Snoops Oops

They were accused on the Senate floor. Their big boss testified and denied. And now they have admitted.

"CIA officials improperly hacked the Senate Intelligence Committee’s computers as staffers compiled a report on “enhanced interrogation” techniques, the spy agency’s inspector general has concluded."

On second thought,
we hadn't ought,
but we did it,
and then we hid it.

It was all a dumb mistake,
so won't you please... give us a break?

Hoi Paloi [sic]

Lois Lerner emails keep popping up. She sounds cranky. She wrote from England:

"I was going to take the train to windsor Castle, but stuff closes early in winter so it wasn't going to work. Instead, went [to] Hempstead –an Edwardian English village, full of beautiful, huge houses – which have been ruined by letting the hoi paloi [sic] live there! These people have ruined everything with their equality push!"

Some elite. Can't even spell hoi polloi right.

If you want to seem very bright,
by mocking the common folk,
be sure to spell "hoi polloi" right,
or you may just look like a joke.

Benign Neglect

Reason Magazine has a good headline for a bad situation:

No Child Left Outside: Another Mom Arrested for Letting Kid Play in Park

Another busybody made powerful by the local police, if you ask me. The charge, of course, was child neglect.

Vague laws confine the child.
Enforcement allowed to run wild.

Training Run

When choosing a distance,
I felt inspired.

Now, due to persistence,
I do feel tired.

Recruited

Today, one of the lifeguards at the pool was recruiting me for a big Masters Swimming competition put on by the Chicago Park District in January. I was flattered. I don't think I'm very fast. At triathlons, I am never in the lead pack. But he saw I could swim all 4 racing strokes, and I think he wants me to do Individual Medley. Maybe it's hard to get 60-year-olds to swim butterfly. Actually, that's the stroke he thinks I should work on improving. He gave me a drill to do. Butterfly was the last stroke I learned - in my forties I think - and I guess I've still got some learning to do!

I remember paying for individual lessons, one on one. Butterfly is just the sort of thing I have trouble learning - a complex set of simultaneous steps. If I overthink it, I get analysis paralysis. At least until I practice a lot.

Hopefully, if I practice his drill,
soon my butterfly will kill.

Fudging

A Forbes columnist writes:

"Gruber really does have one of the greatest empirical minds in health economics. When he’s not wearing his advocacy hat, I pretty much take what he says as gospel."

His inclination to truthfulness
depends on what he wears.

When there's a scholarly hood on his head
believe whatever he swears.

But when his fedora says "advocate",
take all with a grain of salt.

And blame it, please, upon the hat.
The fudging's not his fault!

Closer

I went to see Closer, which was put on by the Spartan Theatre Company. The play is contemporary, bleak in outlook, but does keep you guessing.

As one reviewer says:

"The plot of “Closer” is quite straightforward, involving four characters – Dan, a witty, albeit failed novelist; Larry, a kind-hearted doctor; Anna, a talented photographer; and Alice, a troubled ex-stripper – whose romantic lives do not so much intersect as collide violently, with all the seedy undercurrents bubbling to the surface in one way or another."

The pacing as tense. As the lady sitting next to me said at intermission: "I think I've been holding my breath the whole time." My sense is that the production is stronger than the play itself. I haven't actually read the play, and I have not seen the movie version either.

All 4 actors were strong, but if I had to pick a favorite, it was Brianne Duncan Fiore, as Anna, the character closest to sane in the show. One reviewer mentioned her "honest intensity" which strikes me as the quality that I admired about her performance. "Honesty in acting" is one of those paradoxical concepts, of course. But whatever it may be, she had it going on.

It's a form of art
where you step into a part
and then tug the viewer's heart.

In A Fix

In sunny California:

"On the same day the state approved mandatory outdoor watering restrictions with the threat of $500 fines, the Southern California couple received a letter from their city threatening a $500 penalty for not watering their brown lawn."

Caught in a bind.
Either way they're fined!

I suggest a fiendish feint:
Spray your lawn with greenish paint!

Poetry Discussion

Led an interesting Socratic seminar at my wife's Great Connections program. We talked about poetry - an article of mine, a poem by Badger Clark, and a poem by William Blake.

We did not get to our final poem, by Emily Dickinson.

Time ran away with William Blake
(a gross breach of propriety)
and so we missed our chance to take
a certain soul's Society.

Luminescent

A firefly coolly accentuates 

my yard while searching for hot dates.

Intimate Apparel

I went to see Intimate Apparel, which is reportedly Lynn Nottage's most popular play.

Liked it, didn't love it. Well acted, but some characters who should have had chemistry... didn't seem to have enough. Last night was opening night, so maybe they were just nervous. That can throw things off.

I admired a lot of things about the heroine, an enterprising seamstress of ladies' undergarments in early 20th century New York.

I was kind of waiting for something at the end - and I missed it. Today I looked at the script, at the library - and there it was. The stage directions have the heroine make a certain gesture, which informs you of a new fact, which lends a sense of completion to the play. Anyway, I missed it last night.

Did the actress not make the gesture, or not make it "big" enough... or did I blink?

I was in the front row,
but I really don't know.

Rock'n'roll Half

That's my every-finisher-gets-a-medal bling from this morning's half-marathon. I dithered over whether to do this race or a half-marathon yesterday evening. Finally I decided this course was more fun - and better supported - and would be 10 degrees cooler - and was therefore worth the extra money.

There were some fun live bands and DJs along the way. There were at least 12,000 finishers. I did see a few people being treated for medical problems along the way. I hope everyone's okay.

The course went right by the downtown building where I work every day. I resisted the urge to go in and get some stuff done!

I achieved my goal,
which was not to fall in a hole.

Dream Laboratory

I went to see the latest incarnation of Anna In The Darkness at the Dream Theatre Company's new space, which they are calling Dream Laboratory. It's a smaller space, but plenty big enough to put on a show, and there was a lot of audience with me. So I'm thinking that means the neighborhood is actually a better one for putting on shows.

It's a one-woman show performed by Megan Merrill, who is a real trouper. At one point, some late-comers arrived, and Megan managed to find them seats while performing. She did this while remaining in character, of course. It actually "worked" because the piece, like most one-person shows, punches holes in the fourth wall.

When there's no one else up on stage,
you look out and try to engage.

Silent Treatment

Bowe Bergdahl is the American soldier who was recently released by the Taliban in a trade for 5 of their own. His parents were happy at first, but now they're not so happy. One of his mother's friends says:

'"She puts on a smile but you can tell she's suffering in all this," O'Neill said, without offering an explanation for why Bergdahl had not spoken to his parents. "She doesn't understand – how could any mother understand? – why her child literally won't take her phone calls."'

If I had to guess, he's ashamed. I'm not even saying he's necessarily right to be ashamed. But some captors go out of their way to humiliate you, to crush your spirit, to make you feel that you have betrayed your deepest loyalties. It can be hard to face your parents after that.

Of course, to his mom, he's still her little boy,
and she can't understand why he doesn't call her with joy.

Plane Down

Not comforting:

"It's pretty scary to consider that three fighting forces in the area—Russian government forces, Ukrainian government forces, and separatist rebels—have the technology that could have taken down the airliner."

But... is that really 3 fighting forces? Or just 2?

Just how separable are the Russians and the pro-Russian separatists?

It's one more way to die in a plane...
Maybe next time I'll just take the train.

But, then again, trains have been targets too.
Staying home might be the smart thing to do.

But, houses have also been known to go boom.
So I'll just dig a hole and await certain doom!

Six Californias

There's a proposal, which is getting publicity, to split California into 6 separate states.

'The quixotic effort, spearheaded by venture capitalist Tim Draper, needs officials to deem at least 807,615 of those signatures valid in order to qualify for the November 2016 election.'

Besides being voted on by the Californians themselves... it needs to get through the U.S. Congress.

Perhaps it would be better for Californians. Perhaps their state is too big to manage right now. It would also have some national political impact, inevitably. The area now known as just-plain-California would have 12 U.S. senators instead of 2.

And it would have 10 more electoral votes. But presumably the whole area wouldn't always go for the same presidential candidate.

Finally, someone needs to figure out how to put 55 stars on the flag.

Anticipating success from California's fracturers,
I'm investing in flag manufacturers.

Countercyclical

The weather turns strangely cool
as if it were time to head back to school
instead of a summer day
designed for play.

Death With Archie

The "Life with Archie" comic book is ending. And the authors are killing off Archie, who will take a bullet meant for a gay friend who is a "gun control" advocate.

But...

'Archie will continue to exist in the pages of other Archie Comics, but Goldwater says he wanted the character’s death to be more than just a publicity stunt.'

So, let me say up front,
it's just a publicity stunt
with a political tinge
that makes me cringe.

I'm choosing to move on, to look past this eruption of evil!

Tragic Hero Archie
will meet an end that's gory,
but Comic Hero Archie
will continue with his story.

Geese Mowed Down

In local suburban news:

'A flock of about 20 geese was on 104th Avenue near 159th Street Tuesday morning when a van struck at least three birds and drove away without stopping, said police Lt. Tony Farrell.'

Police want to identify and question the driver. No word on whether they want to charge him (or her) with a crime.

The geese were on busy road where cars travel pretty fast. So let's suppose the collision was an accident. Did the driver have a legal or moral obligation to stop and help these wild animals? How would he have helped them exactly? By calling 911? By calling a vet?

I suppose I would have stopped at least,
but doubt I could have helped the geese.

The Plugged-In Wilderness

Some years ago I was in Virginia, staying with my wife and some friends at a cabin in a valley where there was zero cell phone reception. But we were very near the Appalachian Trail, and I hiked up there, where you had a good view of the surrounding country, and all of a sudden I had a signal.

So I wasn't too surprised to see a story in today's paper about "staying plugged in" while hiking the Appalachian Trail. The story mentions dedicated bloggers who write posts about every blister.

'Laurie Potteiger, spokeswoman for the Appalachian Trail Conservancy' warns that '"Smartphones can steal your eyes away from the beauty around you."'

I like
to hike.

And I am not bored
when I cut the cord.

But I do like being able to connect.
Given a choice, it's what I'll elect.

Not Really A Doctor,

Sunday morning, I was at the ER with a relative who had bronchitis. Nurse asks if I'm a doctor.

This morning, I'm at another hospital for a colonoscopy, and two different people ask me if I work there.

I ought to get a white coat
and work some major fraud...
though maybe I should note
that's been outlawed.

Empirical Enumeration

I gave a census to my senses,
and counted only five.
Some say a sixth is in the mix,
but that, I fear, is jive.

At least... it's yet to arrive.

Delivered

It happened in Cheyenne:

'While the plane sat on the tarmac, pilot Gerhard Bradner called Domino's and ordered 38 pizzas — on his own dime — to be delivered to those stuck onboard waiting out the storm.'

The next time I fly
I hope that this guy
is in charge.

I'd like an extra large.

The Door Shut Behind Him

It's the kind of situation where someone with a medical condition could have a serious problem:

"A man who came to visit his son was accidentally trapped inside an empty maximum security visiting area of Cook County Jail for about 30 hours over the weekend, authorities said on Tuesday."

His son had been moved. He thought he was following directions. But went into the wrong room and a door shut behind him. And it's a room that's not used on the weekends. So no one checked it... and no one could hear him banging on the "concrete door".

30 hours?

Finally, he came up with a solution that worked.

'"Brilliantly, he broke the sprinkler head off which alerted the fire department so they were able to identify where it was coming from and they went in and found him," Smith said.'

In case, by some mistake,
I'm ever in that boat,
I'm making a carfeul note
About the right thing to break.

Quickbooks

Quickbooks Pro 2011 stopped working at one of my client's the other day. I'm still not sure why. It would seem to start... and then would just disappear.

It stopped being "supported" a couple of months ago, so maybe that had something to do with it. I couldn't "repair" it with the original CD, but today I was able to buy a new copy, of the 2014 version, online. And that version installed successfully, after my usual fumbling with "license keys" and so forth.

The online version was like 100 bucks cheaper than the same version in the store. It was "on sale for 2 days only". Well. Did I get very lucky on my timing? Or is it always "on sales for 2 days only" as a marketing gimmick?

Were we lucky it broke just then?
Anyway, it's working again.

Dreaming Up A Mess

A friend asked what Ayn Rand would have had to say about this strange mess we've got at our southern border.

In her life, she often gave answers that surprised me, seizing on details of a situation that struck her as particularly significant. So I kind of wish I could hear what she would have to say.

She was a steady advocate of open immigration. She died before the southern border issue really heated up. I suppose that in response to the "overloaded safety net" argument, she would have recommended removing the so-called safety net, perhaps citing the success of 19th century immigration to this country.

God knows what she would have thought of this fiasco of Central Americans sending their minors across our border. It's one of these "unintended consequences" messes of grand proportions, a result of a very poorly-planned unilateral executive action. I suspect she would have seen both cynical calculation and sentimental altruism at work in the whole DREAM notion of giving amnesty just to children.

She sympathized with people coming here to make a productive life for themselves, but there's something crazy about kids being sent on life-endangering trips across our border.

You drove us into a ditch,
and declared it was only bad luck,
but here's the lingering hitch:
we're still stuck in the muck.

Charitable

The headline says:

Clinton Says She's Donated All University Speaking Fees

And as you get into the story, you find out that she donated the fees to... her family foundation.

Ann Althouse asks a number of relevant questions, including, just for starters: "What is her salary from the foundation?"

The Washington Post reports that her standard fee is hefty:

'In one previously undisclosed transaction, the University of Connecticut — which just raised tuition by 6.5 percent — paid $251,250 from a donor fund for Clinton to speak on campus in April. Other examples include $300,000 to speak at the University of California at Los Angeles in March and $225,000 for a speech scheduled for October at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.'

That's a lot to listen to anyone chatter,
but, at this point, what does it really matter?

Can't Beet This Research

I'm not saying the science is settled, but:

Researchers from the University of Missouri found plants respond to attack. They discovered the sound of caterpillars eating made them more defensive. Plants that heard caterpillar sounds released more mustard oils, which are unappealing to caterpillars and thus ward them off.

I'm going to write a ballad,
about a tragic salad.

Lettuce hope you hear the call,
because some don't carrot all.

No Longer Funny?

The road not taken:

"Katherine Heigl claims 'too many rom-coms' derailed her career"

She thinks she should have done some thrillers instead,
where someone was chasing her... but wanted her dead.

Unable to Verify

This is the sort of thing I work on sometimes, so it interests me:

'The federal Obamacare marketplace was unable to verify nearly 3 million irregularities in the applications for enrollment, according to a new audit by the Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG).'

Irregularities include things like how much income people have, whether they are citizens, where they live, what their social security number is. You know, little things... that have a direct bearing on whether you really qualify and how much you are really supposed to pay.

So, 3 million irregularities, out of 8 million enrollees. Maybe some people have multiple irregularities. But, still a high percentage of ugly steaming confusion.

Partly this is due to the computer system not working as originally envisioned. In that dream, everything would be verified in advance, by marvelous cross-checks to federal databases in the cloud.

Wires got crossed.
Data got lost.
Cookies got tossed.

In Reference To Deference

Megan McArdle writes:

'For the public, this is less a battle about practical outcomes than about who (and what) deserves deference in our society: women, corporations, born-again Christians. This is true of many of the battles that ignite us most passionately these days.'

A slight to one's own faction
will ignite hashtag action.

Hobby Lobby

I wasn't surprised by the Supreme Court decision on the Hobby Lobby case today. I must say, mass media reporting on the actual legal issues was dreadful. Not that I'm an expert. No lawyer am I. But I like reading legal blogs for some reason.

I can see where the owners would be upset that a portion
of their money might go to something they see as abortion.

Power Out

But with my cell

I can blog reasonably well. 

Risk of Rules

Low birth-weight newborns are at higher risk for mortality. The official cut-off for "very low birthweight" is 1,500 grams. If the kid is 1,501 grams, doctors are advised to do less for him than if he were 1,499 grams.

Which results in a paradox:

'Researchers have shown that infants born just above 1,500 grams are more likely to die in the first year of life than those born just below, despite the fact that, in theory, a higher weight should increase an infant’s odds of survival.... In essence, because doctors are not using enough discretion — not acknowledging that infants just above 1,500 grams may be nearly as vulnerable as those below — lives are lost.'

Of course, on top of everything else, 1,500 seems like a suspiciously round number.

When a number seems too round,
I question whether the rule is sound.

Invasive Species: Hippos

You can't really blame the hippos themselves. They didn't mount an invasion. They were imported. But now they have escaped and are on the loose in Colombia.

The importer is described in the article as a "drug baron". As opposed, I suppose, to a "drug czar," who in American lingo is a guy who launches war on drug barons.

"It's just like this crazy wildlife experiment that we're left with," says San Diego University ecologist Rebecca Lewison. "Gosh! I hope this goes well."

It's mentioned in the article, that hippos taste like pork.
So maybe all the Colombians should simply grab a fork.

Meditating on Meditation

The Atlantic has an article about people who are in recovery from... meditation. A lot of people don't like meditation because it bores them to tears. But the people in recovery are people who really liked it, at first, and then found they were obsessed with inner darkness. It takes a lot of forms, one of which is "life loses meaning":

'Everything he had found pleasurable before the retreat—hanging out with friends, playing music, drinking—all of that "turned to dirt," he says, "a plate of beautiful food turned to dirt."'

Why would this be? Could it have anything to do with unacknowledged religious content?

'She explains that the Theravadin Buddhist tradition influences how a large portion of Americans practice meditation, but in it, mindfulness is "about vipassana, a specific type of insight … into the three characteristics of experience." These are also known as the three marks of existence: anicca, or impermanence; dukkha, or dissatisfaction; and anatta, or no-self.'

If you deeply and truly disengage
from all the ache inside  you,
you can find yourself on an empty stage,
with no script left to guide you.

Update, found on Facebook:

Optimistically

They didn't promise me a shirt, because I was a late signer-upper. But I optimistically checked after the race - and they did have some left over.

It's called a Sprint, but it's a quirky set of distances: Swim 1/4 Mile, Bike 13.8 Miles, Run 3.7 Miles. I was on the move for 1 hour 44 minutes.

It was a long drive from my house to Winona Lake, Indiana. About 2 hours with no traffic. The bad news was that I left my house at 3:40 in the morning. The good news was that there was almost no traffic at that time of day.

As the sun came up in North Central Indiana...

Fog rolling over the farmland,
trucks rolling over the road,
triathlon waiting before me,
my brain in groggy mode.

Mr. McQueen's Fall

He takes a dive
but stays alive.

Seatless in Pritzker

Last week they put shiny new furniture in Pritzker Park.

"One obvious reason that many folks haven’t chosen to spend time in Pritzker in the past is that it lacked a proper place to sit. The addition of seating for 40 to 50 people, in the form of large tables with umbrellas, small two-tops, and red plastic lawn chairs, is sure to attract more downtown workers and visitors."

At the link, you can click through to some very nice pictures by John Greenfield. Here are some zoom-ins:




Anyway, this week the furniture is gone again. I am told that's because homeless people, who frequent the park, weaponized the furniture on Saturday night.

That is, they got in a big brawl and were tossing it at each other.

(Cue the old Elton John song, "Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting".)

When furniture isn't nailed down
You never know when some clown
Will clobber someone's head
In the hope of leaving them dead.

The Two Hundred Year Old Tree?

That's the old oak tree - and the electric utility pole - that I wrote about a couple of days ago. I showed the tree to my wife and her guess was that the tree was 2 or 3 hundred years old.

I trust her judgment in botany
so I guess that tree is older than me
maybe by a factor of three.

Back from New Hampshire

I had a fun long weekend at the Atlas Summit in Manchester, NH.

New Hampshire, as everyone who has seen their license plates knows, is the "Live Free Or Die" state.

As a state motto, it was adopted only in 1945. But it has a history.

"The phrase comes from a toast written by General John Stark, New Hampshire's most famous soldier of the American Revolutionary War, on July 31, 1809."

I met a bunch of people involved in the Free State Project, which aims "to recruit at least 20,000 libertarians to move to a single low-population state (New Hampshire, selected in 2003) in order to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas."

They have adopted the porcupine as their mascot:



Less threatening than a venomous snake,
not much inclined to launch an attack,
but still it would be a silly mistake
to put your foot on its prickly back.

Crossbones

I've been watching the new John Malkovich show, Crossbones.

He plays Blackbeard, a pirate much to be feared. 

At a Lecture

...given by Jay Friedenberg, about epigrams. 

Terse is not worse. 

Appearances

If rather look spiffy than iffy. 

Etymology

Latin words for "pigs" & "spines", somehow turned into "porcupines".

The Hundred Year Old Tree

Walking home from the train, there were 4 cherry-picker type trucks from the electric company, 2 sets of 2, and they were working on brand new utility poles - with a lot of men at work.

I inquired and was informed that it was an effort to move an electric line so that it was no longer in touch with a hundred-year-old tree. I said it looked like a big job, and was told that it was also a lot of money.

I told the man that my preference might have been to just trim the tree.

He jokingly told me I was no longer allowed to live in the neighborhood.

The locals always get up in arms when the electric company wants to trim the tree branches near its lines.

You can hug a tree
all day
for free,
but you must pay
for electricity.

Walking Home

The shadow of a butterfly,
flew across the cement.
I did not bother to raise my eye.
With flutter I was content.

World Cup

I caught the last 20 minutes or so of the USA vs. Ghana game. Quite the nail-biter. Spoiler: we won.

Next up, Portugal. On the bright side, one of their better players got ejected from the game today, for a gratuitous head butt, and as an additional punishment he won't be able to play in Sunday's game with us.

I wouldn't say that our World Cup future is shining brightly,
but the outlook did improve slightly.

Press Behind Glass

The Sun-Times ran an interesting story today from a reporter complaining about the way contemporary politicians invite them to events, but then won't answer questions. The immediate focus was on a visit to Chicago by Hillary Clinton, followed by a flashback to a recent visit by Dick Cheney, followed by a full fingerpoint at our current president.

'We’re expected to show up, listen to whatever the official wants to say, then shut up and write about it.'

I suppose it's good that the press is complaining about it, but I don't think this level of complaining is very effective. She ends her article on a bitterly wistful note:

'So would a Hillary Clinton White House operate in the same way? Would love the chance to ask.'

Ask nice,
ask twice,
and someday she may let you ask...
thus letting you fulfill the journalist's task.

Generalizing

John McCaskey has an interesting, short, clear blog post up about scientific induction.

He begins by drawing a distinction between general statements and universal statements. "Paper burns" is a general truth, he says, but perhaps not a universal truth. You know, there is wet paper - that won't burn! And there are special varieties of flame-resistant paper, designed not to burn.

'“Paper burns” is a generalization that does not mean “All paper burns,” “Some paper burns,” “Most paper burns,” “All other things being equal, paper burns,” or even “Within a given context of knowledge, all paper burns.”'

I have a question here. I agree that "paper burns" doesn't mean exactly the same as "some paper burns" in everyday speech. But surely "paper burns" implies "some paper burns" at a bare minimum.

He goes on:

'“Generally” comes from the Latin “generis,” meaning “belonging to the kind.” What is generally true is true because the subject is the kind of thing it is. Balls roll and fire burns, because there is something about balls and paper that makes them roll and burn.'

That seems fair enough. He goes on to make the case that:

Scientific induction
involves definitional reconstruction.

So you throw whales out of "fish" -
because they're more mammal-ish.

(Once I tried to throw a whale.
Man, it was an epic fail.)

Peikoff on Enemy of the People

I listened to Peikoff's lecture on Ibsen's Enemy of the People, and I was very struck that he characterized Ibsen as a "Romantic Realist". That's the way Rand characterized her own literary tendencies. But there's a question in my mind about whether she saw Ibsen as a Romantic.

She manifestly thought highly of his abilities as a dramatist. She said something very positive about him in The Fountainhead, and she published a highly favorable article about him in her tightly-edited little magazine, the Objectivist. But in neither of those 2 cases was he characterized as a Romantic.

I think Ibsen's often seen as standing at a turning point, when Romanticism marched into Realism. He wrote verse plays early on, and then switched to prose plays about contemporary bourgeois characters. There's a lot of disagreement about how to classify him.

Nothing on stage is real.
The trick is just to simulate the feel
and pull them along for the ride
you helpfully provide.

Cables

I just found out that the audio cable, from my TV to my sound system, is optical fiber.

I've got it reconnected
but that was not expected.

Cooking Near The Books

Intriguing headline:

'Homeless couple charged with cooking meth at Sarasota County library'

But... it wasn't IN the library, it was on the grounds of the library, where they were camping.

There's a photo with the story, showing a bottle of drain opener, some Coleman lighter fluid, and some other mystery bottle.

I've only glanced at the recipe.
But it does not look safe to me.

UPDATE:

Well, here's a crime that was actually IN a library:

'A 20-year-old woman has been charged with prostitution at the Tewksbury Public Library.'

Even here there's some exaggeration, as I see it. She was reportedly soliciting in the library. The story doesn't say she was performing there.

Putting the Mess in Mesopotania

The administration's big play in Iraq - pull out completely and hope it hangs together - doesn't seem like it's working.

Do we have enough drones on hand?

I'm flashing back to the video of our rather hurried evacuation of our embassy in Saigon.



Advice to follow
without a doubt:
be sure not to miss
the last chopper out.

The Scorpion's Sting

I spent some time today looking at a book, The Scorpion's Sting: Antislavery and the Coming of the Civil War, by James Oakes.

'Surrounded by a ring of fire, the scorpion stings itself to death. The image, widespread among antislavery leaders before the Civil War, captures their long-standing strategy for peaceful abolition: they would surround the slave states with a cordon of freedom. They planned to use federal power wherever they could to establish freedom: the western territories, the District of Columbia, the high seas. By constricting slavery they would induce a crisis: slaves would escape in ever-greater numbers, the southern economy would falter, and finally the southern states would abolish the institution themselves. For their part the southern states fully understood this antislavery strategy. They cited it repeatedly as they adopted secession ordinances in response to Lincoln's election.'

I can't vouch for its perfect accuracy, but I liked the way he attempted to "recapture" the actual terms of debate over American slavery, to let us see how the issue was actually approached by the different parties - which of course is not how we usually think about these issues today.

New to me was his position that military emancipation of slaves was a historically-recognized tactic, and that the Emancipation Proclamation was based on, or at least launched from, on this established wartime practice.

The South broke past
the fiery ring
but suffered at last
a fearsome sting.

Plain Difficult

I was reading Drama, from Ibsen to Eliot, and I came across this interesting Ibsen quotation, having to do with his transition from writing poetic drama to:

'...the very much more difficult art of writing the genuine, plain language spoken in real life... My desire was to depict human beings, and therefore I would not make them speak the language of the gods.'

There's something odd
about seeing
the language of human beings
as harder than the language of the gods.

Dreams

Your dreams come from within
but what strange stuff they seem
confiding as they do
an otherness inside.

Luck of a Kind

Last night, while I was driving home from the theater, when I was a couple of miles from home, I noticed a thumping noise that seemed to be coming from my left front tire. I pulled over, and the tire was not flat. But something was obviously wrong.

So I kept driving, very slowly now, because the street I was on was going to take me to our regular auto mechanic's garage. And then, as I turned off the road toward the garage, the thumping stopped, but a distinct hissing sound began.

I remember this happened to me once before. Thumping followed by hissing. The thumping is the warning sign that something has gone wrong with your steel belted radial tires. The hissing is the warning sign that air is leaving the tires right now.

Anyway, after the bad luck of the tires, I had the great good luck to pull into the mechanics' parking lot while the tire was still hissing its air out. At this point, I was only a mile from home. So I took an envelope, wrote an an explanatory note, put the car key in the envelope, put the envelope through the mechanics' mail slot... and walked home.

Yes, I could have changed the tire, put the spare on, myself. But now I don't have to.

This was almost as "lucky" as the time my rented bicycle flatted out near a bike shop on a trail that connects Pennsylvania & Maryland. That time the culprit was a thorn that had punctured the tire.

Your tires need air
to get you there.

If they're missing that,
your stranded flat.

Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman

Tonight I went to see Between Pancho Villa and a Naked Woman. The naked lady, who is never actually quite naked, is played by  Tamika Lecheé Morales, who is just fabulous in the female lead role of Gina.

Gina has a macho lover, who comes to see her once in a while, a leftist writer who is working on a book about that virile revolutionary: Pancho Villa.

It's a Mexican play, written in Spanish, translated into English, and in some ways it's a bit of a culture shock on the Chicago stage. But the core story, one person longing for commitment, the other person afraid of it, is easy to relate to. The character of Gina, as portrayed here, leaves a lasting emotional impression.

She unleashes a ration
of true Latin passion.

Museum Madness

A lot of art museums have huge collections that are not on display - that are in storage somewhere. I knew that one reason was that old rich people like to donate art works to museums, partly because of tax incentives. But I've always wondered why the museums are interested in amassing all this stuff, because the irony is that stuff in storage is stuff that nobody is getting to see.

So I was fascinated to read about the plight of the Delaware Art Museum, which wants to sell off some paintings to pay off a debt. It turns out that the "art world" doesn't approve of such a reason.

'Disposing of art for a reason except to buy more art violates the ethics policy of the Association of Art Museum Directors. The group warns it may sanction the museum, which could block it from sharing works with most other U.S. museums.'

This is the sort of nonsense
with which I have to grapple
as I pursue my plan
to purchase the Sistine Chapel.

Slender Person of Masculine Gender

"Slender Man" is a murderous bogeyman, sort of in the tradition of Jason from the Friday the 13th movies. But he's not a product of the movie industry. He's a web creation. One guy dreamed him up. Then lots of people wrote stories about him, drew pictures of him, and so on.

'But according to police, on Saturday two 12-year-old girls lured another girl to a forest in Wakuesha, Wisconsin and stabbed her 19 times. One of the girls allegedly told police they stabbed their friend to “prove [themselves] worthy to the Slender.”'

After we heard so much about killer males last week, I was startled to be confronted again with the homicidal potential of the human female. Then I realized: it wasn't the girls' fault! A man had brainwashed them into it. A fictional man, it may be, but a man nonetheless!

They were lured into the scary hateful dark,
by an imaginary patriarch.

Iron vs Full

The Wall St. Journal today had an article on a topic I know a little bit about: Ironman triathlon races. Or is it "full distance" triathlon races?

It turns out that Ironman is a brand, and they jealously guard their brand name, and it works spectacularly well. Other races of the same format do not draw the same sort of participation that brand-name Ironman races do. Even when the "generic" version is a lot cheaper!

How much is in a name
if the distance is the same?

I've done 2 of these events,
and I've saved my dollars and cents.

I went with the generic
instead of the "ferric".

Soft and Clear

They come forth soft and clear,

with just a subtle sting.

You feel your vision blur,

as some dam wall caves in.

And all the things that were

or might someday have been,

roll downward into tears.

And giving in to grief,

despite the ache it brings,

becomes its own relief.

Domestic Affairs

Heat of the moment:

"A woman conned a desk clerk into giving her a key to an Orland Park hotel room where her husband was staying with his girlfriend, then attacked him, police said."

The paper says she "clawed" his neck and head. Not just scratched... clawed!

She is charged with domestic battery, which seems fair, but it did lead me to wonder what qualifies a case of battery as domestic. Evidently a domicile-type location is not key.

It doesn't have to be in your house,
it just has to be an attack on your spouse!

Tea Party And Legalization

Christian Science Monitor:

"...a growing contingent of libertarian-leaning and tea party conservatives have begun to embrace marijuana legalization."

No one's surprised when libertarians embrace pot legalization, but I imagine some people are going to be puzzled about "tea party conservatives" doing so.

The people of the party of tea
are not what they've been painted to be.
Mostly they just want to be free.

Tea is sometimes slang for pot, so I'm waiting for those jokes to begin.

I don't think marijuana
is the true path to nirvana,
but it's clear the war on weed
was never destined to succeed.

Lawn Mower Challenge

We hadn't used our lawn mower for a few years, since we'd had a service cutting the lawn, so my wife thought we should sell it. But first... could we still get it started? Because... how much money can you get for a mower that won't start.

So in Autumn I tried. No.

I got a new spark plug and tried again. No.

A handyman recommended changing the air filter. Marsha obtained one.

So today I went out to the garden shed, pulled out the mower, and put in the new filter. Then I pulled the cord.

Out from the engine leaped a very startled mouse, an arc of brown and white fur, which scampered under a bush.

And, no, the mower didn't start.

I was not knowing
my gizmo for mowing
was also a house
for a mouse.

I wonder whether the reason the engine won't fire
possibly involves some chewed-through wire?

One Party Rule

I attended David Ramsay Steele's "libertarian seminar" discussion group last night. He and Yuri Maltsev were discussing totalitarianism, coming from very different viewpoints about it. Really they didn't even agree on what it is exactly.

David took what I think of as the standard meaning. I think I was influenced a lot on the topic by reading Hannah Arendt's writing on the topic.  David specifically mentioned the phenomenon of one-party rule, which Arendt also dwelt upon quite a bit.

I've always been a bit puzzled by the one-party rule feature. There's something paradoxical about having a political party when there's no competing party. If you, Mr. Dictator, already control the government completely - if your word is law and your elections (if any) are rigged - what is this "party" for exactly?

It seems to have been a 20th century innovation. Dictatorships of the past didn't work like that. But the Communist Party in the Soviet system played a very active ongoing role, as kind of a parallel structure that coexisted with the government and seemed to watch over the ideological purity of citizens and administrators. Of course, the secret police kept an eye on people too.

Anyway, the ideological purity angle reminded me a little bit of the Spanish Inquisition, especially because I was just listening to a discussion of Schiller's scene with the Grand Inquisitor.

Arendt's theory, if I recall, addressed the issue of the totalitarian state sprouting a variety of internally competing agencies of vigilant enforcement. Her view was that they served to keep everyone off balance. No one could feel secure. Top party members had to fear the KGB. Top KGB officials had to fear the party. It's like the American system of checks and balances - but in reverse - in the sense that instead of providing a stable environment for individuals to blossom, as in James Madison's scheme, the Soviet and Nazi schemes provided fearful environments for crushing the individual soul.

The goal is to control
the individual soul.

It never completely works.
Individuals are such jerks!

Human nature
struggles against erasure.

Peikoff on Don Carlos

Now I've listened to Peikoff's lecture on Don Carlos, by Schiller. I think he was not quite right when he said that Don Carlos was longer than any 2 of Shakespeare's plays put together.

Hamlet has 4024 lines. Coriolanus has 3824 lines. That works out to 7848 lines combined. The longest version of Don Carlos is 6282 verse lines.

Glancing at the introduction to the Passage translation, I read that "the drama has the length of almost any two plays of Shakespeare put together". Almost. I'm thinking Peikoff read this same intro, but misplaced the "almost".

What I really loved about Peikoff's lecture was his enthusiasm for the Grand Inquisitor scene - the second-to-last scene. I've always loved that scene too. It was the direct inspiration for Dostoevsky's famous Grand Inquisitor parable in Brother's Karamazov.

Also, I always felt that the first big Emperor / Luke scene owed something to the Grand Inquisitor scene, and now I read this in Wikipedia:

"Jeffrey High has found influences of Schiller's plays on the screenplays for several Hollywood films, and in particular suggests a close correspondence between Don Carlos and the screenplay for Star Wars."

What concerns me is that guy
is known as Jeffrey High.

Through the Windshield

It happened in Illinois:

"The deer, which a witness said hurtled to the interstate from an overpass, slammed through the windshield of Conner’s vehicle, striking her and her son and ending up with its head in the center console and its body extending into the back seat."

The humans had minor injuries, but the deer did not survive.

Oh dear, I fear
it's clear
we need to ban:
deer falling from a span
onto a van.

Nonbanality of Evil

I haven't spent much time trying to understand the madman who killed people in Santa Barbara. But I can already tell that he doesn't really fit into our normal stereotypes of people. Crazed murderers usually don't.

Trying to infer what any aspect of American culture is really like, by studying a lunatic manifesto, is poor procedure.

It's better not to leap
to broad conclusions
from studying a creep
and his delusions.

All We Are Saying

I attended our neighborhood Memorial Day parade today, as I do every year. Here's a publicity photo that gives a good idea of the surroundings and scale:



It was bigger this year than last year. But we had some controversy! We had people marching - on the sidewalk - along the route - advertising the fact that their group had not been allowed an official place in the parade.

'Commenting on the controversial decision not to allow the Southsiders for Peace group to participate in the Memorial Day parade this year, Walsh said, “Our focus is on those who served our country and died for our freedoms.”'

The antiwar group has been marching as parade participants for the past several years. I've always found their presence a little jarring. Usually they carried a big banner saying "Support Our Troops, Bring Them Home". Like this:



The above picture is from a July 4th parade in a neighboring suburb, some years back.
Which explains the demand that our soldiers get out of Iraq.

A lot of people agreed with their main message, and they got their fair share of cheers. But, like most proclaimed antiwar groups, they gave off the vibe that their quarrel wasn't with any particular war, it was with the existence of the military. For example, this sign, which reads "Military Out Of The Schools". I guess it's an anti-ROTC message.



I do not think the way to peace
is letting army recruitment cease.

Supreme Oopsies

Adam Liptak has a story at the NY Times about the way Supreme Court justices rewrite portions of their opinions - sometimes years after they are published.

Official decisions
get unannounced revisions.

'Four legal publishers are granted access to “change pages” that show all revisions. Those documents are not made public, and the court refused to provide copies to The New York Times.'

Ann Althouse writes:

'This prominent article should force the Supreme Court to make these "change pages" publicly available. To privilege a few commercial publishers is especially shameful.'

It should be publicly known across their dominion
when a justice edits their opinion.

Quality and Inequality

Tyler Cowen, looking at the problems of Piketty's rickety data, wrote:

'When evaluating debates of this kind, never ever confuse a) is he right? with b) “how much should we raise/lower the relative status of the author as a result of the new exchange”?'

Now, his "b" is written in a roundabout way. He's saying don't confuse "is he right?" with "is he worthwhile?".

Both questions are worth looking at, I suppose. But it's worrisome when you are interested in the first question - is a horrid inequality about to descend upon us - and all of a sudden the press is shifting to discussions of what a great guy the Inequality Prophet is.

We need new legislation, to fix whatever's wrong!
Nothing to see in this data. Move along.

Peikoff on Le Cid

I thought Leonard Peikoff's lecture on Le Cid by Corneille was very interesting. I haven't read the play for a long time. I remember really enjoying it.

I suspect that if I'd read it more recently, I would have more disagreements with the lecture.

My memory is hazy
and I guess I was too lazy
to give the play another read
just to see where he and I disagreed.

Privacy Takebacks

Latest ruling from Europa:

"A German court ruled that at the end of a relationship, all intimate material should be destroyed if it is requested by one or both of the parties."

I suppose it's the courteous thing to do. Doesn't mean it will be obeyed, in general, especially because it's hard to enforce... unless someone is such a cad as to spread such material around.

Sadly, some seem to get their kicks
posting their ex's naked pics.

Doggy Dog World

Washington Post breaks huge dog-bites-dog story:

"Dogs often adopt this stance as an invitation to play right before they lunge at another dog; they also bow before they nip (“I’m going to bite you, but I’m just fooling around”) or after some particularly aggressive roughhousing (“Sorry I knocked you over; I didn’t mean it.”). All of this suggests that dogs have a kind of moral code — one long hidden to humans until a cognitive ethologist named Marc Bekoff began to crack it."

What? No one knew - no one had a clue? I don't think so. I think this is one of those things that dog owners always knew - but that scientists couldn't believe.

Well, it's always good when the scientists catch up to common sense.

At last we've got a scientific narrative
about this dog-egorical imperative.

By The Railroad Tracks

I say
sometimes a weed
is all that you need
to color your day.

Epic

I'm tired of headlines like:

See A's Epic Takedown of B

A Schools B About X

A Shames B Over X

A Calls Out B Over X

A Refutes B

Usually this would be more accurate:

A & B
Disagree
Strenuously

Capture

From the Washington Post, some interesting reflections on "academic capture," based on an analogy to the economic concept of "regulatory capture":

"While not all data economists use are proprietary, access to proprietary data provides a unique advantage in a highly competitive academic market. To obtain those data academic economists have to develop a reputation to treat their sources nicely. Hence, their incentives to cater to industry or to the political authority that controls the data are similar to those of the regulators."

The author, a law professor, speculates whether similar pressures might apply in legal academia.

I'm just going to note that the same phenomenon evidently occurs in journalism, where "being nice to sources" is endemic.

In exchange for newsworthy stuff,
reporters write flattering fluff.

Peikoff on Othello

I've now listened to the second of Peikoff's Eight Great Plays lectures. This one concerned Othello, and includes a recounting of a long-ago discussion with Ayn Rand about this particular play.

Rand, in his recounting, sees the key to Shakespeare in the line "What fools these mortals be."

As a side note, this line is mistakenly attributed to Ariel, in The Tempest, in this lecture. It's actually Puck, in Midsummer Night's Dream. I'm not sure whether that's Peikoff's or Rand's error. I'm not sure it matters. Puck is a fairy, and Ariel is a spirit, so I guess neither is a mortal.

Anyway, Rand sees Shakespeare as Olympically detached, and not giving a damn about his characters. She thinks she's a great artist, but she loathes him.

Peikoff, however, clearly does not loathe him. Peikoff sees Othello as a play that will improve your life because it provides such an exquisite experience, even if it will depress you for days.

Shakespeare does sometimes express Olympic detachment, but I wouldn't name it as his basic attitude toward his characters. I think that's unjustified.

And perhaps I should add, it's his characters that sometimes express Olympic detachment. One of the difficulties in interpreting him, is that all of his characters express their ideas so vividly, but it is hard to say which characters speak for him, if any.

Perhaps one could look to his sonnets, where he speaks in the first person, to begin with a basic assessment of what he, himself, really thinks.

He had a way with the striking phrase,
and shifting views can leave you in a daze.

Legal Studies

Jutice Scalia gave a commencement address at a law school. Somehow he wasn't sent packing by protesters.

There have been budget-cutting proposals lately to cut law school from a 3-year program to a 2-year program. Scalia weighed in:

"To say you are a lawyer is to say you are learned in the law, and ... you can't do that in two years,"

But yesterday we looked at a story about the sheer number of federal laws - and how they proved uncountable.

After a mere
three years
I fear
you surely lack
a knowledge of most laws, in fact.

Commencement Correctness

Some are bemoaning the recent rash of student protests forcing commencement speakers to back out of their engagements.

At Newsweek, one writer proposes an amusing solution:

'The solution is simple and impossibly elegant: Let’s ban commencement speakers. Who do they benefit, besides themselves?'

But I don't see this as a market failure. I see this as a golden opportunity.

You've fired your graduation speaker?
Consider someone whose star power is considerably weaker...
Namely me!

I'll be glad to say "good luck, kids" for a very hefty fee.

Laws Beyond Counting

Today in the Wall Street Journal, a historian recounts an old warning:

'In "The Federalist Papers," No. 62, James Madison warned his readers against drawing up laws that were unnecessarily dense or complicated: "It will be of little avail to the people…if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood."'

And then she jumps forward a couple of centuries:

In 1982, the U.S. Justice Department attempted to count the total number of criminal laws. Two years and 3,000 offenses later, the effort was abandoned as hopeless. To this day, nobody knows how many federal laws are on the books.

An excess of laws

deserves no applause.

Hot Number

A mathematician desired to meet, with a dancer whose movements were sinuous. She asked if he could be discrete. He said he'd prefer continuous. 

Peikoff on Antigone

On advice from a friend, I checked out the pricing of Leonard Peikoff's lecture series: Eight Great Plays. It can now be had for about 8 bucks. It used to cost a lot more. So I bought it, and have been listening to his discussion of Antigone.

What I enjoy most, I have to say, is just his enthusiasm for the character of Antigone. From the first time I read the play, I have been enthralled with her.

I was grimly amused that he found it necessary to lecture the audience that respect for the bodies of the dead is a rational and virtuous concern.

So he explains
that human remains
are more than mere meat
to be left on the street.

Challenge Provisionally Accepted

Urinetown is a horrible idea for a play.

And I just came up with another one. It's not horrible the way Urinetown is horrible. It's not disgusting. It's not nihilistic. It's horrible in the sense that the idea of the play makes me scared of writing it. Which I think means I'm attracted to the idea. Which I think means I'm going to give it a shot.

I've noticed the right kind of fear
is a thing that draws me near.

Identity A Hit

We went to hear a concert tonight where one of the pieces, Identity, was co-written by a composer friend of ours, Michael Shapiro. Mike was in town, from L.A., to hear it, and I thought it sounded great. The Chicago Sinfonietta played it well, and Symphony Center is a great hall for listening to music. It's kind of a concerto for guzheng ("Chinese zither") and orchestra.

Here's a video of the finale, from another performance of the piece, some years back. It features the same soloist, who I would say was even more "on" tonight:





The crowd ate it up.

Another contemporary composer, Illya Levinson, of Columbia College in Chicago, also provided a couple of very enjoyable pieces: Selections From Shtetl Scenes & Klezmer Rhapsody.

It was a great evening of music, and it was heartwarming to be in the audience while my friend got a well-deserved standing ovation.

Michael Shapiro
my compositional hero
deserved a chance to take a pause
and soak up some applause.

Second Sunday In May

I toss aside silly stories
of Congresspersons and Senators.
Today I proclaim the glories
of wondrous female progenitors!

Vocals

Well, my wife and daughter came to our production of Urinetown, and afterwards complimented my singing, which was a first. I am very pleased about it, since it's something I worked on very hard.

When I was in elementary school, before my voice changed, I could sing. I was in the church choir, sang Mass, sang the main villain in The Pied Piper, etc. But it seemed that after my voice changed I couldn't sing anymore. I never understood this. Still don't. It wasn't tone deafness. I could hear when anyone else was out of tune, trust me. But I had trouble carrying a tune myself.

A couple of years ago, when I was cast in a local production of Sondheim's Into The Woods, I did make an effort to improve my singing, even though I was only a choral singer. I... practiced a lot, to try to keep from dragging the chorus down. And when I was cast in Urinetown, with a brief bit of solo singing in one song, I... practiced more. I guess it worked.

I even found an iPhone app for voice training, Erol Singer's Studio, which, at its beginner level, plays scales and lets you sing into the microphone and shows you whether you are actually hitting the notes you are supposed to hit. I found this very helpful, I must say. It inspired some confidence in me, at least.

And just recently I figured out I wasn't relaxing my throat enough when singing bass. What was kind of weird was that I was relaxing it more when singing falsetto. Don't ask me why.

I you practice to get better, you may do so,
even if you'll never be Caruso.

Drenched But No Complaint

When I left for work this morning, my dog was in the backyard. There was a little bit of rain, but he's a Labrador-type dog, and the rain doesn't usually bother him much.

After I left, it started to really pour, in sheets. My wife didn't realize he was in the backyard, because he didn't bark to get let in - something he is perfectly capable of doing. When she did let him in, he had had a thorough shower.

As a rule, you don't have to train
a Labrador to tolerate rain.

UrineTown Reflections

I've very much enjoyed working as a performer in UrineTown.  Someone commented to me that the show has a malevolent sense of life, that is, a bleak emotional outlook that makes you feel like the Universe is out to get you. There's some truth to this, but I'm not sure how much exactly. 

*Spoiler alert.* 

It's a satirical spoof, designed in part for laughs, which presents a special interpretation question: which elements to take seriously. When are the authors jesting? 

Also, as a couple of the characters say at the end: "It's not a happy musical." "But the music's so happy!"

Politically, taken literally, the show stakes out the position that in the face of a worldwide drought, the "regulating mechanism of cash", even when implemented along fascist lines, would be better for human survival than a socialism in which "everything is free".

Speaking of climate issues, it was a hot day here yesterday, and our theater space has no AC, so it was even hotter on stage under the lights

Speaking as a performer

I like it cooler not warmer. 

Tired

After rehearsing till late in the evening every night since Friday, I'm dragging a little. But tomorrow we open with Urinetown.

Though tonight I'm feeling tired
tomorrow I'll be wired.
Having an audience ignites
energy to new heights.

Mumps

I had the mumps when I was a kid. I remember being miserable with them. No vaccine was available at the time.

When I read that Illinois cases had tripled compared to last year, I felt bad for the kids who caught it.

"Authorities don't know what's behind the spike."

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that the cause is declining vaccination rates.

The mumps are not so hot.
I recommend the shot.

Substitution

The price of i-gizmos continues to fall. 

But food prices still seem to climb. 

I think that I'll just eat - nothing at all,

And browse Facebook photos full time. 

Rehearsal Progress

We finally ran Urinetown: The Musical all the way through, with no scripts on stage, in full costume and makeup. Tonight we have the band coming for the first time. 

I'm wearing a mike for the first quarter of the show, because I have a few lines of solo singing. But I take the mike off by Act II, when I take my big stage fall, so I don't have to worry about jarring the circuitry. 

I wouldn't like

To wreck the mike. 

Shaped Over Time

I saw a funny video, put together by some conservatives, where a statement about marriage being properly between "a man and a woman" was read to college students. They were asked who they thought had said it. None guessed Hillary Clinton, who actually said it. She said it way back in 2000. Back when that was the majority opinion. When the college students were mostly under age 10.

Fortunately, there seems to be an amnesty in place for former "marriage inequality" supporters, as long as they have officially changed their positions.

If a blue-state politician's views have evolved,
their electability problem is solved.

Late Bloomer

Spring seems reluctant to show her face. Come out, dear girl, and share your grace!

Sterling

I listened to the Sterling recording.

My first impression: He's one whiny billionaire, and she's one manipulative lady. 

Hard to listen to. I felt unclean when I was done listening, and I don't plan to listen again.

But... unless I missed it, he didn't sound exactly outright racist in the old fashioned sort of way. Rather, he claims a concern of some kind for appearances, a concern that is never fully explained. I do get the sense that whatever his concern is, he doesn't want to explain it, that he senses a trap. Which does suggest that his concern itself is disgraceful in some way.

He's loaded with money and power.
I feel like taking a shower.

Enablers

One 14 year old girl reportedly wanted to kill another 14 year old girl.

So her uncle, allegedly, lent her a gun.

"The uncle, paralyzed after being shot in 2010, knew his niece planned to use the .38 Special to confront her onetime friend over a feud about a boy, according to prosecutors."

She had more helpers, too:

"Prosecutors said Tuesday that the gun “malfunctioned” the first time the girl tried to shoot. She then handed the weapon to others in her group who unjammed the weapon."

Then she shot and killed the other girl.

Now, I hear, she's sorry.

Friends don't help friends
pursue murderous ends.

Nurse Practitioners

I'm of 2 minds about nurse practitioners, and the big push to let them diagnose and prescribe. I'm in favor of it, but I fear it's being done partly to cope with the fact that people are going find it harder to spend time with actual physicians, due to the health care law changes.

It may seem a bit unfair,
and to many will come as a shock,
but coverage is not care:
Expect to see less of your doc.