migrations

2nd hand quote

2007-10-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

i found this provocative quote from The Theory of Moral Sentiments in a so-so book entitled Stumbling on Happiness:

The pleasures of wealth and greatness...strike the imagination as something grand and beautiful and noble, of which the attainment is well worth all the toil and anxiety which we are so apt to bestow upon it...It is this deception which rouses and keeps in continual motion the industry of mankind. It is this which first prompted them to cultivate the ground, to build houses, to found cities and commonwealths, and to invent and improve all the sciences and arts, which ennoble and embellish human life; which have entirely changed the whole face of the globe, have turned the rude forests of nature into agreeable and fertile plains, and made the trackless and barren ocean a new fund of subsistence, and the great high road of communication to the different nations of the earth.

or to use jargon, wealth has declining marginal utility.

(slight return)

2007-10-13T01:30:00.000-07:00

a long hiatus it's been to the blog. i'm now situated in a different geographical locale. i might discuss that in another post if requested. saw interesting set of short films today, generally on the topic of food. here's a list of topics covered; it won't mean much to anyone who wasn't at the showing tonight, i'm afraid. in not necessarily this order, it discussed West Oakland, CA, asparagus being outsourced to Peru & Chile, "profit cola" (a funny one), Sunny Delite, GMO tomatoes, water in michigan, confined livestock, Providence school gardens, Echo Park homeless recycler, and Nova Scotia hand-liner fishing. the feature film included Earl Butz, erstwhile Agriculture secretary, and an awful demonstration of the effects of grain feeding cattle.

2006-08-14T06:19:00.000-07:00

Nan Madol, Pohnpei, Micronesia (uploading to a2k)

2006-07-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

Bristlecone Pine

Mt. Whitney

Mono Lake

Rainbow Falls

beasts of Genesis

2006-06-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

in the beginning, all were vegetarian:

1:30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

at some point, some of the beasts became carnivores. even answersingenesis can only guess how that happened:

Scripture simply does not provide enough information for Christians to insist dogmatically that one or another of these possible explanations is totally right or wrong. Several of them may apply together.
As fallen creatures in a fallen world, we have difficulty imagining what a pre-Fall world was really like. We are also finite creatures lacking all the information. We therefore need to be particularly careful about arguing from the present to the past.

source: http://answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/bad_things.asp

rather atypically tentative for a creationist tract in my experience. in fact, this seems to be a can of worms for ID advocates, since all those marvelously designed attack & defense mechanisms of animals must have had a different function prior to the fall. for instance, consider the bombardier beetle:

The tiny bombardier beetle could not possibly have evolved. His defence mechanism is amazingly complicated, and could only have been created with all the parts working together perfectly. From twin ‘exhaust tubes’ at his tail, this beetle fires into the face of his enemies boiling-hot noxious gases with a loud pop.

source: http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v12/i1/bombardier.asp

what could be the function of this elaborate mechanism in the absence of a predatory threat? or if there was none, then God anticipated the fall, and that does not square in my mind with Adam & Eve being punished for disobeying a commandment God knew would be disobeyed.

in my next installment, i might discuss John Woodmorappe, creationist author of a Noah's Ark Feasibility Study. the impatient reader can jump ahead to this synopsis of his work, here: http://emporium.turnpike.net/C/cs/ark/index.htm

{an apology for not providing links, i still can't get them to work}

CO2

2006-06-11T00:56:00.000-07:00

milestone or millstone?

2006-06-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

sedona/flagstaff

2006-05-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

white buffalo: sacred to native americans, especially the lakota

on the trail from lockett meadow

well-known flagstaff cafe

road food

yw & saguaro

oak creek

agave blossom

mrs. yw & aspen

more images

2006-05-17T21:16:00.000-07:00

some images from chicago

2006-05-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

2006-05-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

a borrowed picture from Eva so i can upload to a2k & shush a certain conservative member.

vacation images

2006-04-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

from top to bottom,
Tikal, Guatemala; yw in Stann Creek District, Belize; Caye Caulker, Belize

incidentally, click on an image to see a bigger version

depression

2006-01-06T05:54:00.000-08:00

belated happy new year to readers, if there are any, of my neglected blog. i saw a news story on Yahoo! i just had to comment on.

in effect, researchers found a deficiency of one serotonin receptor, "1B"--one of 14 found on neurons--in mice with depression symptoms as well as tissue saved from autopsied depression patients, and that a protein, p11, controls the number of 1B receptors. further, antidepressants, and even shock therapy, increase the level of p11, while mice alterred genetically to have no p11 act depressed and do not respond to antidepressants as well as normal mice. finally, p11 belongs to a family of proteins that are sensitive to stress-related hormones, which dovetails with the association between stress & depression.

an article in today's issue of Science reports these findings. i'd like to hear what scientologists have to say about all this.

Ice Age

2005-11-14T07:47:00.000-08:00

this will be the last post on this area, unless someone requests more. Dr. John Baumgardner, a highly trained Creationist scientist, has proposed the scenario of "runaway subduction" that explains the Genesis Flood. In his scenario, the present arrangement of continents is a result of a sudden breakup of one supercontinent through tectonic forces. This also entailed a sudden increase in ocean temperature causing it to boil and eventually producing the Biblical 40 days of rainfall. Then shortly thereafter, an Ice Age that lasts about 700 years occurs; among other things, this creates land bridges that allow animals to disperse to Australia and the Americas.

an obvious objection to this scenario is, why doesn't Genesis mention an ice age? something that causes the extinction of vast numbers of extremely large mammals surely merits some mention. evidently, the only mention of "ice" in the Bible occurs in Job, according to AIG:

Interestingly, there seem to be certain references to this Ice Age in the ancient book of Job (37:9–10, 38:22–23, 29–30), who perhaps lived in its waning years. (Job lived in the land of Uz, Uz being a descendant of Shem [Gen. 10:23], so that most conservative Bible scholars agree that Job probably lived at some time between the Tower of Babel and Abraham.) God questioned Job from a whirlwind, ‘Out of whose womb came the ice? And the frost of the heavens, who fathered it? The waters are hidden like stone, and the face of the deep is frozen.’ (Job 38:29–30).

Such questions presuppose Job knew, either firsthand or by historical/family records, what God was talking about. This is probably a reference to the climatic effects of the Ice Age—effects not now seen in the Middle East.

the other passages from Job, are these:

9Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.
10By the breath of God frost is given: and the breadth of the waters is straitened.

22Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail,
23Which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?

i doubt anyone can interpret these two excerpts as evidence of an Ice Age. so, the conclusion is that the only evidence for an Ice Age in Biblical times is the phrase "the face of the deep is frozen." also, the claim that such effects are not now seen in the Middle East is misleading; here's a counterexample from the National Climatic Data Center:

Global Hazards and Significant Events
February 2003
A storm system produced heavy snow across parts of Israel, Lebanon and Jordan during February 24-26.

source: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2003/feb/hazards.html

moreover, the phrase "the face of the deep is frozen" suggests that the oceans were frozen. as far as i can determine, as a non-expert, there is only one time this might have happened:

The Cryogenian (ca. 720–630 million years ago) was characterized by the most intense glaciations Earth has ever experienced, often called the “snowball Earth” glaciations.

source: http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/05-01.htm

in this scenario, the oceans were covered with ice almost to the Equator. it seems implausible to me that mass migrations of animals to remote continents could occur in climate conditions that severe, or that the Bible contains no record of the hardships such extreme cold would cause. Creationists are fond of pointing out the occurence of Flood legends in many cultures, but how do they explain the absence of any Ice Age legends around the world?

if you're still reading, there's a connection between this Ice Age material and the previous entry on fossils. recall that it was claimed that large mammals were fossilized after the flood, during the Ice Age, but no mechanism was proposed. well, a mechanism is proposed for fossil humans:

Human fossils have been found, hundreds of them, but generally in deposits which most creationists would think were post-Flood (e.g. buried in caves during the post-Flood Ice Age—see What about the Ice Age?).

source: http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2/4419.asp#r15

but large mammals probably didn't live in caves, so how were they fossilized?

fossils

2005-11-14T07:32:00.000-08:00

i've realized the irony of creationists constantly chiding "evolutionists" for the supposed lack of intermediate forms, while glossing over the total absence of modern species fossilized in the same formations as extinct species, such as dinosaurs. here's how AIG addresses this issue:

Further, the more mobile, intelligent animals would tend to survive the Flood longest and be buried last, so their remains would be vulnerable to erosion by the receding floodwaters at the end of the Flood and in the aftermath of the Flood. Hence their remains would tend to be destroyed. The intelligence factor could partly account for the apparent separation of dinosaurs and mammals such as cattle, for example.15

Most creationists would regard large mammal fossil deposits, such as in the John Day County of Oregon, USA, as post-Flood. Return to text.

source: http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2/4419.asp#r15

so, the difference in intelligence between cattle & dinosaurs explains things. but the large mammals, presumably also intelligent, couldn't have been fossilized by the flood, ergo, they must have been fossilized by some unexplained mechanism. and any dinosaurs that had a brain to body ratio comparable to mammmals--and there were some--somehow weren't able to survive any longer than the mammoth, stupid, dinosaurs. and slow moving mammals like sloths all managed to find a handy raft to cling to, until succumbing to fish at the end, as in this scenario from AIG:

On the other hand, land animals, such as mammals and birds, being mobile (especially birds), could escape to higher ground and be the last to succumb. People would cling to rafts, logs etc. until the very end and then tend to bloat and float and be scavenged by fish, with the bones breaking down rather quickly, rather than being preserved. This would make human fossils from the Flood exceedingly rare.

yet somehow, not all birds survived this way, many turned into fossils. not even talking about disputed birds like archaeopteryx, there are plenty of undisputed fossilized birds.

creationism, part 2

2005-11-12T12:34:00.000-08:00

lest anyone think AIG is an exception that proves the rule, here's an excerpt from an icr.org article by Dr. Morris:

It was the "kinds"—seven of every "clean" kind and two of all other kinds—that went out to repopulate the whole earth, with all its different ecological niches. Within each kind was a created genetic system capable of considerable recombination, so different varieties could quickly develop within each kind, as the descendants migrated to different regions of the world with all their different environments. Some of these eventually became stably reproducing species or even genera—probably still capable of reuniting to produce hybrids but normally remaining distinct.

Thus, all the dogs—including domestic dogs in all their varieties, wolves, coyotes, foxes, etc.—presumably descended from the two members of the created "dog kind." The same may well have been true of the cats and other zoological families

source: http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=567

it seems the height of hypocrisy to be constantly characterizing evolution as "just a theory" while accepting it to just the extent required to account for the abundance of species in the wake of a supposed global flood, and carping that "no one has ever seen it happen" while assuming that dogs turned into coyotes and horses into zebras. incidentally, if the flood covered the earth and destroyed all life, then it's necessary that new species arose after the flood, because Noah only had 7 days to load the ark, which made it impossible to load 2 of every species.

young earth creationism

2005-11-12T09:46:00.000-08:00

while examining ID, i encountered some creationist arguments against Stephen Gould's punctuated equilibrium that seem to work much better against young earth creationism. to wit,

2. PE amounts to a claim that inbreeding is the most major source of genetic advancement in the world. Apparently Steve Gould never saw Deliverance...

and the Biblical flood account is a claim that every animal now living is a result of inbreeding. the next claim doesn't precisely apply to creationism, but a fairly analogous claim would:

3. PE requires these tiny peripheral groups to conquer vastly larger groups of animals millions if not billions of times, which is like requiring Custer to win at the little Big Horn every day, for millions of years.

and young earth creationism requires that the species of animals alive today managed to drive into extinction a vastly larger number of species in just a few thousand years on a planet that was virtually unpopulated.

incidentally, answersingenesis.org, or AIG, gives the date 2304BC for the flood. and here's some interesting hermeneutics from AIG about the word "kind"

For example, horses, zebras and donkeys are probably descended from an equine (horse-like) kind, since they can interbreed, although the offspring are sterile. Dogs, wolves, coyotes and jackals are probably from a canine (dog-like) kind. All different types of domestic cattle (which are clean animals) are descended from the Aurochs, so there were probably at most seven (or fourteen) domestic cattle aboard. The Aurochs itself may have been descended from a cattle kind including bisons and water buffaloes. We know that tigers and lions can produce hybrids called tigons and ligers, so it is likely that they are descended from the same original kind.

Woodmorappe totals about 8000 genera, including extinct genera, thus about 16,000 individual animals which had to be aboard. With extinct genera, there is a tendency among some paleontologists to give each of their new finds a new genus name. But this is arbitrary, so the number of extinct genera is probably highly overstated. Consider the sauropods, which were the largest dinosaurs—the group of huge plant-eaters like Brachiosaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, etc. There are 87 sauropod genera commonly cited, but only 12 are ‘firmly established’ and another 12 are considered ‘fairly well established’.5

source: http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v19/i2/animals.asp

so this creationist site acknowledges that species have evolved in just the last 4300 or so years, yet creationists constantly claim that evolution is impossible, by defining evolution as the development of new genera. it strikes me as flagrant sophistry to condemn the author of "origin of species" (not origin of genera) while allowing speciation within genera--with the exception of genus homo, of course.

ID

2005-11-10T10:27:00.000-08:00

it's been in the news recently, so i've brushed up on it a bit. ID is really the same as creationism if it rejects macroevolution, because then it can provide no explanation for the evidence of mass extinctions in the fossil record. if the species that don't perish in an extinction do not produce daughter species, then either all species were created at the beginning--which raises the question why are there no fossils of humans & dinosaurs & trilobites all found in the same geologic formations--or new species were created after each extinction--which raises the question, why weren't the original species simply recreated each time?

i also found a website that has a good overview of the concept of punctuated equilibria by none other than Stephen Gould himself, since punctuated equilibria is often cited as a critique of macroevolution. here's an attempt at a summary:

if evolutionary change occurs gradually, why are there no intermediate forms? Gould says, change mainly occurs when small populations become isolated, allowing favorable mutations to spread rapidly. then, when changing conditions favor some mutation, a small population can supplant a much larger main population, so that the new species appears to have arisen fully formed. so, species evolve by branching rather than gradual accumulation of mutations, but they evolve nonetheless.

finally, here's Gould's comment on the misuse of punctuated equilibria by creationists:

Second, the theory became an issue (quite coincidentally) just when creationism reached its acme of thankfully temporary influence. Creationists, with their usual skill in the art of phony rhetoric, cynically distorted punctuated equilibrium for their own ends, claiming that we had virtually thrown in the towel and admitted that the fossil record contains no intermediate forms. (Punctuated equilibrium, on the other hand, is a different theory of intermediacy for evolutionary trends—pushing a ball up an inclined plane for gradualism, climbing a staircase for punctuated equilibrium.) Some of our colleagues, in an all too common and literally perverse reaction, blamed us for this mayhem upon our theory. At least we were able to fight back effectively. Most of my testimony at the Arkansas creationism trial in 1980 centered upon the creationists' distortion of punctuated equilibrium.

source: http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_opus200.html
(i tried to put in a link, but that didn't work somehow :( )

on the road

2005-10-23T17:56:00.000-07:00

let's see if this works; yes it does. i recommend the Library Hotel in NYC, if the price isn't too steep. i love the high-speed internet & the complimentary continental breakfast. there's also complimentary wine & cheese, free entrance to an athletic club (although i didn't have time to check that out,) and room had elegant & comfy furniture. location's xlnt as well, just a block from Grand Central station.

went to Washington Sq. Park--took me bout half an hour to find it--and lost $5 to a chess hustler, without putting up much of a fight, maybe i can blame jet lag for that. if anyone requests, i can put up a foto of my nemesis.

i had better luck with lunch at a trendy Japanese restaurant in Tribeca. :)

2005-10-20T21:55:00.000-07:00

don't know how long blogger's had the capability of uploading images without going thru picasa, but here's my Tickle certificate.

2005-08-30T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today's celeb

2005-08-08T11:27:00.000-07:00

The other avian in our family, Maury.

where's turtle island? (for visitors from a2k confused about my whereabouts)

2005-06-12T17:11:00.000-07:00

Turtle Island is the native american name for North America before the arrival of europeans. I first became aware of this while reading about the Turtle Island Quartet, a string quartet with an unconventional repertoire. I have seen a2k posts from a transexual taking up a lakota lifestyle after having been a vietnam vet, who also gave Turtle Island as her location. I tried to contact her, but the email address & url address she provided are no longer in service.

Charles Galloway

2005-05-17T12:25:00.000-07:00

here's the text of MP Galloway's senate testimony, courtesy of Times of London, by way of able2know.com:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1616578_1,00.html

moral relativism

2005-05-01T22:28:00.000-07:00

i recently posted some thoughts about the basis of moral codes for agnostics at able2know.com. click this link to access it. i'd be pleased to get some feedback on it.

nondualists

2005-04-26T16:31:00.000-07:00

i amused myself composing this little note, which i haven't posted, to a discussion on the objectivity or subjectivity of truth:

i hope no one will object if i attempt a little levity.

[QUOTE]if ___ see a ______ on the ____, kill ___. [/QUOTE]

while the blanks are proportional to the length of the words in the quote as commonly rendered, non-dualists can substitute whatever noun or pronoun suits them. if i were a non-dualist, i'd use mu or tao, they're concise. maybe they'd like to replace the verbs as well, but that might obscure the meaning. if mu mu a mu on the mu, mu mu, seems a bit cryptic.

for the life of me, i can't understand why able2know members haven't rushed over to check out my blog & make comments, since the URL appears as part of all my posts. but just in case they're lurking & not commenting, maybe this post will flush them out.

2005-04-17T18:13:00.000-07:00

As promised, the new kid on the block, who answers to B.B. or Koto.

able2know.com update

2005-04-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

i'm afraid i've become addicted to able2know.com. my handle there is yitwail, the same as this blog, for anyone interested. the last couple of days, i've just had a feast demolishing the arguments of a poor conservative fellow who needs to do more homework & critical thinking before committing his thoughts to the internet. he's just tossing me softballs, and i keep knocking them out of the park; it's embarassing almost, i should take it easy on the guy, but what should i do, bunt instead?

idle pursuit

2005-04-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

the last couple of days, i've been hanging out at able2know.com, which is the biggest message board i've seen--not that i've seen very many. able2know claims that one could post a question there on any topic and expect a reply from somebody. while i haven't posed a question myself, nor found one i could answer, i have enjoyed playing a few trivia games there. a few minutes ago, i took a stab at the add-a-letter word game, changing unwist into Whitsun. that's allowable under the rules as i understand them, and twould be a bit of a stroke if it wins, ie. no one can make a new word from it. the other games i've played are non-competitive ones, where you can make a new song name or album title from a previous one, so long as the new one has at least one word in common with the old.

[incidentally, i've had to retype this because there was a blogger problem when i tried to publish it. from now on, i ought to select and copy the text with the browser before attempting to publish.]

[[and a good thing i did so, because blogger is broken & wouldn't allow me to create a new entry. btw, i did win a round of add-a-letter with Whitsun. :) ]]

here's to fox news

2005-03-31T14:56:00.000-08:00

i wasn't planning to write anything more about Terri Schiavo, but i came across something so far on the fringe that i had to comment. it seems tv psychic John Edward appeared on a Fox news show recently and gave his views on her state of mind. you can watch the clip here

http://clips.mediamatters.org/video/foxfriends-200503250006.mov

or here

http://mediamatters.org/static/video/foxfriends-200503250006.wmv

unfortunately, the sound is out on my office pc so i couldn't hear anything. i'll try to see the clip again when i'm home. until then, i'll content myself with this transcribed excerpt:

From the March 24 edition of Fox & Friends:

DOOCY: You mentioned the Terri Schiavo case. Some might wonder, "Well, you know what, I wonder if he could communicate with her."

EDWARD: I do believe that the soul, the consciousness, can communicate when they're in a state, whether it be a mentally incapacitated person, someone who's in a coma. It's a consciousness, and the soul has a living consciousness. So whether it's in a physical vehicle or not, there is still the ability to connect. Many people will have what they call out-of-body experiences, or astral dreams. Two very living people, that are healthy, could have a kind of connection in a dream state that can be validated. So why not somebody who's in this case?

DOOCY: So she may not be able to talk with her brain, but she can with her soul --

EDWARDS: But she's clear on what's going -- and I can tell you that she's definitely clear on what's happening now around her.

here's to anonymous

2005-03-29T09:16:00.000-08:00

I wasn't going to comment about the reservation high school shootings in Minnesota, but then I saw the news story naming a juvenile who's been arrested in connection with the case, based on a law enforcement leak to the AP, and became so disgusted with this invasion of privacy that I couldn't help myself. I then had the poor judgement to look at a yahoo message board about this story, and found it overrun with trolls anonymously posting the most offensive slurs imaginable about Indians. here's a couple where just the title of the message suffices:

MINORITIES COPYING FROM JEWS
and
USA WAS PEACEFUL BEFORE INDIANS CAME

apparently, what many of these trolls are worked up about is that some of the victims of the shooting, teachers perhaps, were caucasian.

this was my post, destined to be drowned out by the clamoring of a playground for trolls:

AP

it's outrageous that a "law enforcement source, on condition of anonymity," would leak the name of a juvenile suspect, and that AP would see fit to publish it. what happened to privacy? why doesn't AP name this public-minded anonymous source, so we can all give him the *gratitude* he deserves?

incidentally, the terms of service for this message board claim that *hateful, or racially, or otherwise objectionable* messages may be removed. i guess yahoo must have a narrow definition of hateful, judging by the messages it's allowing here.

Sun Hudson followup

2005-03-27T21:58:00.000-08:00

The physician-in-chief of Texas Children's Hospital and a bioethicist at Baylor Medical College jointly published in the Houston Chronicle a rather self-serving, condescending, and possibly misleading justification of their decision to disconnect a baby boy from a ventilator. the full text can be found at this URL:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3103113

The following excerpt seems mostly factual: (i say seems because i have no medical training)

Little Sun Hudson was born with a defect so overwhelming that most infants with it die before they are born or at birth. The name of his disease — thanatophoric dysplasia — literally means death-bearing. His lungs and his rib cage were tiny and there is no medical treatment that would allow them to grow so that he could someday breathe on his own. Keeping him on a ventilator meant keeping him anes- thetized. He never had a chance at real life.

The rest of the editorial strongly implies that any parent in full possession of her senses would choose euthanasia for a baby thus afflicted.

So I did what a curious, net-savvy person might be expected to do when confronted with an unfamiliar medical term: I googled it. The first site that turned up, eMedicine.com, had this to say:

Mortality/Morbidity: Although the literature documents several reports of survival into childhood, TD virtually is always lethal in the neonatal period. Respiratory insufficiency secondary to reduced thoracic capacity or compression of the brainstem leads to death.

Sex: Males and females are affected equally.

Age: TD is lethal in neonates; however, long-term survival has been reported.

Not quite the death sentence the Hospital administration portrayed. eMedicine gives a frequency of 1 case per 10,000-35,000 live births. I also doubt that eMedicine has a pro-life bias. Here's what it says under Patient Education:

If a fetus is affected by TD and if the pregnancy has proceeded past the period during which a therapeutic abortion can take place, discuss aggressive and nonaggressive management frankly with the parents.

Elsewhere, it implies that nonaggressive management consists of palliative treatment. The eMedicine article, which I believe is merely stating current medical practice as opposed to advocating any particular approach, can be accessed here:
http://www.emedicine.com/PED/topic2233.htm

extraordinary measures

2005-03-25T11:51:00.000-08:00

I was reading about the case of a 6 month old boy named Sun Hudson, who died last week after being disconnected from life support against the wishes of his penniless mother, under the provisions of the Texas law on "Advance Directives" signed in 1999 by then governor G. W. Bush.
[ The law itself can be found at the following URL:
http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/docs/HS/content/htm/hs.002.00.000166.00.htm

and an article on the case is at this URL:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3084934
]

I don't have the time to go through the statute and try to make sense of it, but I do note that it seems to list both "Artificial nutrition and hydration" and "mechanical breathing machines" in the category of "artificial life support." Here's an illustrative paragraph:

(10) "Life-sustaining treatment" means treatment
that, based on reasonable medical judgment, sustains the life of a
patient and without which the patient will die. The term includes
both life-sustaining medications and artificial life support, such
as mechanical breathing machines, kidney dialysis treatment, and
artificial nutrition and hydration. The term does not include the
administration of pain management medication or the performance of
a medical procedure considered to be necessary to provide comfort
care, or any other medical care provided to alleviate a patient's
pain.

It puzzles me that there's been no outcry over this case as there has been in the Terri Schiavo case. As I understand it, many people consider an assisted breathing apparatus to be an extraordinary measure while a feeding tube isn't, but it troubles me that this sort of semantic hair-splitting can govern a life-or-death medical decision. How much difference does it make to an infant whether he chokes to death or starves to death? And might the outcome have been different if Texas Children's Hospital hadn't barred the media on the pretext of protecting privacy? Here's what his mother had to say about this:

"I wanted y'all to see my son for yourself," Hudson told reporters. "So you could see he was actually moving around. He was conscious."

[after i wrote the preceding, another alarming possibility came to mind. so i googled "sun hudson" & black, and found any number of blogs pointing out that mother & child were black. does that account in part for lack of public and media interest?]

new kid on the block

2005-03-14T09:58:00.000-08:00

for the reader who doesn't know personally the individual calling himself yitwail, i must provide a little background information to put this blog entry in a proper context. in conventional terms, i'm the owner of a Goffin Cockatoo (also called a Tanimbar Corella by some pedants). The goffin is the smallest true cockatoo, not to be confused with cockatiels, which have some cockatoo-like traits, but are much smaller, with much shorter life-spans and little if any talking ability.

without further ado, making a long story short, cutting to the chase, and other forms of beating around the bush, Maury, our goffin, is about to become a big brother. in a few weeks, our household will welcome a new arrival, a Meyer's Parrot. for some time, my partner & i were pondering acquiring another bird to provide more stimulation & companionship to Maury, who is a delightful character most of the time, but can become loud and ornery at times as a way of seeking attention we think.

on our way to LA to attend a concert, we dropped off Maury at the bird shop for one night of lodging, and visited some of the birds on display like we normally do, when a little parrot flew off its perch and practically landed at my feet. i managed to coax him/her to step up onto my finger, and was immediately struck by the beautiful plumage and its composure, considering i had just scared it off its perch. once i got him/her back on the perch, and called my parter JM over to have a look, i examined the sign hanging over the perch, and although i'd never heard of a meyer's parrot, i was impressed by a surprisingly low price, and a surprisingly long life span for such a small bird. it turned out he/she was still being handfed, and so hadn't reached full size, but it looked mature because it didn't have the patchy feathers sticking out from the head in all directions look that many young parrots have. i also understand that its feathers are going to change color a bit as it matures. one final intriguing tidbit of information about this little being is that it hatched on Christmas day of 2004.

when we talked to the store staff about the bird, we found out it had a hatchmate that had already been sold. at that point, i decided impulsively to buy the bird. afterwards, i did some research on meyer's parrots, and learned that they might be just about the ideal pet parrot, for anyone not needing a bird with spectacular plumage or talking ability. actually, the meyer's has extremely beautiful plumage, but it's much too small to be called spectacular, and they're accomplished mimics that can talk, but they also have highly desirable traits of their own, such as a pleasant disposition, making quiet, pleasant sounds, and an endearing fondness for lying on its back with its feet in the air.

the biggest uncertainty facing the new arrival is how he/she will get along with Maury. they'll have separate cages, because Maury's cage is a little too large for a Meyer's, but we hope they'll enjoy spending time together when we let them out. i'll be happy to provide a foto or two if requested, once the baby's weaned and moved into new digs.

million dollar spoiler

2005-03-03T16:30:00.000-08:00

thanks to an editorial cartoon i saw the other day, i already know the conclusion to the film million dollar baby without having seen it. the director, clint eastwood, has been criticized for taking a controversial moral stance, whereas he absolves himself by pointing out that he merely follows the plot of the short story by writer f.x. toole on which the film is based. a compromise could have left the conclusion open-ended, with a character agonizing over a moral quandary, but perhaps that would have been an artistic copout. in any event, changing the ending to a happy, noncontroversial one would have diminished the film. note that i have studiously avoided directly mentioning what the controversy is about, lest i give away the ending to someone still thinking of seeing it.

i'm unsure myself whether i will see it. it's been many years since i was addicted to watching sports on tv, and when i first cut back on my viewing i started with boxing, because i found it morally problematic. that shouldn't keep me from watching a fictional representation, but it does make me look toward alternative films.

meanwhile, back in america

2005-02-28T12:53:00.000-08:00

the jeff gannon story, or non-story given the lack of media coverage:

http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=65&contentid=1941

it's mostly smoke, undoubtedly, but it seems like an awful lot of smoke. leftist, as opposed to liberal, ie. mainstream, media are having a field day with this one, hoisting various self-proclaimed christian media watchdogs with the petard of hypocrisy, given their propensity to work themselves to a lather over issues like the supposed gayness of cartoon characters such as Sponge Bob and Buster Bunny.

incidentally, i've tried numerous ways of putting in a clickable link to the web page i referenced, but none of them worked. :(

on an unrelated topic, audrey on the apprentice coined a new word when she decribed another contestant's remarks as demeaningful. that's not quite as comic as the earlier occasion when brian stated, "You gotta be tough in business or you'll be cut by the juggler," but brian was probably one of a kind.

trip report

2005-02-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

resuming the blog after a vacation hiatus with a sentence fragment. for ease of composition & comprehension, i may break up my report into sections, in which case this will be the first of several parts.

this latest vacation was my most ambitious yet, involving two main destinations, pohnpei in micronesia and tokyo, japan, plus a brief side visit in the vicinity of nara, japan, over roughly two weeks. considering all the logistics, the trip went amazingly smoothly. for the long flights between LAX & narita, japan, we managed to get bulkhead and exit row seating, meaning 1st class legroom in economy class, thanks to singapore airlines' online checkin. singapore air's meals were xlnt by economy standards, their inflight entertainment was better than ever--dozens of films and around 100 cds to choose from--and they provided a great beverage selection, from which we sampled the non-alcoholic fruit spritzer, and the spiked singapore sling that tasted just like punch. weather was fine, as well, except for intermittent rain on one day in pohnpei; in particular, japan was much milder than i expected it to be; and as my constant reader, FG knows, i coincidentally missed some stormy weather back home in southern calif. we also had good to xlnt food basically every day of the trip.

the biggest surprise of the trip was our 2 stopovers in guam. people seemed genuinely friendly there, and from what we picked up in conversation with them, it appears guam has way lower cost of living and housing than hawaii, the other US tropical paradise. given our propensity for travel, and guam's relative closeness and ease of access to numerous Pacific rim destinations, such as australia, indonesia, hong kong, and japan, we're seriously considering guam as our retirement, or even relocation, destination. the only drawback, and it is a significant one, is the frequency & intensity of typhoons there.

the other big surprise was snorkeling. i had tried this with little success in two earlier trips to jamaica and australia, but gave it another shot in pohnpei, given that it's one of the main recreational activities there. i had some difficulty the first time in keeping water out of my snorkel, but i got the knack, or else a better snorkel, the next time, and had great views of numerous tropical fish & corral. i even managed to tread water at one point. the remarkable aspect to all this is that i'm basically a non-swimmer, but i will be a swimmer by the next time we visit a tropical destination. oh btw, another attraction of guam is the presence of reefs; it may not be a renowned snorkeling/diving spot, but it should suffice between trips to the spots in nearby micronesia.

this does it for part 1. part 2 to follow as time permits.

word for the lexically inclined

2005-02-10T16:16:00.000-08:00

floccinaucinihilipilification

far be it from me to spoil the reader's pleasure by providing a definition. but if you need a hint, it's something i tend to do.

taxation

2005-02-09T09:05:00.000-08:00

Scraping the bottom of the barrel of topics, I found something amusing in filing my tax return. I've used TurboTax for years. One of its idiosyncracies is a rebate that covers the cost of eFiling the federal return--idiosyncratic, to the extent they make you pay first, then get a rebate for the same amount, instead of the more efficient alternative of simply letting you file one return for free, but perhaps it's an IRS requirement, which wouldn't surprise me too much, given that government agencies are not always characterized by efficiency. (to give an actual example of IRS inefficiency, I watched a cable show yesterday that detailed the Mustang Ranch fiasco, when the IRS seized a legal Nevada brothel and tried to first sell it, then tried running it, and finally sold it for less than it could have collected in the first place by settling with the original owner, who turned out to be a silent partner with the firm that wound up buying it at about 1/4 the price the IRS originally wanted.)

this year, Intuit, the firm that manufactures TurboTax, streamlined the rebate process a bit by providing an online rebate form, which you fill out online, but then need to print it and mail it rather than merely submitting it online--another IRS requirement perhaps? Anyway, I'm about to print the form, and the second line of the form says, in bold type: "Print this page prior to mailing." Maybe the IRS required it, to prevent people mailing in an envelope with nothing in it?

quitting while ahead quizwise

2005-02-02T17:21:00.000-08:00

I am 3% Idiot.

I am not annoying at all. In fact most people come to me for advice. Of course they annoy the hell out of me. But what can I do? I am smarter than most people.

Take the
Idiot Test
@ FualiDotCom

I am 24% Asshole/Bitch.

I am not an asshole or a bitch, more like an asshole and bitch target. I have no backbone, and fold at even a slightly insincere look. I need to stop crying, I am such a wuss.

Take the
Asshole/Bitch Test
@ FualiDotCom

quiz-a-thon update

2005-01-26T13:05:00.000-08:00

this'll help me decide when to start collecting social security, assuming social security stays solvent long enough. a female acquaintance received a time of death estimate of 79 from the same quiz. i'd like to see some more results, for comparison purposes--not that i attach much significance to this result; for instance, it doesn't take into account a nutritional supplement i'm taking that's proven to prolong life in rats.

i sent email to the test makers suggesting 2 enhancements: a median predicted age for each gender, and a correlation computation for fatal test & nerd test scores.

for anyone not math or social science savvy, correlation is a number between -1.0 and 1.0, with -1.0 and 1.0 being perfect negative and positive correlation, respectively, and 0 being no correlation. 0 correlation does not mean that 2 things never happen at the same time, which is perfect negative correlation; rather, it means 2 things happen together 1/2 the time. to conclude with a familiar example, heavy smoking and lung cancer have high correlation, say 0.7 or 0.8, but it couldn't be 1.0, not only because it doesn't always cause cancer, but because a heavy smoker could die from other causes, not just disease, but also accidents, foul play, suicide, and so on, before developing cancer.

incidentally, i found an interesting discussion of the smoking/cancer correlation here:
http://www.journaloftheoretics.com/Editorials/Vol-1/e1-4.htm
the correlation might be lower than i thought; on the other hand, this article overstates things the other way, because a smoker who dies in a car accident at a young age doesn't prove that smoking doesn't cause cancer, yet the statistics he uses includes such people among the ranks of smokers that don't develop cancer.

slightly nerdy

2005-01-25T10:55:00.000-08:00

found this on another blog, while indulging my Apprentice fixation. interesting that one of the items on the test you can take by clicking asks you to predict your nerd score, from non-nerd to KING NERD, and slightly nerdy was my prediction, which was fairly accurate. i could have gotten a higher score by not answering all the questions honestly, i think, but i think it's pointless to do so.

incidentally, i was googling a classic remark attributed to brian of street smarts/net worth, that the other team would be "cut by the juggler", when i stumbled upon the nerd score test.

tv

2005-01-21T13:21:00.000-08:00

the tv happened to be tuned to the apprentice, so i watched most of it, mostly on account of an over-the-top character by the name of danny kastner--a legend in his own mind, no doubt, and gathering a following if the comments posted to his blog at kastner.com are genuine. i posted some not so gushing commentary there myself; i invite you to take a look and see if you can spot it. if mr. k is the intelligent, albeit deficient in common sense, fellow he appears to be, perhaps i'll get a reply to my comments.

green laser

2005-01-05T10:23:00.000-08:00

The blog's been neglected while i attended to more immediate and pressing matters, but I feel compelled to respond to an act of incredible lunacy being perpertrated by the government, to wit, the arrest of a New Jersey man under the Patriot Act for shining a laser at a Cessna and a helicopter. If the FBI had actually tried to verify the man's explanation, that he was using a device purchased on the Internet for $100 to point out stars to his daughter, it should have been immediately apparent, as it is to me, that he's telling the truth. Anybody who's an astronomy buff, as I am, is aware that such devices have been openly sold as observation aids, with warnings not to shine them at planes. The difficulty is in anticipating the arrival of a small plane at an alititude of 3000 feet in time to point the laser elsewhere, if the plane happens to fly into the area of sky where the laser was already pointing at. And for this infraction, a man had to post $150,000 bail and faces a 25 year sentence and a $500,000 fine.

why agnostic

2004-11-30T17:43:00.000-08:00

A reader asked me to post my objections to religious belief. I object most to monotheism, so I will limit myself to Christianity, the form of monotheism I am most familiar with. I am simply unwilling to worship a deity that sentences all non-believers to eternal punishment. Most societies mete out punishments to offenders that are proportional to the severity of the offense. Evidently, there is no graver offense against Yahweh than lack of belief. But unless I am mistaken, one can also be condemned to eternal punishment for other grave sins, and I think it's just that evil-doers be punished in the afterlife if they avoided punishment in life. The question then becomes, why such a severe punishment for the non-violent, victimless offense of non-belief? Why should Bertrand Russell, to name one atheist, and Adolph Hitler receive the identical punishment? It seems irrational to me that genocide be treated the same as skepticism.

seventh commandment

2004-11-25T08:50:00.000-08:00

Reading a number of gloating, self-congratulatory letters to the editor from presumed conservatives, in the wake of election results that pundits credited to the perception of the GOP as being more attuned to the values of mainstream America, I was inspired to hoist these proponents of values by their own petards, so to speak, and point out the inconsistency of posing as defenders of the institution of marriage while having a known adulterer, Rudy Giuliani, as speaker at the nominating convention. Although I may be a liberal, I eschew self-righteousness, yet it amazes me that Giuliani has been mentioned as a GOP presidential candidate 4 years hence. I hope he will be the nominee; it would prove that the GOP will nominate anyone as long as he or she can win. Being an ex-alcoholic didn't disqualify Bush, so why should adultery? Maybe Ted Kennedy can be the opponent, so the decision can be based on policy differences rather than character traits.

quayle sighting

2004-11-19T13:42:00.000-08:00

It's hard to take seriously an organization that lists Dan Quayle as a founder, but when it also includes the likes of Gary Bauer, William Bennett, Jeb Bush, Dick Cheney, Steve Forbes, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, it deserves the consideration of our regard. The organization is not so public as the GOP, nor secretive like Bohemian Grove, but rather an exclusive yet public entity calling itself the Project for the New American Century, generally abbreviated to PNAC. Besides having on its roster all the principle architects of the current Iraq War, its notoriety stems from having argued for military action to oust Saddam Hussein and speculating that a "catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor" would be needed to bring about a transformation of the military to exploit the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) long before 9/11. Rich fodder indeed for conspiracy buffs and acronym addicts, but also a source of insight into the mentality of our newly re-elected leaders.

To see the memorable "Pearl Harbor" phrase in full context, click on
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
and jump to page 63 in the pdf file, which is actually page 51 of the print document.

If I may end on an off-topic note, I am seriously running short of topics for the blog. So readers, if there are any, I encourage you to suggest topics I could discuss; otherwise, I may have to delve into personal topics, which may be of little interest to anyone besides myself, not to mention causing me discomfort in discussing.

for the record

2004-11-12T09:29:00.000-08:00

The blog is running out of steam. So, lest any readers lose interest altogether, I'll follow-up some recent posts by explaining the rationale behind my positions. Personally, I'm pro-life: I oppose both abortion, with 3 exceptions, and the death penalty. I say personally, because I have a personal reason for being pro-life: my late Japanese mother was counseled by all her relatives to get an abortion, which is legal in Japan, rather than give birth to me. I'm glad she didn't, even though her relatives were correct in thinking her marriage to a GI would not work out.

There is an inconsistency in having voted for the proposition establishing embyronic stem-cell research in California. However, as long as fertility treatments create embryos that are viable, yet aren't implanted in the womb, because they generally create more than needed to compensate for the eggs that don't develop properly, the only strictly pro-life protocol is to freeze the surplus embryos, with the possibility that they be implanted later on. But realistically, it's unlikely all such embryos will be implanted eventually, in which case I don't see a real difference between permanently freezing versus discarding an embryo. As a matter of fact, I would guess embryo-freezing is hardly standard procedure right now, although I haven't checked into it. So, why not use the embryos being merely discarded to improve the lives of people suffering from incurable medical conditions? I have a personal reason for my position, as well. One of my fiancee's brothers is a quadraplegic, and he wants this research to be undertaken, even though the chance that he will personally benefit from it is nil.

for a more detailed discussion of the frozen embryo dilemma, look here:
http://www.religioustolerance.org/res_stem2.htm

a modest proposition

2004-11-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

Reading about remarks by Jim DeMint, newly elected Senator from S. Carolina, that single, pregnant women should not teach in private schools, and recalling passage in California of DNA testing of all felons, I put 1 + 1 together and was all set to write a parody on the lines of Swift's Modest Proposal, suggesting collection of DNA from all South Carolina men, in order to determine paternity of all children born to single mothers, and requiring them to marry the father, if unmarried, or requiring the father to provide child support if already married. Alas, Senator DeMint is not so easily ridiculed. He objected to pregnant women with live-in boyfriends, thus making DNA paternity testing over-kill for the purposes of excluding from the classroom teachers whose morals he disapproves of. Why pregnant women without live-in boyfriends are acceptable, I'm not sure, but perhaps he wishes to allow single teachers pregnant because of rape to teach without getting an abortion, which Senator DeMint opposes, naturally.

And I thought I was going to be famous for making this proposal, or even proposition if need be. I even worked out the cost issue; if a woman refuse to name the boyfriend, she pays for all the DNA tests required; likewise, if the bf refuses, but tests show he's the one, he pays. Chances are, tests won't be necessary most times, both parties voluntarily accepting responsibility for their hanky panky; there would be no illegitimate children; and abortions would decline because men won't get a free ride for knocking up women.

the reality-based community

2004-11-08T18:10:00.000-08:00

Had no idea there was such a thing, or that I was a member of it, until today. But now I've read the NY Times article of 10/17/04 by Ron Suskind where the phrase was introduced. It's too bad it can't be read from the nytimes.com without paying a fee. I have an academic account that allowed me to read it via lexis-nexis. For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to those who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality," whereas the unnamed senior White House staffer claims, "That's not the way the world really works anymore. We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality...We're history's actors...and you, all of you (members of the 'reality-based community', that is) will be left to just study what we do." Seems that somebody at the White House is taking post-modernism too seriously.

post checkup

2004-11-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

Been neglecting my blog, not that anything momentous has happened. But following up an earlier blog, I've decided to follow doctor's advice and not fret over my cholesterol. As he pointed out, my heart's perfectly healthy, based on high-tech imaging done not so long ago. Also, total cholesterol is so high mainly because it includes about 130mg HDL, which is way above normal, so my LDL is just borderline, and my tri-glicerides are well below normal. And lastly, I feel fine physically.

Besides quick visits to Zoo & Wild Animal Park, where the new Lion Camp was a hilite, the most notable thing I did was read a novel by an author previously unknown to me, Lee Child. The novel, Running Blind, was a quick read. It started with a bang, ended in a whimper, was generally well-written, but a bit too implausible for my taste. I might still try another novel by him, in case he had an off-day with this one, because he has an uncommon gift for creating tension.

irony

2004-11-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

It appears Christian and Muslim fundamentalists are united in their hatred of homosexuality, making it a good thing that they disagree on everything else; otherwise, we might witness the first ever genocide based on sexual orientation. In case any homophobes are reading this, I happen to be 100% heterosexual, and 100% tolerant. In any event, I'm agnostic so I'm not worried about how my condoning private behavior between consenting adults affects my chances in the after-life. If fundamentalist beliefs are correct, then I know I will be condemned to eternal hell-fire. I just hope I will be permitted to live a natural lifespan before I face whatever judgement awaits me.

a diagnosis

2004-11-05T10:47:00.000-08:00

Had one of my irregularly scheduled medical checkups this morning, and received a clean bill of health with one exception: my cholesterol is high, around 280mg. It was under 230 at the previous checkup. The MD said it was genetics, but I'm puzzled how I could lose 10 pounds while gaining that much cholesterol. We had a little side conversation about dietary supplements, and I found out something I didn't know, to wit, Human Growth Hormone must be injected, not ingested, to be effective. If you take it orally, your digestion breaks it down into amino acids. I don't take HGH. I asked his opinion of what I do take, a combination of Alpha Lipoic Acid and Acetyl-L-carnitine, and he basically told me that there wasn't enough data to conclude how effective this regimen is in slowing down aging.

NEXT BLOG>>>

2004-11-04T15:41:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting with the link that presumably displays a randomly chosen blog. Can't say I found anything tremendously interesting, but I did come across one that tried repeatedly to infect my system with a virus. Nasty. At least it wasn't a high-school misfit with a hitlist.

There was a high-school kid, evidently taking advanced pre-calc, kvetching about having to learn about inverse functions. I thought of posting a reply to his?/her? question, why do you need to learn something you'll never use, but the blog only accepts comments from team members. But you, dear reader, could be privvy to my thoughts on the question, if you just ask politely in a comment. This blog has no restrictions on reader comments.

2004-11-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

from my travels, a namesake

I've succeeded in inserting a jpeg, but what I wanted to do is have a graphic that goes with the blog rather than a particular post. It's a good start, at any rate.

postmortem

2004-11-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

I had the slight satisfaction, if you can call it that, of writing to Rev. Byron Williams, a commentator who's featured in workingforchange.com, about his prediction of a landslide. Perhaps he'll buck the trend set by Molly Ivins & Pete O'Neal and actually respond to my email, who knows. In hindsight, I suppose I should have seen this coming. I must have been relying too much on newly registered, young voters to make a difference in the outcome. Kerry's strategy of attacking Iraq policy still seems correct to me, but the solution he proposed of holding summits was rather weak, a near admission that he doesn't have answers but he's hoping someone else has a good plan.

Locally, California passed the initiative on stem-cell research, and elsewhere, Colorado elected a Hispanic senator. Otherwise, I'm not thrilled with yesterday's election results.

( late Addendum: Rev. Williams did respond to me. We disagree about inaccurate predictions diminishing one's credentials as a critic, but it was a nice note.)

((final addendum: I just realized Ralph Nader hasn't conceded yet. Maybe there's some hope left.))

long day's journey into pst

2004-10-31T11:22:00.000-08:00

A case of doldrums coming on. I did have a pleasant time at the zoo yesterday. On the way to the zoo, gave a buck to an old guy playing saxophone. I pointed out my live at the village vanguard shirt to him; turned out he's a former New Yorker. Odd that people are drawn to extremes; for example, I think that the most popular zoo animals are either quite large, or small, but not medium. One of the medium small animals, a Coatimundi, was puttin' on a show, spinning its wheel: think of a hamster wheel magnified about 30 times. I'm not immune to the draw of the diminutive: I spent much time marveling at a quail from Madagascar not much larger than a weaver bird, which in turn isn't much larger than a sparrow.

the more things change

2004-10-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

As I expected, my recent post in the alt.support.social-phobia newsgroup has received no response. In a similar vein, I've recently sent email to Roger Ebert, Pete O'Neal (the panther in Africa), and commented on an article by one Dyske Suematsu, with the same result. I have almost as little luck trying to establish electronic communications with people as I once did answering personal ads. The brush-off from Pete O'Neal is the most disappointing, since I donated $30 to his organization.

sympathy for o'reilly

2004-10-29T10:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a note I emailed to Bill O'Reilly today.

mr. or,

i think you & michael jackson should start a support group for celebrities who get shaken down by extortionists aided and abetted by witch-hunting media & shysters.

must say i'm a trite disappointed in your newfound pacifism. or perhaps it's compassion, you couldn't bear to see this confused young woman being exposed to the whole world as a gold-digging b****. so noble of you to renounce forever the chance to proclaim your innocence and reclaim your good name.

with guys like you, limbaugh, and bill bennett, what more could a liberal ask for? keep up the good work fellas.

text

2004-10-28T15:41:00.000-07:00

I once had an English professor, who had TEXT tattooed on her person (at least, that's what she told us in class.) One of my great pleasures in life is being absorbed in a book. The last time this happened was Stephen King's Dark Tower vol. 7. It may be the literary equivalent of retro/nostalgia on a par with classic rock, but I rely on writers I've read & loved. Alas, many of them are deceased. Perhaps it's a sign of age when your favorite musicians and writers are mainly defunct. One of my fave writers who's still alive, Lawrence Block, quoted the late comedian George Burns, as quipping, "when you're my age, most of your friends are dead." Well, I haven't reached that point, yet.

I'm going to shift focus to the future and mention that my upcoming trip to Pohnpei was largely the result of reading The Island of the Color Blind by Dr. Oliver Sacks. I strongly recommend his chapter on Pohnpei to anyone who wishes to understand my fascination with this place.

molly ivins, et al.

2004-10-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

Following up on a topic from yesterday's *innaugural* post, I see Molly Ivins just predicted a Kerry victory. I wonder if she'll withdraw the prediction when she finds out that the 370 tons of missing explosives Kerry's been pounding Bush on might have been removed before US forces ever got to the facility where they were housed. Still, as predictions go, it's not as dubious as the landslide predicted by another columnist at workingforchange.com. I can't wait to send him an email on that one.

to begin with, a hodge-podge

2004-10-27T17:00:00.000-07:00

I visited alt.support.social-phobia a short while back by way of google. After looking over a few recent posts, I decided to post a reply to one. Using google to post to newsgroups requires waiting for a few hours before it gets displayed in google. I assume that's how long it takes for google's archiving to catch up, but who knows. Tomorrow, I will check and see if my post gets more than the usual response, which is to say zilch.

I can expound on my social phobia if anyone who reads this is interested. You could also search in a.s.s-p for catimp or yitwail to read all my posts.

Since I mentioned travel in my intro, I'll drop some place names: Jamaica, Australia, England, California, New York, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Japan. These are some of the places I've visited or lived in the last few years. Early next year, I will be visiting Pohnpei in Micronesia. The next person I meet who knows this Pohnpei instead of the one buried by a volcano in Italy will be the first person I've met who knew about it. :)

I keep up with events, mostly through Yahoo! News. I also take a look once in a while at Workingforchange.com, for a mostly left-wing take on the news. One thing that bothers me about the leftwingers at Workingforchange.com--many of whom seem to be affiliated with an organization called creator's syndicate, sounds fundamentalist, but probably anything but--is that they're as arrogant as I imagine rightwing commentators to be. Take Molly Ivins, for one: she rips the administration, but won't bother answering me when I send email critiquing one of her columns. Now that I have a blog, perhaps she won't dare brush me off again. :)

Any one else disheartened by our choices for president? There's no stronger evidence of the weakness of the Democratic ticket than the fact that there's a close race. With all the mismanagement of the war in Iraq, the dems should be a shoo-in. I have nothing against Kerry, but I really can't tolerate John Edwards or Elizabeth Edwards. Those two are so insensitive, it's amazing they're not part of some reality show like the Apprentice or American Idol.

That's all for now, but plenty more to come, so come back soon.