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.
Edward Alexander’s latest book, The State of the Jews: A Critical Appraisal, would better have been titled The State of the Anti-Jews. Edward Alexander is a professor emeritus of English as well as one of the better informed writers on matters Jewish, who brings this broad knowledge to a series of “critical appraisals” (using Matthew Arnold’s definition of “criticism”: “to see the object as in itself it really is”) that weave the continuity of anti-Jewish ignorance, indecency, inhumanity, cowardice, and illusion from the paragon of liberty John Stuart Mill to today’s Boycott, Divest, Sanction activists.
Within this fabric, Alexander interweaves the similar traits of some with Jewish blood in their veins but infected with additional self-promotional self-importance to be hostile toward what they declare is the Jewish state as their most important barrier to universalist brotherhood. In liberal-leftist illusions of socialist egalitarianism that miraculously creates wealth for all, a people and state that insists on the right to live and to do so in keeping with its traditions – and that does so successfully, no less -- is an affront that challenges these critics’ core beliefs. Many others in their social or professional circles, and reach, engage in noncritical nods of agreement or indifferent onlooking as the cavalcade of invented accusations and meritless analogies are hurled at Jews and Israel.
Blacks had more political power in Chicago than ever before, yet that power had no impact on the tidal wave of dysfunction that was sweeping through the largest black community in the United States. Chicago had just elected Harold Washington, the city’s first black mayor; the heads of Chicago’s school system and public housing were black, as were most of their employees; black power broker Emil Jones, Jr. represented the South Side in the Illinois State Senate; Jesse Jackson would launch his 1984 presidential campaign from Chicago. The notion that blacks were disenfranchised struck even some of Obama’s potential organizees as ludicrous. “Why we need to be protesting and carrying on at our own people?” a prominent South Side minister asked Obama soon after he arrived in Chicago. “Anybody sitting around this table got a direct line to City Hall.”
The article is deeply depressing. The concepts of planning and of delayed gratification seem to be lost. It's consistent with my theory that many or maybe most people will go feral unless raised to civilization. Lord of the Flies. Is this the product of government policy? I think so. Nobody lived this way before The Great Society, and now it has become its own multigenerational subculture.
It also seems clear to me that these teen mothers do not want husbands anyway. Why would they want to marry unreliable losers, drop-outs, or gang members? Or anybody? In my view, government can do nothing to fix what they have irretrievably broken in the name of compassion. Rich, poor, or in-between, big government programs lock people into things and inhibit change. Tragic. Another quote:
Some members of Chicago’s Left will argue against holding fathers or mothers responsible for their children. “To blame it on the family is totally unfair,” says Gwen Rice, a board member of the Developing Communities Project. “I’m tired of blaming the parents. The services for the poor are paltry; it boggles the mind. Historically, you can’t expect a parent who can’t get a job to do something that someone with resources can do. These problems have histories; there are policies that have mitigated against black progress. What needs to happen is a change in corporate greed and insensitivity.” Rice corrects my use of the term “illegitimacy”: “There are no illegitimate births,” she says.
Maybe we need laws to prevent Corporate Greed from impregnating innocent teens. And we need more government services. That would solve it all.
Insty points out that much of the financial "inequality" in the US is due to the marriage gap. Wonder of wonders, even the NYT is finally willing to discuss the forbidden topic: Two Classes, Divided by ‘I Do’. It's not news. Sen. Pat Moynihan famously warned about this decades ago, but the subject was judged to be politically incorrect.
Why is it a forbidden topic? I can think of at least two reasons. One is fear of the racial aspect, although no race has a monopoly on single motherhood. My second reason is the knee-jerk refusal to judge based on bourgeois life style choices, or some such Marxist baloney.
Even with government functioning as a modest trust fund for many, having kids outside marriage is not a recipe for a good, orderly life (from my petit bourgeois standpoint, of course). It's not mostly about income - it's about functionality, support, structure, partnership, responsibility, committment, teamwork. This is not a secret. The income part is just an extra side-effect if two people have jobs.
As best I can tell, it takes at least two people to raise kids properly. Ideally, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and close family friends around too. Nannies or babysitters if you can afford them. Tribally, in extended family and in community. Income doesn't really matter much. Kids thrive on Cheerios, Wonder Bread and baloney, macaroni and cheese, hamburgers, and Fluffernutter. I did. 6'2" and fairly strong.
They are dying, and not very slowly. We have often posted on this topic. The reason is obvious: these churches have been co-opted, captured by soft or firm Lefties who have replaced the search for Truth for political attitudes. People want God, but they are delivering pet funerals.
I suppose you could call that one aspect of "the long march through the institutions." Non-profits and other sorts of do-gooder organizations are vulnerable to being corrupted by that sort of activism because they often attract a certain sort of person.
My Protestant church is bursting at the seams with tons of young couples and tons of little kids. I know our pastors pretty well, but have no idea what they think about any political or otherwise controversial topic. Nor do I care, because they view their job as one of saving souls through Christ and that's what they do. Lots of people hunger for that.
There are many reasons people take two hours on Sunday morning to go to church, but politics and trendy silliness are not among them.
Today... the leaders of the Episcopal Church and similar bodies often don’t seem to be offering anything you can’t already get from a purely secular liberalism. Which suggests that perhaps they should pause, amid their frantic renovations, and consider not just what they would change about historic Christianity, but what they would defend and offer uncompromisingly to the world.
Absent such a reconsideration, their fate is nearly certain: they will change, and change, and die.
From Akasie: What Ails the Episcopalians - Its numbers and coffers shrinking, the church votes for pet funerals but offers little to the traditional faithful:
General Convention is also notable for its sheer ostentation and carnival atmosphere. For seven straight nights, lavish cocktail parties spilled into pricey steakhouses, where bishops could use their diocesan funds to order bottles of the finest wines.
During the day, legislators in the lower chamber, the House of Deputies, and the upper chamber, the House of Bishops, discussed such weighty topics as whether to develop funeral rites for dogs and cats, and whether to ratify resolutions condemning genetically modified foods. Both were approved by a vote, along with a resolution to "dismantle the effects of the doctrine of discovery," in effect an apology to Native Americans for exposing them to Christianity.
Re the latter, so much for mission work, I guess. "Gee, I'm sorry we told you about Jesus"! My view of ministry is simple. Preach the Word to all, visit the sick, inspire the marrying and comfort the bereaved. Mostly, preach the Word of God. What people decide to do with the lessons should be no concern of churches.
Greatest rock band ever? Could be. Is Let It Bleed their best record? Highly debatable.
Funny to think that Keith Richards now lives a quiet, humble, ordinary suburban life in leafy, winding road Connecticut, same as Paul Simon and many rockers and movie stars. I think many sane stars yearn for the quiet and ordinary where they can try to be relatively anonymous and to be the ordinary people they are at heart.
I'll never forget the first time I heard the Let It Bleed record. The girlfriend too, in vivid detail. However, I could say that about quite a number of pop records.
We have mentioned here many times that the EU was designed to evolve into a modern Holy Roman Empire, or maybe just a modern Roman Empire, or a thousand-year reich, or something. I thought imperialism was supposed to be a bad thing nowadays.
The process is moving always towards imperial government, making very clear that the opposite of nationhood is not Enlightenment but Empire. And only one thing stands opposed to this result, and that is the national sentiments of the European people.
I think I represent the Maggie's view when I advocate for decentralization of power. Nationalism doesn't "cause" wars any more than guns kill people. People cause wars. Furthermore, I think that the US over the past 160 years has "evolved" into a sort of empire of states, albeit a representative one (as is the hapless EU). Compare state and local power in 1850 compared to today. Centralized institutions aggregate power the way the sun aggregated planets. They always want more money, control, and power, and there's always a rationalization for it. We're supposed to think they mean well, but they are watching out for their careers, their pensions, and their egos.
The people I respect most are those who want no power or control over anyone or anything other than their own destiny. Exceptions: one's kids and one's livelihood.
I've never done blind tastings, but I'd like to try doing it sometime. All wines do not taste the same. I have had my share of borderline undrinkable, or undrinkable, wines, and my share of mind-blowingly delicious wines too.
It's hard to believe, but we've all read, and Lehrer confirms, that in blind tastings few can even distinguish a red from a white. I'd be a skeptic on that.
I think the meaningful question is whether the average wine drinker can tell the difference between a pretty good cabernet, for example, and a very fancy one, and whether the difference matters much.
I have told you several times in the past about my local master gunsmith, Italy-trained in some of the finest hand-made gun shops in the world, who put up ads in our high school for seven years inviting applicants to apprentice with him. He never got a single reply, and gave up the effort.
When he died a few years ago, alas (when he was charging $175/hr for labor and had more work than he could handle), all of his skills in wood and in machining gun parts died with him. A damn shame. An expert shot with rifle and shotgun, too.
Mike Rowe claims that people look down on people who know how to do real things. Do they really? Most people seem to admire or envy people who can do real things. Nobody admires people because they can use Powerpoint. Anyway, this via Eratosthenes:
The mayor of Scranton, PA recently lowered all city workers' salaries to the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. This in an attempt to cover a budget gap but still keep people working. It's a fine attempt to try and balance financial hopes with reality. Scranton doesn't want to follow in Stockton's footsteps.
But what is the reward for doing something intelligent? You get sued, of course. The logic of this is obvious, because another lawsuit burdening the system helps you get what you can't create. It's the most productive solution in the modern economy.
I grew up not too far from Scranton. The region has been depressed for as long as I can remember. But when people get used to a certain quality of life, they begin to believe they deserve it. What's the solution? Taking out a loan is only a good idea if the money is put to work building productive capacity somehow. But that's not what the city would borrow money to accomplish.
The 'solution', such as it is, is exactly what the mayor is doing. Trying to live within his means and find a way to make it work. Eventually, if Scranton isn't a viable productive center which attracts or starts new businesses, it's going to fail. Just like many cities or small towns before it. This is nothing new. It's sad, but reality isn't always happy and fun.
Unfortunately for the mayor, the people want what they perceive to be theirs so they can preserve the life they've become used to.
With the federal government handing money out to all and sundry, is it any surprise people want what they can't have?
During a time when in high school and college the greats of Western literature were still a major part of the curriculum, I often skated by with Classics Illustrated comics. Thus, when great contemporary minds who didn’t skate write books that delve deeply into the thoughts of the paragons of Western literature, I am both fascinated by new understandings and humbled, even ashamed, that I feel inadequate by comparison.
I’m about halfway through such a book now, for a review I’ll write. Yesterday, I emailed the author, a professor emeritus of English, with some questions to clarify my thoughts. He replied that he had faith in my ability to figure out the answers myself. I’m not so sure of that.
This morning, I felt more inadequate when reading a review of Roger Kimball’s new book and interview with him. I was supposed to receive a copy for review but either haven’t or someone stole it from the mailbox in front of my house. After reading this review and interview, I’m almost thankful, as this review and interview is so simple, direct, and first-rate that I couldn’t hope to have done near as well.
I know two places on Cape Cod where you can see these big snakes in numbers on a sandy bank on a warm day in early Spring, trying to warm up from their hibernation by lounging lazily in the sun and looking for mating partners.
When it's still cool, they don't move much and do not display their lightning speed: they just glare at you and maybe twitch their tail.
It is indeed startling to encounter ten of these guys together, some 5-6' long, as you are walking along a sandy trail in early Springtime. They like edges, with some cover nearby, like water nearby whether salt or fresh, and they will climb trees if they feel like it. Entirely harmless (unless you are a small animal or a small snake: like Kronos, they will eat their young), but big - and always a wonder to see a big one and the average wife will jump to you for protection. That's always a good thing.
Subspecies of these handsome snakes are found across America, mainly east of the Rockies. You can read more about the Black Racer here.
We could use some more of them around here to eat the damn Norway Rats, but they'd eat our cute Chipmunks too. I noticed that you can buy them on the internets in case you want some around your place. With a little luck, they will eat the kittens too.
Seen a Black Snake lately? They are daytime hunters and no rat can outrun them. Wonderful critters which usually startle you when you encounter them. Most of the time, you don't see them because they stay out of your way.
Great Whites inhabit all of the oceans of the world, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Despite the really, really scary crisis of climate change, New England has seen a huge increase in the seal population over the past couple of decades. The last time I swam in the ocean beach in Wellfleet, there were large Gray Seals all around us, gamboling in the surf. Quite amusing.
Seals attract the Great White Sharks which like to feed on them. They are shark bait. Can a shark distinguish a person from a seal - and why should it care anyway? Food is food. Great white sharks send Cape swimmers running.
My theory: get out there and have fun in the chilly water. The odds are strongly on your side.
Are America's components too large, too diverse in culture, religion, geography, population, prosperity, politics, way of life and point of view, for one-size-fits-all directives from Washington?
I believe so. That's why I don't care that Vermont is socialist, or that Massachusetts has Romneycare, or that Texas is Texas, or that Stockton is Stockton.
Or that California - by itself the 8th largest economy in the world - is wacky California. I'm in favor of letting them be what they want to be, but not on my nickel. Do your own thing, dude, take responsibility for it, but don't ask me to pay for it. I have my hands full caring for my own.
On this Independence Day week, with the Sousa bands and the marching Vets and the martial rockets' red glare, I think about this: the primary job of the Feds is to protect us from external threats so we, the people, are free to figger out life in our own ways. Not in the ways determined by our supposed "betters."
In America, we acknowledge no "betters." "Betters" are for Europeans and Asians.
We are not children, nor are we stupid: after all, many of us were educated in government schools. We are in life, not cloistered in Washington and we are all as smart - if not as articulate BSers - as they are. We know there is no life on earth without problems, difficulties, challenges, and death at the end of it. That's plain reality. What we do not need is our governments making it all more difficult. We can handle it, most of it.
In America today, the greatest threat to individual and local freedom is our own Federal government. Our external threats are relatively trivial, given our power.
Maine has nothing in common with DC, Hollywood, or Chicago. Nothing, well, except for harvesting the Maine lobsters that the limo Liberals feed on.
When governments accomplish the basic, simple tasks to which they are assigned, they tend to grandiosely meddle in other things to feel important, to keep themselves busy, to invent problems, or to buy votes with the voters' money (A Nation of Takers?). It's an insidious use of power even if it sometimes satirizes itself and makes us laugh at its foolishness: An Open Letter to Mayor Bloomberg. Please do not "help" us, jerks. Most of us are far from helpless.
In their book The Size of Nations, Alberto Alesina and Enrico Spolaore argue that, if America were as centrally governed as France, it would have broken up long ago. But hey, that’s no reason not to try it! In a land where everything else is supersized, why not government? Obituaries for the late Andy Griffith generally glossed over his career finale as a pitchman for Obamacare. But he was a canny choice to sell the unsellable, for is not “health” “care” “reform” the communitarian virtues of beloved small-town Mayberry writ large? The problem is you can’t write Mayberry large. And, if you attempt it, it leads not to Mayberry but to Stockton, Calif., and to a corrupt, dysfunctional swamp. A large Sweden is a contradiction in terms. It cannot be done, and the more determinedly you try to do it, the more you will preside over a ruined wasteland. The road to hell isn’t paved at all, and the street lamps went out long ago.
Is leaving people alone a full-time job? Naw, it couldn't be. Corny as it may be to post, this is one of our historic American flags, and some days I wish we had kept it for its ornery assertion to governmental power:
When I was in my teens, my scout troop did quite a bit of hiking and camping. Spam was part of our menu for longer trips, usually longer than a weekend. It's easy to carry and prepare. It's understandable that during WWII it was a food of choice for the troops. I also understand why my step-father, a WWII vet, never touched the stuff even as I scarfed it down.
I doubt I'd ever touch it today, unless I visited Hawaii where it's seen on menus regularly.
... newcomers to the city, including Twain—straight from the Nevada desert with its pickled oysters and an appalling coffee substitute he dubbed “Slumgullion”—developed a taste for the tiny, coppery Olympias. The Oly, as it was called, was the classic gold rush oyster, a staple of celebrations and everyday meals in San Francisco restaurants and oyster saloons. Olys appeared in oyster soup and stew, stuffed into wild poultry and, of course, raw. Perhaps the most distinctive local dish was a “Hangtown fry” of oysters, bacon and eggs.
Mark Twain loved good food. I've had the Olympia oysters, but prefer the Northeast mollusc. I once ate 72 of them in a contest with a friend somewhere where they had an all-you-can-eat raw bar. I lost, but I still love to eat them.
Some of my friends sit around every evening And they worry about the times ahead But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference And the promise of an early bed You either shut up or get cut up -Elvis Costello "Radio, Radio"
I've had to deal with a number of issues lately, some good, others not so much. Last August, I was introduced to a phrase, when Irene knocked out our electricity for 4 days. Dealing with no electricity, or the limited capacity provided by a small generator, was annoying. Eventually, though, things went back to normal. My son, during the blackout, kept repeating "First World Problems" every time one of us complained of inconvenience.
The phrase refers to things which are meaningless to most people and occur only in industrialized nations. The ennui of life leading to kids not bothering to change a channel even though they have the ability to click a button. The disappointment of a latte, after realizing you really wanted a cappuccino. It's a phrase usually used in a snarky fashion, but it can have meaning in a larger sense. After the Derecho that passed through Ohio and some Mid-Atlantic states, I once again uttered the line as we cleared my father's property of fallen trees and branches in stifling heat. First World Problems are things which never occur to a Papuan jungle tribe member or even a denizen of Rio's "City of God". In fact, trying to explain these things could yield quizzical looks and questions about what we view to be important in our lives.
An interesting dilemma has presented itself to the world's bankers. For years they have been misguided in believing that forcing money through the system is the only way to keep economies running. Ignoring the nature of economic cycles, and trying to centrally manipulate positive outcomes, typically called 'soft landings', has led to a number of unintended consequences.
A slowing economy is one which needs savings, because in a heated economy, too many people are spending. At some point, the investment cycle can only be completed by having more people save.
We are, and have been for some time, at this stage. But the Federal Reserve (and other central banks) have all tried to manipulate consumption and spur borrowing by lowering interest rates. At some point, we've borrowed too much. At what point is that? At the point where we begin to charge for the 'privilege' of saving money. This is a Keynesian solution to a problem, but a problem that is misunderstood. During the Depression, rates were raised. This was the correct approach to handling the issue. But they were raised too far. Keynes did not deal with the issue of scale, just the issue he felt was problematic, which was a lack of consumption. Lack of Consumption is a very real problem, but lack of savings is an even worse problem.
The truth is, with interest rates as close to zero as they can be, and bank fees reaching levels that rival extortion, the US has been in a Negative Interest Rate situation for almost 3 years. We just haven't made it official the way Denmark has. It's not a good thing, either (though Denmark claims it is).
Interest rates have been negative once before - for reserves by banks at the central bank in Sweden in 2009. Even the US is considering this approach to get banks to lend more.
At some point, the massive credit expansion the Fed has employed the last 4 years will create inflation. We've been lucky so far, as a reserve currency, that most of this inflation has been exported to smaller nations. But that time is coming to an end, as is our reserve status. This, combined with negative interest rates, will no doubt spark the inflationary fires as consumption takes place and dollars are repatriated when interest rates go up.
It's worth noting, as well, that the US has been in a Negative Real Interest Rate situation for quite some time (inflation is greater than interest rate payments = negative real interest rates). Negative Real Interest is not rare, and is usually what leads to increased consumption (and has no doubt kept our economy struggling along rather than forcing us to do what we need to do). Which explains why Jim Rogers has been deeply invested in commodities.
There are two sorts of Americans, the "What can I get?" Americans and the "What can I do?" Americans.
Some folks might wade through the Rio Grande for "What can I get?", but I think most of them, like the ones who immigrate from further afield, come because of "What can I do?" Nowadays, it's mostly smart, ambitious Asians who can write code but are also willing to do the night shifts at the minimarts (kind of crazy to see work-free Americans on welfare in the minimart lines while the Asian or Haitian keeps busy at the check-out counter practicing his or her English and studying some textbook between customers).
Land of Opportunity, and all that. Whining and whinging not allowed here. There is still more freedom here to pursue your life goals than anywhere on earth, and leisure is not a traditional American life goal. In fact, the original Americans considered leisure to be disreputable if not shameful except on Sunday, after church.
It was the banks that first felt the lash of Mr Hollande’s tongue when he declared that his “true adversary” was not Mr Sarkozy but “the world of finance”. The president, who has spent almost his entire career in the public sector or working for his party, once said: “I don’t like the rich."
If you hate the world of finance, don't borrow and don't invest. It's simple. Also strange, since Hollande has become very wealthy working all his life for government and in politics, and all of his friends and girlfriends are rich. He has the parasitic mind, and parasites hate their hosts because they are ashamed of their dependency.
The Washington Post describes the discovery of the subatomic Higgs boson particle as “thought to create a sort of force field that permeates the universe, imbuing everything we see and touch with the fundamental property known as mass.” There is also a basic particle that permeates the universe of human nature and, thus, of politics, imbuing everything that happens with the fundamental property known as power.
From birth each individual exhibits a basic nature which exists throughout life. Even as it is shaped some by nurture and experiences, that basic nature is dominant. Those natures fall along a continuum from stubborn control of self and choices of environment to stubborn control of others and their choices of environment. In the political sphere these natures fall along a right to left continuum. On the right is a tendency toward individualism and creation of an environment that is based on the freely combined choices of other individuals. On the left is a tendency toward imposing a collectivism that is based of unifying others through power over their choices. On the right the role of government is important in protecting those free choices, including those of minorities. On the left the role of government is essential to aggregating power to enforce visions of the collective good, regardless of minorities. Most people are along the continuum, by nature, by choice, and by circumstance tending toward one end or the other.
1. Overheard from a wise old(er) RN in the ER this morning, "She's dying. Let her be."
2. Hospital bill for one of my patient's daughters for a 3-day ICU stay after an overdose: $124,000 (not including the bills from the numerous specialists who consulted on the case). That's the price of high-tech combined with tort fears. Tort-sensitivity prevents common sense in medicine, and results in rigid one-size-fits-all (expensive) protocols.
3. One-day ER bill for a stumbling drunk on the street brought in by the police after shouting to strangers that he was going to throw himself in front of a car: $3200. One wonders what happened to good old drunk-tanks at the police station. ER staffs prefer that drunks and addicts intoxicate themselves quietly without drawing attention to themselves.
4. An OR friend emailed me this pic of a nurse friend posing jauntily with surgical sponges. People have to have a little fun and humor in the OR. Fighting over what music to play is sometimes the most fun. Every OR has its CD player. Generally, the surgeon picks unless he or she is feeling especially generous towards the anesthesiologist or the nurses. Surgeons who want opera drive everybody else crazy.
Leftists harp about the corruption in free markets, but rarely about the corruption intrinsic to centrally-controlled or -manipulated systems (see Solyndra, or Fannie Mae, for recent American examples).
The "invisible hand" has been given a teleological interpretation, as if some benevolent agent is active in bringing about that benevolent end. For Smith the hand is simply a metaphor for a free market, a "system of natural liberty", in which individuals exchange their goods and services without the intervention of any supervising hand or authority. Only in such a system could the division of labour produce the "opulence" that would distribute the "necessaries of life" for the benefit of all. "By necessaries," The Wealth of Nations explains, "I understand, not only the commodities which are indispensably necessary for the support of life, but whatever the custom of the country renders it indecent for creditable people, even of the lowest order, to be without." Society, the rich and the poor, employers and workers, even unto the "lowest order" — this is the "nation" in The Wealth of Nations. It is not the nation state in the mercantilist sense, but the people who constitute society. And not the "people", as contemporaries often used that word — those who play an active part in politics — but the "common people" as well, including the lower and even the lowest orders. By the same token, the "wealth" in the title is not the wealth of the state (again, as the mercantilist understood it), but the wealth, or well-being, of all the people. Only a "progressive" — that is, a free and industrious — economy, could bring about "a universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people, . . . a general plenty [which] diffuses itself through all the different ranks of society." To those who complain that if the poor shared in the "general plenty", they would no longer be content with their lot in life, Smith put the question: "Is this improvement in the circumstances of the lower ranks of the people to be regarded as an advantage or an inconvenience to the society?" His answer is unequivocal — and very much in the spirit of Moral Sentiments:
Servants, labourers and workmen of different kinds make up the far greater part of every great political society. But what improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconvenience to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged.
I've been reading a bit about how western forest fires could be prevented, or reduced, by human intervention. I am opposed to that. Wildfire is a natural occurrence, and forest regeneration is a natural and necessary process and one upon which many species depend. It's well-known that fire-prevention eventuates in bigger fires.
If you want to live in the woods where fire is eventually expected, don't do it on my nickel. While I must admire the valiant forest-fire-fighters, I don't know why I am paying for them. There are dangers in the woods. Cougars, wolves, fires, bears, snakes, crazy rivers, etc. Nobody is forced to live there.
Same goes for federally-subsidized flood insurance. Seems like a no-brainer to me. Why should my tax dollars subsidize somebody to live where there is a predictable expectation of flooding? Or hurricanes or tornadoes?
Perhaps this sounds "insensitive," but adults are expected to calculate their risks in life and not come crying to me when the odds turn against them. I can be charitable when I choose to be, but I don't want to be forced by government to subsidize other peoples' adult choices.
An angry client today told me how pissed he was that the bank wouldn't swallow his $250,000 loss in the home he needs to sell now. I pointed out to him the obvious fact that he was implying that he would have been happy to keep any gain on the house, but not any loss. Then I pointed out that, if somebody wants to give up loss and to give up gain, then they should rent. When you rent, the landlord or the bank takes the risks.
In my long life experience, the more responsibility people take for their decisions and their consequences, the better and more careful decisions they make.
I happen to believe, based on experience, that the right psychotherapeutic approach, tailored for the individual, can be enormously helpful.
Two of my favorite quotes:
Freud (often misquoted): "The goal of psychoanalysis is to convert neurotic suffering into everyday (ordinary) misery."
Erik Erikson: "Psychotherapy begins where common sense ends."
Readers know that I am a Psychiatrist (MD) Psychoanalyst whose practice is mainly in psychodynamic psychotherapy, less of a "medical model" practice.
Dr. Dworkin (an anesthesiologist and pundit) has a good summary of the the evolution of psychotherapy in America: Psychotherapy and the Pursuit of Happiness. A quote from his essay:
Psychotherapy has undergone a great transformation since America’s mental health crisis began. Gone are the days when therapists were dedicated to the doctrines of Freud and Jung, when the field was suffused with an air of priestly sanctity, heavy with the odors of tradition and authority. In the old days, psychotherapists constructed vast philosophical fabrics out of the writings of visionaries. They dallied with ideas that bordered on philosophy and religion; their emotional natures were totally absorbed in the partisan passions of their analytic cliques; their subtle intellects concerned themselves with the dialectical splitting of dogmatic hairs. The words they used — id, ego, and superego, among many others — seemed like a transcendent manifestation of divine power, an example of humanity being vouchsafed glimpses of eternal truth flowing down through an elaborate and immense cascade of books, with individual therapists stretching back, through their pedigree of technique, to some godhead. A whole universe of understanding was brought about by means of these words. In this universe the therapist was not as his clients, but, instead, a creature apart.
In the past few decades, a new breed of therapist has emerged — sympathetic, friendly, lighthearted, warm, and caring. His therapeutic style bears everywhere upon it the signs of human imperfection. It is the outcome of efficiency and practicality, of the exigencies of business executives and the ambitions of professionals, of the preferences of society and of the necessities of unhappy people. Gone is the transcendent manifestation, the abracadabra of therapy. Gone are the fervors of piety, the zeal of disciples, and the enthusiasm of intellectuals imagining themselves to have discovered a new theory of human nature.
Once a consecrated priesthood, therapists today walk along the smooth road of ordinary duty. They help people with their everyday problems. They speak in a casual manner and even crack jokes. They are friendly. They smile. They differ neither outwardly nor inwardly from the clients they serve, for whom therapy has become a useful organization, a convenient and respectable appendage to existence, a sometimes necessary form of artificial friendship.
I would cheerfully dispute the notion that physicians no longer constitute a priesthood of sorts, and I would dispute the notion that most people practicing psychotherapy, regardless of their training, are mostly busy with people with "everyday problems." (Some are, most aren't.)
As for "happiness," that's not something either physicians or "caring professionals" have the power to deliver. Relief of unnessary suffering and problematic behavior is difficult enough in itself.
In my view, psychotherapy is a deadly serious endeavor with the ambitious goal of rescuing lives and souls from their emotional problems and limitations, as much as possible. More like a mind-surgeon than a paid friend.
Through Delta, flew from JFK to Rome via Paris (cheaper that way) on Air France (which I like very much - decent airplane food with cheese and baguettes, etc, champagne when you board, drinks free, charming hostesses). We had the worst seats so you do your best to zone out. I needed some Ambien. The quick 2 hr- flight down to Rome, using Delta, is on Alitalia.
We clever, thrifty Yankees can do a 12-day grand luxe and glitz-free trip around Umbria for the price of a good high-end Mac server. A few travel trips for this first pic dump post:
We got some very good hotel deals via Expedia. We are very particular about where we will stay, as you will see (if you care). Mrs. BD is my planner. We seek out little gems without jacuzzis and absolutely without bellboys with uniforms. We are allergic to that sort of crap, and like to explore places that most people do not. We reserved a fine hatchback Lancia through Costco. Cheap. With the talking GPS - and that came in darn handy because we prefer trying to get lost on back roads unless we are in a rush to the airport. Somehow managed not to get the car in a roadside farm ditch on this trip - but I have done that in the past. Hilarity always ensues! Amusing recriminations also. Good way to meet the local farmer with tractor!
We stayed at one hotel in the Tiber Valley, one in the Valle Umbra, and one in the Valnerina to cover all the of Umbrian geography. View of the olive orchard of our hotel 10 k outside Todi, early morning mist:
I grew up not too far from Scranton. The region has been depressed for as long as I can remember. But when people get used to a certain quality of life, they begin to believe they deserve it. What's the solution? Taking out a loan is only a good idea if the money is put to work building productive capacity somehow. But that's not what the city would borrow money to accomplish.
I know two places on Cape Cod where you can see these big snakes in numbers on a sandy bank on a warm day in early Spring, trying to warm up from their hibernation by lounging lazily in the sun and looking for mating partners. 
Are America's components too large, too diverse in culture, religion, geography, population, prosperity, politics, way of life and point of view, for one-size-fits-all directives from Washington? 
Via 
I happen to believe, based on experience, that the right psychotherapeutic approach, tailored for the individual, can be enormously helpful. 