Maggie's Farm

Most animals need sleep, but we do not know why.

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.

Andrew Klavan considers the topic of drunk sex.

Dr. Phil got crucified for asking about it, but it's an entirely valid and reasonable question. Sex and alcohol have an ancient history together.

Con games and advertising have a lot in common. Here's how you run a Short Con. 

Watch the Joe Mantagena clip. The question is "Who is the mark?"

Why can’t we talk about IQ?

That Richwine article generated plenty of heat. Truth is, everybody talks about or at least thinks about IQ all the time. At the least, every time we see somebody do something stupid, or express something without basis or thought. We also think about it when somebody says something that opens our eyes.

IQ is just one of the many personal traits across which individuals vary. It happens to be a valuable trait, but it is never determinative in life outcome. However, there is no measure for life outcome anyway. Life's outcome is death.

 Reposted -

Saturated Fat is Not Bad For Your Brain, and You've Been Lied to:

Unfortunately, the advice to eat less saturated fat probably isn't going away anytime soon. Like the baseless ideas that calories are calories, or fat people simply lack willpower, fear of dietary fat has become entrenched in our thinking about nutrition, and won't die no matter how many times it's debunked. But if we're going to be lead to believe that saturated fat is harmful to our brains, the link should be based on more than observational research. I'm certainly not convinced that I need to eat less bacon, anyway.

This is part of why my high-meat, zero carb weight loss program (fixed) works: all calories are not handled the same way (and bacon and eggs are a good, healthy diet breakfast). More here:

Miley Cyrus Gluten Free Diet is a Hoax, and 3 Other Weight Loss Scams

There are and always have been populations around the world who are both poor and very physically active who have obesity rates very similar to those of the United States and other Western societies. Under this paradigm, there are certain foods — mainly carbohydrates — that stimulate an insulin response and cause weight gain. Avoiding these foods is probably a good idea for those of us who easily store body fat.

Like I said, if you want to lose weight, cut out the carbs and eat meat. Calory-counting does not work because it's the insulin that stores the carbs.

Ed Morrissey suspects that the coming failures and costs of Obamacare will turn Americans away from any further, future involvement in medical care.

He may be right. The Dems have been quite outspoken about their expectation that Obamacare is just one step towards single payer medical care by basically putting government bureaucrats in charge of everything.

As a sole proprietor (other than my donated time to a charity clinic), I have thus far been successful in keep government, and insurance companies, out of my practice. However, I do not know how long that will be practical - or even legal.

I believe that I was the Psychiatrist who coined the term "psycho-utopianism." It is the delusional notion, analogous to political and social utopia, that if people could just get enough therapy or analysis, things would happen to perfect a life. Well, it is possible sometimes in some ways for a person's life to improve, but it's a tough world and reality is a harsh master.

Political and social utopian delusions hold that, if the world were correctly organized by the right people (our moral and intellectual superiors), something wonderful would happen, human nature would change. Universal contentment or something like that would ensue. Brave New World.

Ideas about religious utopias of sorts are something I can buy into. Not 72 virgins, or becoming sublime starlight (although I suppose we are, in a sense). The Christian Kingdom of God can and does exist, not the child-like version of heaven and not a theocracy of Christians but the dominion of God in one's heart and soul not after death, but today. The Hereafter is another topic.

Life is a struggle. But I have meandered far off track.

Neuro-utopianism is the fantasy that, if the brain matter itself could be fully understood, life could be peaches and cream and everybody would be nice people or never crazy or neurotic or destructive because the very heart and soul could be dissected and repaired. Repaired, based on whose idea?

That will never happen.

Here's something on the topic: Bursting the Neuro-Utopian Bubble

Whenever you put males and females together, some sparks will fly. Many people manage themselves in such a way as to avoid big trouble, but some don't. Adam and Eve were the first example of really big trouble.

Forbidden fruit: This summer’s hottest teachers who allegedly got busy with students

For the few who do not know this trick, I'll share it with you.

All it takes is baking soda and some aluminum foil. If your silver plate still has some silver on it, it will work fine.

Recipe here.

Reposted -

Call it Psychopathy or Sociopathy or just "bad people," people with an excess of predatorial instincts are all around us. Overwhelmingly most are non-violent, but what Dr X points out is that psychopathy is a matter of degree.

Most people who worry about being bad or evil, are not especially so. Sociopathic people rarely recognize their inner bad, and often think highly of themselves. Significant degrees of sociopathy can be found in people in all walks of life, not just in penitentiaries (in which few penitents are to be found). I knew a brilliant, charismatic Psychologist with abundant psychopathic traits who probably helped more people than I ever will with his charm, warmth, and wisdom. He had enough self-awareness to keep himself out of serious trouble but he had some close calls.

Dr X pointed out this piece at Smithsonian: The Pros to Being a Psychopath - In a new book, Oxford research psychologist Kevin Dutton argues that psychopaths are poised to perform well under pressure. Not sure I agree, but an interesting topic.

A re-post from years ago -

It's the time of year when my family's food interests turn to mollusks and crustaceans. It seems to be in their blood.

Oysters preferably on the half-shell, and cherrystones only on the half-shell. About that red seafood sauce with horseradish, for shrimp and clams and oysters etc - it is vulgar, overpowering stuff, but we love it anyway. It is the American wasabi.

Crabs: up north, we prefer them in their moulting soft-shell form, lightly sauteed in olive oil, butter, parsley, a touch of garlic, and white wine: three per person - it's the frugal way to eat the magnificent east coast Blue Crab because you eat the whole darn thing, shell, feathers and all - a perfect combination of crunch and succulence. I know how you pick at them on the Chesapeake - and that is damn good, but too much work.

Lobsters: We eat them as a gala treat but not too often as it is easy to grow tired of them. Always buy the big ones - one 6 lb. lobster has double the meat of six one-lb. lobsters (which are mostly shell). If they have the big ones, get the biggest and let them steam 'em for you. The story that the big ones are tougher than the babies is pure myth and an evil lie - the only tough lobster is a live one without the rubber bands. Plus the big guys are as dramatic on the table as a Thanksgiving turkey or a crown roast of lamb. Oh, did I mention that you never boil a lobster - you steam them. Boiling them washes half of their favor out of them. Toss the shells in the freezer, afterwards, and use them in your next fish stock.

Clam chowder - you have to have your own family recipe, but red clam chowder is disgusting.

Steamers? The best. Just use a few cups of water, and keep the clams above the water. Don't overcook 'em, or they will get too chewy. And do not dip them in butter - it overpowers their salt-marshy goodness. Best part? That broth. When you drink that hot broth out of a heavy mug you feel like you are reuniting with Mother Ocean - and you are. Left-over broth? To the freezer, for fish stock, along with steamer clam shells, fish heads and bones, lobster shells, etc. Wow.

Mussels: a steamed mountain of mussels is a thing of beauty but mussel soup is more interesting.

And a simple oyster stew with heavy cream and paprika is nirvana - you must use large oysters, and never overcook them - just until they warm up and the edges begin to curl.  The Oyster Bar (since 1913) makes the best oyster stew in the world in their custom-made, 100 year-old oyster stew steaming machines. Worth a trip to NYC and Grand Central Station just to sample their world-wide oysters - and that simple, heavenly stew. Poor-Boys and fried oysters? They aren't a bad thing at all, but only with those southern, less subtle oysters which come shelled in a container. The kind we use for oyster stuffing for the Thanksgiving turkey.

And what is the finest oyster in the world? That's right, the ethereal Wellfleet Oyster, bathed in the fresh water from the Herring River. But don't try to cook him - it's a crime to do so, or should be. But we have done it - shame on us. Oysters Rockefeller from Wellfleet oysters.

Wines for these splendid delicacies from the sea? Champaigne is my first choice, and a Viognier is my second choice. Third choice - a French Chablis. Chardonnay with shellfish? No, no, no: try it and find out - they do not mix. Red wine with seafood? Certainly, if you feel like it. Who cares? Red surely is good with fish. I, for one, will not eat salt-water fish with white wine, but shellfish - for certain. Champagne with steamers? Very cool; very refined. Many prefer beer, though. (Steamers are the East Coast Buffalo Chicken Wings - only better.)

Image: a favorite Cape Cod salt marsh in Wellfleet, MA, full of steamer clams. You can fill a wire basket in 20 minutes, and come home hcovered with the black gooey happy marsh mud, looking something like this:

Rehab can keep you away from whatever you abuse or are addicted to for a few weeks or even months, and introduce you to various programs, but rehab cannot help build or maintain a life of sobriety and sane behavior.

Neither rehab, nor AA, nor any other program "works." The person has to "work the program," and work it as if their life depended on it. Often, it does.

The questions of whether a program or plan "works" premises a medical patient model, a passive model, as if addiction and abuse were like pneumonia, curable by the best antibiotic. They are not. You do not "go through rehab" any more than you "go through AA."

It can take a lifetime of effort to climb out of the abyss of substance abuse, and a lot of it does not feel very good at all. I have seen plenty of people make the deliberate and conscious choice to live lives of substance abuse. It's a free country. I just resent it when they do it on my nickel.

Schneiderman discusses: Does Rehab Work?

It's about "total pornification."

Do people live like this?

The topic of physical or emotional trauma is complicated as heck. For starters, what is "traumatic" for one person might very well not be for another. What is termed "traumatic" depends on the severity and duration of the effects, not the event or situation itself. There are just too many things to be factored in for each individual. I once had a root canal done without Novocaine. That hurt terribly, but was not traumatic. My first break up was traumatic, and the scar remains and affects me many years later.

A life, lived long enough, will collect many physical and emotional painful or disruptive experiences. Some will scar over, some will remain oozing wounds, and some may be crippling. It's normal life. Shrinks and therapists try to find ways to be helpful with emotional pain, but there is no panacea.

Some thoughts on the topic: Does writing and talking about trauma help? Probably yes for some, no for others.

How is all this a victory for feminism?

"Only later did Haley begin to think of what had happened as rape — a disturbingly common part of many women’s college experience. In a 2007 survey funded by the Justice Department of 6,800 undergraduates at two big public universities, nearly 14 percent of women said they had been victims of at least one completed sexual assault at college; more than half of the victims said they were incapacitated from drugs or alcohol at the time.

Another victory for contemporary feminism!"

Regardless of rationality, Leftists always seem to want to control others. That's a truism.

It has always seemed to me that if a person can control himself, and his kids, that is plenty challenge enough in life.

Sometimes. 

Emergency help on the street did work for Gerard, but the one time I did a sidewalk CPR the 45 year-old ended up with brain damage, but alive. Of course, the most difficult part for amateurs is to diagnose the need for it. People who turn pale and faint do not need CPR.

From the article:

 Many veteran physicians have begun to opt out of the resuscitation practices they often administer to their patients. In a 2012 article published in The Guardian, "How Doctors Choose to Die," retired physician Dr. Ken Murray reveals that members of his profession frequently turn down everything from chemotherapy to CPR.

He notes that years of witnessing and administering "medical care that makes people suffer" leads many doctors diagnosed with terminal illnesses to choose to spend their last months or years at home and without medical treatment. Murray recalls some fellow physicians who go as far as getting tattoos that read "no code" to remind rescuers to forgo any attempts at revival.

Murray is still an advocate for learning CPR, but he warns against hoping for miracles.

Middle-class Americans tend to lead "child-centric" lives, for better or worse. I think it is often overdone.

I happen to believe that "happiness," however defined, is not necessarily a valid goal in life. Many things are more important. However, moments of joy are always welcome. I am grateful to my parents for having produced and nurtured me. Glad they had sex that winter day. Whether I produced more pleasure or pain for them, I have no idea and would never ask.

The article: Do Children Make Us Happy?

Journey Through the Checkout Racks. One quote:

Start with something that hasn’t changed: American women’s obsession with their figures. The January 1963 Redbook featured a cover line on a 10-DAY DIET TO HELP YOU RECOVER FROM THE HOLIDAYS; the February 2013 issue cajoles readers to “get to your best weight ever” and promises “the plan and the push you need.” The April 1963 Ladies’ Home Journal pledged ideas on how to “dine well on 300 calories”; the February 2013 issue offers a more cheerful take on weight control: “Yay! Retire your fat pants forever.” One shudders to think of the pounds lost and gained over five decades of readership...

 Readers know that I consider the trend in Psychiatry to obsess about diagnoses and nosology to be a silly pursuit. From Gary Greenberg's latest:

 (Dr. Alan) Frances has become the loudest and most influential public voice questioning the DSM’s latest revamp. “The fact that we had a descriptive system only revealed our limitations,” he says. “If you believe that labels are only labels, you don’t want to keep changing the language arbitrarily. It just confuses everybody.”

Frances has been warning everyone who will listen that the newest DSM revision will turn even more of human suffering into mental illness and thus into grist for the pharmaceutical mill. I once asked him whether he thought a good definition of a mental disorder would establish a bright boundary line that would definitively sort the sick from the unusual and keep psychiatry in its proper place.

“Here’s the problem,” Frances said. “There is no definition of a mental disorder...”

Cui bono? 

We linked Megan McArdle's piece on the Oregon study a while ago: It's possible that medical insurance doesn't make us healthier.

Why would it? Does fire insurance prevent fires? The main purpose of medical insurance is as bankruptcy insurance.

Instapundit found this: The Tyranny of Choice.

Fortunately, in America one is free to make the choice not to patronize a therapist who thinks like her. I think she imagines that her problem with freedom is everybody else's problem too.

I'd bet $5 that she is "Pro-Choice." Short version: I think she is as absurd as Cass Sunstein, a "soft totalitarian" whose choice is for me to follow their choices.

Being reasonably sane, I don't need anybody to share my choices in life. This video critique is pretty good, but takes her too seriously.

Madness Made Them Great - Thomas Jefferson, Steve Jobs, Estée Lauder, and Charles Lindbergh suffered from the same mental illness.

I do not think any professional would term obsessionalism to be a "mental illness." It's a character trait which exists on a spectrum, more common in men than in women. A good dose of it can be highly adaptive in life. Too much can be paralyzing.

Lyme Disease (Borreliosis) is endemic in the Northeast US, and probably always has been. That complicates diagnosis because so many people in the area have been exposed to the germ, and thus show some degree of antibodies to it. Many if not most cases of Lyme are subclinical and never diagnosed.

The spirochete-like bug is transmitted by the bite of a mostly-mouse-born tick called a Black-Legged Tick or Deer Tick. The Tick is much smaller than the common dog tick, and much harder to find on your body. Ordinary dog ticks are harmless, if annoying, and can not be confused with the Deer Tick.

Lyme Disease is readily treated with antibiotics, but about ten years ago one of those disease fads came along, so appealing to hypochondriacs and hysterics, called "Chronic Lyme."

As with other fake disease fads like Chronic Fatigue and, in my opinion, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Lyme believers often made themselves into invalids with vague aches and pains.

I thought the Chronic Lyme fad had passed into the history of medical faddism, but I see this odd and credulous article in The New Yorker: The Lyme Wars. The Lyme-disease infection rate is growing. So is the battle over how to treat it.

There are two serious errors right in the title. The infection rate is not growing: the diagnosis is growing and probably many people with aches and pains are being unnecessarily treated for Lyme just because they have been exposed to it at some point in their life. Second, I have never heard of any credible Infectious Disease doc in New England who had any question about how to treat real Lyme.

Here's one brief index to fad diagnoses but I am sure there is a better, more comprehensive one. The current fad is "gluten intolerance." There are a few quacks out there, but many more crocks.