have a spare 15 minutes, indulge yourself in a shoe-shine. It's a strangely-luxurious thing to sit up in the incredibly-comfy leather high chairs - they hand you the day's NY Post to read - to let those guys do a real professional spit shine on your good shoes.
You can even bring them a bag of shoes, and pick them up later. It's not just for guys - the gals do it too.
$4.00 per pair. Given how carefully and how hard these guys work, I usually figure a $4 tip too. It's never wrong to tip them before you pay, not after. Being capitalists, they will do one heck of a job for you. I hate to shine my shoes.
The Station, late-morning after rush hour. How many towns would love to have a grand, busy and fun place like this? Fun food joints on the lower level. They don't make 'em like this anymore.
Obama
Administration Demands Racial Quotas in School Discipline - See more
at:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2014/01/obama_administration_demands_r.html#sthash.v5gvo85V.dpuf
Galileo famously stated that our Universe is a “grand book” written in the language of mathematics. So why does our universe seem so mathematical, and what does it mean? In my new book “Our Mathematical Universe”, I argue that it means that our universe isn’t just described by math, but that it is math in the sense that we’re all parts of a giant mathematical object, which in turn is part of a multiverse so huge that it makes the other multiverses debated in recent years seem puny in comparison.
and
My starting assumption, the external reality hypothesis, states that there exists an external physical reality completely independent of us humans. When we derive the consequences of a theory, we introduce new concepts and words for them, such as “protons”, “atoms”, “molecules”, “cells” and “stars”, because they're convenient. It's important to remember, however, that it's we humans who create these concepts; in principle, everything could be calculated without this baggage.
But if we assume that reality exists independently of humans, then for a description to be complete, it must also be well-defined according to non-human entities – aliens or supercomputers, say – that lack any understanding of human concepts. That brings us to the Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, which states that our external physical reality is a mathematical structure.
If President Obama really wants to set us on a course to greater income mobility, he could confront head-on the problem of father absence, perhaps in his January 28 State of the Union address. But instead, after $20 trillion in real spending on the War on Poverty, I anticipate we’ll hear a public call for still more federal spending aimed at aiding “our neediest citizens,” or overcoming income inequality through new government-led reforms.
What were the programs proposed by Lyndon Johnson that envisioned an America without poor people? They included not one program that transferred wealth from one slice of society to another to reduce poverty. They were job programs, education and skill training and legal help to gain access to housing and jobs. These included Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA), Job Corps, Head Start, GED programs, and Community Action Agencies to bring the poor, with programs they helped design, into the mainstream. Whether these were the right strategies -- and I now have my doubts -- they did not include trillions for a bailout to help people stay self-sufficient. For us now to say the War on Poverty was a success because we handed out the financial resources to alleviate poverty is a gross misunderstanding of the war in order to support the conclusion the war was at least in part won.
Many people in America do not mind relative poverty. Money isn't everything; freedom and self-determination is a lot, and the most important thing in the US.
I was 
Antidepressants fail to help around 70% of depressed patients on the first try. 
A reader advised us that the Macaroni Pie in The Leopard was one local version of 
