Monday, October 20. 2014
 Danielle Henderson spent six years and $60,000 on college and beyond. The effects of that education? Not as advertised.
What was advertised?
Walsh: My Fellow Americans, It’s Time to Boycott College:
Education, in the end, should be pursued for its own sake. We learn because we want to know, and knowledge is beautiful even if it isn’t ‘used.’ Now more than ever, a person can learn anything and acquire any knowledge without spending a dime or sitting for one minute in a college classroom. This is the miraculous reality of modern times. The potential for a person to educate him or herself is limitless — but we think knowledge must be strictly confined behind the walls of an official institution or it doesn’t count.
A view of the priorities of Americans as seen through the ER.
A fun and interesting blog from the author.
Sunday, October 19. 2014
Actually, the title is What You Learn in Your 40s
A fine piece by a feisty woman of the world. A quote:
There are no grown-ups. We suspect this when we are younger, but can confirm it only once we are the ones writing books and attending parent-teacher conferences. Everyone is winging it, some just do it more confidently.
She's right about the winging it, but I believe the wings change.
 Cooked up a large casserole pan of this simple squash recipe last weekend. Everybody ate it all up.
Next time, I'll grate more Parmesan for it.
What If Having an Extraordinary Life Isn’t the Point?
Of course it isn't, depending on what is meant by "extraordinary."
Psalm 96:1-9, (10-13)
96:1 O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
96:2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
96:3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
96:4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.
96:5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
96:6 Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
96:7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
96:8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts.
96:9 Worship the LORD in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth.
96:10 Say among the nations, "The LORD is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity."
96:11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
96:12 let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
96:13 before the LORD; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.
Saturday, October 18. 2014
We had 14 hardy souls on our tour today. It seems there were no hitches, except perhaps the late arrival of one of the hosts. That would be me, learning it's good to check the weekend schedules for work being done on public transit. PATH trains to World Trade Center were apparently cancelled this weekend, meaning Mrs. Bulldog and myself were forced to arrive via Christopher St. and take a cab down to South Ferry. Apparently Maggie's folk self-identify, and 12 people were already waiting for us when we finally got there without benefit of the little sign I'd prepared.
All in all, the trip was a success. We stuck to the agenda, with a few extra stops baked in, up through to Chinatown. After that, minor adjustments were made to accommodate individual needs and schedules. But we made great time and managed to take in a good portion of the city's major sites and neighborhoods.
I hope everyone had a great time, I know Mrs. Bulldog and myself did. We enjoyed the company immensely. It was great to meet so many people and enjoy one of the world's great cities on such a personal level. From Fraunces Tavern to Cooper Union and McSorley's (where one member of the group was proud to announce he'd celebrated his 21st birthday recently - lucky young man!), we managed to soak in the flavors of New York. I think the one thing that surprised me most was that Stanford White designed the arch in Washington Square Park. In addition, one of the statues on the arch was designed by Alexander Calder's father.
We also passed the former home of Robert Henri, marked only by a small oval plaque, in Gramercy Park.
I'd like to personally thank BD and Mrs. BD for introducing us to the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central. One of the coolest drinking establishments in NYC that I've ever been in. I will return with friends and family...and maybe even a few clients.
From Roger Scruton's new book, via AVI:
Conservatism starts from a sentiment that all mature people can readily share: the sentiment that good things are easily destroyed, but not easily created. This is especially true of the good things that come to us as collective assets: peace, freedom, law, civility, public spirit, the security of property and family life, in all of which we depend on the cooperation of others while having no means singlehandedly to obtain it. In respect of such things, the work of destruction is quick, easy and exhilarating; the work of creation is slow, laborious and dull. That is one of the lessons of the twentieth century. It is also one reason why conservatives suffer such a disadvantage when it comes to public opinion. Their position is true but boring, that of their opponents exciting but false.
 Image: Sorry again - forgot where I stole that one
Students: Transgender Woman Can’t Be Diversity Officer Because She’s a White Man Now.
Biology is too confusing.
Rambunctious boys: The economic value of misbehavior
The Upside of Marrying an Underachieving Man
'Sex over Food the Clear Choice for Some Males,' Says Study
Whoda thunkit? Can eat later. Thank God for studies.
Why Germany Is So Much Better at Training Its Workers - America rarely uses an apprenticeship model to teach young people a trade. Could such a system help the unemployed?
A book people are discussing: How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness
"I fully admit to having a mild resentment toward rich people."
I envy wealth, but not enough to do anything about it. I know envy is a sin.
CDC Curbs Secondhand Smoke More Than Ebola
We've all heard of Government Cheese - but Government Beer?
A terrible bus ride in Baltimore
“Climate Change” To Cause More Severe Frosts
Of course, just as predicted
Surveillance-Proof - Technology companies take heat for making phones the government can’t tap.
Barrons: Investing in Do-Good Stocks Is Sustainable - More dollars should flow to socially responsible firms as Millennials and women gain influence in markets.
How's that for an insult to the intelligence of the youth and women?
Voting Out Incumbents Could Worsen Partisanship
So? Partisanship is good.
Figures. Obama Appoints Far Left Hack With Expertise in Revolutionary Politics as Ebola Czar
Election politics: Bloomberg fuels pro-Michelle Nunn Super PAC with $350,000 donation
“Georgia voters deserve to know the same anti-freedom Michael Bloomberg who tells us what to drink, what to eat and how to protect ourselves is spending millions of dollars to elect candidates across the country that will enact the Obama Bloomberg extreme gun control agenda and Michelle Nunn is one of them,” the NRA’s Jennifer Baker said at the time.
Thomas Friedman: Those non-Islamist ISIS folks just need better schools
Go, Tom. Go and teach.
More evidence that Obama brought Enterovirus D-68 to US the with his illegal alien imports
BRITISH OFFICIALS UNCOVER HUNDREDS OF NEW CASES OF FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION IN THE UK
From A&C:
ENOBARBUS
How appears the fight?
SCARUS
On our side like the tokened pestilence
Where death is sure. Yon ribaudred nag of Egypt—
Whom leprosy o’ertake—i’ th’ midst o’ th’ fight,
When vantage like a pair of twins appeared,
Both as the same, or rather ours the elder,
The breese upon her, like a cow in June,
Hoists sails and flies.
Poetic language is an intensification of the use of words. Prof Booth likes to look at the "physics" of poetic language. When a person gets into a poetry state, whether writing or reading, the mind can take over and let the inner physics of the thing just happen the same way you can hit a moving car with a snowball without knowing the math and the brain physiology of it.
I found this essay to be fascinating, and had to re-read it: Shakespeare’s Genius Is Nonsense - What the Bard can teach science about language and the limits of the human mind. One quote:
As a playwright and businessman, of course, Shakespeare had a serious interest in shielding his audiences from the mechanics of his verse. In addition to its concordance with the 16th-century concept of sprezzatura—lightness, ease, the ability to make even the most difficult things look effortless—a play crafted to maximize delight helped Shakespeare fill theatres in a way that a lot of visible sweating over the lines might not have. For every ingenious device that Booth describes in the verse, he brings as much attention to the effort that went into keeping it unobtrusive. His theory may explain the ineffable mind-states that poetry creates in us: poetic experience as the interaction of barely perceptible mental processes whose delicate, scintillating play is usually washed out by the spotlight of conscious attention.
What Booth so elegantly shows us is how Shakespeare can free us from ourselves. His lush, prismatic verse grants us “a small but metaphysically glorious holiday” from how we usually comprehend language, a holiday that is in turn “a brief and trivial but effectively real holiday from the inherent limitation of the human mind.” Rather than plunging into the abyss of not-knowing, we soar above it. We are not falling, but flying.
Friday, October 17. 2014
'The Bell Curve’ 20 years later: A Q&A with Charles Murray. They got it all right.
George Leef:
“Go to the most prestigious college you can” is revealed to be bad advice. Similarly, the obsession with increasing the numbers of “underrepresented” students at top schools in the belief that this somehow improves their upward mobility (and “social justice”) looks like folly. Our selective schools, in short, are not all they’re cracked up to be and graduating from one is no guarantee of success.
That is because, Arum and Roksa maintain, our entire higher education system has pretty much succumbed to a non-academic mentality: “Educators have increasingly ceded their authority to students, and administrators have shifted institutional emphasis from students’ academic and moral development to their personal growth and well-being. Empowering and catering to students as consumers has only exacerbated these broader and deeper changes.”
An academic resume may matter socially, but after your first job it doesn't matter much for career. We wish strongly to believe that an elite "education" provides a foundation for more life enrichment and a dream-fulfilling career, but as time goes by I have my doubts. If you really care about intellectual enrichment, the Great Courses is all anybody needs.
 I took my mother-in-law to the wife market
Why Kids Sext - An inquiry into one recent scandal reveals how kids think
about sexting—and what parents and police should do about it.
The Rise of All-Purpose Antidepressants - Doctors are increasingly prescribing SSRIs to treat more than just depression
When 'Niceness' Becomes Tyranny
Run FOUR miles to burn off just one bottle of coke: Scientists call for exercise data to be printed on packaging instead of calories
Who’s afraid of hedge funds? The folks with a vested interest in failed schools
Could the state of America get any worse?
Yes
CDC Blew Record Budget on Playground Injuries and ‘Social Norming’
15 Ways The NIH And CDC Wasted Taxpayer Money
During the October 3 airing of Real Time With Bill Maher, guest Ben Affleck joined Maher in talking about owning guns in order to protect their homes and their families.
Stockton’s Unlearned Lessons - The troubled California city could straighten out its finances, but its leaders don’t seem to want to.
The effects of cheap oil
Sultan is no fan of Islam
AP: Nearly 1 Million Americans Have Cast Ballots Already For Midterm Elections
Politics today: Udall is a rubber stamp
Politics today: Scott Brown can win
Politics today: The nation’s most effective welfare reformer may be the Republican governor of Maine, Paul LePage, and he’s under assault for it.
From Wiliamson's The Thirty Years’ War - What this country needs is a war of attrition against the welfare state and entrenched incompetency:
I like Senators Paul, Cruz, and Rubio; each has his own virtues and admirable characteristics. But none of them has done one single thing of interest in office other than campaign for president since about five minutes after being sworn into the Senate.
Hamburg has become the scene of street fighting between Islamic supporters of ISIS and expatriate Kurds
A final batch of my pal's pics from his trip to Zambia in August. I requested some pics from town and city but he says they spent their entire trip in tents in wilderness with native guides.
More below the fold -
Continue reading "Final batch"
Thursday, October 16. 2014
What a fine clothing store.
Durable, classic clothing. Wish we had one like that around here. Clearly, Buffalo is not dead. They do sell online and they are good people.
The "Gentleman's A" harms students in the end. Here's what he says:
In large, introductory courses taken by a substantial cross section of the student body the grade distribution at a typical college or university in earlier times might look something like this: A’s:15%, B’s:25%, C’s:45%, D’s:10%, and F’s:5%. In words, the meaning of the letter grades were given as: A=Excellent; B=Good or Above Average; C=Average or Fair; D=Poor; and F=Failing. Like so many other aspects of American society and culture, things changed very rapidly on the grading front in the period of the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was then that what we now call “grade inflation” got its initial start and experienced its most rapid rise.
Those As in the liberal arts used to be expensive, but now you can get them anywhere. That's why it matters to do math and physics - to show what you really have under the hood.
The investment markets? It's about time, past time, for a good correction towards reality.
Ebola hysteria? I guess it sells soap. News is infotainment. See The #Ebola Media Epidemic
Presbyterian workers wore no hazmat suits for two days while treating Ebola patient
I don't blame government for that - I blame the Infectious Disease team at the hospital
A COMPACT FUSION REACTOR THAT COULD CHANGE THE WORLD FOREVER: Lockheed Martin Claims Breakthrough
We'll see...
Why Angie’s List Is In Trouble
We have had good luck with people via Angie's - a good resource, thus far
The Adultery Arms Race - Technology has made cheating on your spouse, or catching a cheater, easier than ever. How digital tools are aiding the unfaithful and the untrusting—and may be mending some broken marriages.
Why is Denmark so happy?
No limit, no pay credit card. Nice
The end of the era of personal responsibility
A moving reminiscence
Cornell: Basically, if you were a deer on campus, you got so much free birth
control it would make Sandra Fluke jealous; if you were a deer off
campus, you got served for dinner.
The World Is Full of Grain - Agricultural production is at record levels—and that could make the planet less stable.
A gluten apocalypse
City of Houston demands pastors turn over sermons
Tell the city to go to hell
All-Female Colleges Adopt New Policies To Enroll Male ‘Transgender’ Students
After Central Bank Financial Bubbles, Comes Liquidation And Industrial Deflation
Stockman: This Time Is Different—–For The First Time In 25-Years The Wall Street Gamblers Are Home Alone
Obamacare Is a Job-Slashing, Deficit-Deepening Disaster
Equating Conservatism With Hate Speech on Campus
The kids can't handle new ideas
Jon Stewart Skewers Dem Wealth Hypocrisy
Fair enough, but I do not get the appeal of this smarmy guy
Politics today:Elizabeth Warren: The Rich White Man’s Candidate
Politics today: Train Wreck: Alison Lundergan Grimes Refuses To Say If She Would Vote For Harry Reid To Lead Senate Dems…
Politics today: Arkansas Debate: Cotton excels; Pryor confirms he’s out-of-touch
Politics today: Our Lame Cult of the Presidency
Remember The Fresh Promise Of Barack Obama? What Happened To That Guy?
Leon Panetta wants more kids to go into "public service"
The Illiberal Ezra Klein
The Progressive always reveals his inner totalitarian
Heather: Neo-Victorianism on Campus - Is this the end of the collegiate bacchanal?
Leaked DHS Document: 167,000 Convicted Criminal Aliens At Large In US
Kerry: ISIS ‘Dead Wrong’ in Its Religious Justification for Slavery
Well, he knows Islam better than they do
Is Kobani Erdogan’s Warsaw?
Apprentice Jihadists Practice in French Park – Tell Cops They’ll “Burn in Hell”
Wednesday, October 15. 2014
Via Captain Capitalism:
I don't see debt service on his more detailed chart. Is it too low to bother with?
Related, Feds’ 2014 tax-take hits all-time high
The Triumph of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
I enjoy Schneiderman's posts, but this one is too black-and-white. He was Psychoanalytically-trained, and so was I. I no longer practice classical Psychoanalysis but I do a lot of what I term "Psychoanalytically-informed supportive therapy" which is sort-of what CBT is.
CBT, DBT, whatever. CBT is no big deal. There are always new therapy fads with new names but they all have one of two goals: glueing together someone who has become unglued, or carefully unglueing somebody who is so over-glued that they cannot live. Or something like that.
That's an absurd oversimplification, I know.
They thought he should be hung (h/t Carpe): Moral Panics Of 1878: NY Times Warns People About The Evils Of Thomas Edison's Aerophone
Williamson: If America is alone, is it therefore in the wrong?
I have been sick of "America is the only country that doesn't dry your tears and wipe your bottom" for many years now.
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