Thursday, October 6. 2022
Many city people are asking that question. From a Psychiatric point of view, here are some of the difficulties:
First, prediction of dangerousness (like predictions of dangerousness to self) are notoriously unreliable. Only reliable after the fact.
Second, medical treatment without consent is typically illegal (assault, in fact) except in extreme circumstances.
Third, treatments for the chronically psychotic are commonly ineffective or only partially effective. Furthermore, many chronically-ill do not follow-up with treatments for a variety of reasons.
Fourth, perhaps the most dangerous category is Psychopathy which is a personality abnormality at its extremes. I doubt it is treatable, but it doesn't matter because these people lie and do not seek help anyway.
That's not to mention civil liberties.
There are other issues, but that's enough for now. AVI is an expert in the topic, so I hope he has something to add.
Wednesday, October 5. 2022
"It is difficult to get someone to understand something when his salary depends on him not understanding something."
Upton Sinclair
Tuesday, October 4. 2022
Via Powerline:
“When a religious scheme is shattered…it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose, and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Monday, October 3. 2022
 Autism, Bettelheim, and Covid - How she lost trust in the experts: I Have Been Through This Before
Don’t wear a mask; you must wear a mask. Buy a pulse oximeter. Stock up on Tylenol, vitamin D, Pepcid. Whisper so you don’t spit. Stand six feet from others—no, 10. Wear gloves. Wear two masks! Open the windows. Close the schools. The dizzying madness of COVID, and the reliance on gurulike experts, has been eerily familiar...
Commenter on a piece on California youth:
This is the new Utopia, full of fear and despair. Instead of fads and pretend matters, can this generation look to things that are eternal - service, kindness and loving your neighbor? We've taken many of these things out of the public square. I hope people will begin to miss them.
Then they came for “Dilbert”…; STEM academics defending the indefensible as ‘recalibration’
Victor Davis Hanson: The Thinnest Veneer Of Civilization Remains
Here come the Hispanic Republicans. Latinos are voting exactly like an earlier wave of immigrants
Cue hankie clutchers: Gov DeSantis reminds looters FL is a 2d Amendment state
Lessons learned from Ian
HOW’S Fetterman Doing?
His health doesn't matter
Sunday, October 2. 2022
Psalm 37:1-9
37:1 Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers,
37:2 for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb.
37:3 Trust in the LORD, and do good; so you will live in the land, and enjoy security.
37:4 Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
37:5 Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
37:6 He will make your vindication shine like the light, and the justice of your cause like the noonday.
37:7 Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices.
37:8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath. Do not fret--it leads only to evil.
37:9 For the wicked shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.
Saturday, October 1. 2022
Friday, September 30. 2022
Thursday, September 29. 2022
Physicians are trained to be skeptical. I am, sometimes to a fault.
There is a basket of vague medical complaints which include things sometimes diagnosed as Epstein-Barr, Long Covid, Chronic Lyme Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and so forth.
I don't know what to think about these things. They used to be known as Neurasthenia.
Here's a piece in The Atlantic: Long COVID Has Forced a Reckoning for One of Medicine’s Most Neglected Diseases. Only a couple dozen doctors specialize in chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Now their knowledge could be crucial to treating millions more patients.
Wednesday, September 28. 2022
I think that is part of why so many people get satisfaction, if not pleasure, from spending 5 or 6 hours per week maintaining or building physical fitness.
Fitness goals are simple and measurable. Furthermore, the relative mindlessness of it is a relief from the stresses that other life goals give us. For me, workout sessions lift me out of my mind into a pure animal zone of bodily effort. It is my form of meditation (if meditation implies emptying one's mind). Playing sports does something like that, as does sex. Regardless of age, don't underestimate the importance of sex.
I do not mean to say that sports are mindless, but once you get used to a sport, much of it is reflex. That is training: Down the line or cross-court.
Recreation: Hiking, sports, swimming, and general functioning/vitality are rewards for fitness.
The lady who did the stand-up we linked yesterday got me thinking about male grooming.
Once men reach middle age, grooming becomes more necessary. Aberrant hair growth is not neat. It's unpleasantly distracting. My barber takes care of those things routinely. He was kidding this morning about the guys who like to keep their giant wings of grey eyebrows. I suggested that it might look distinguished, like a member of The House of Lords. It's not for me.
He didn't know what The House of Lords was, but that's OK. He grew up in Sicily, and, sadly, hates both Sicily and Italy. Likes the USA.
Tuesday, September 27. 2022
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What is the Great Loop?