Archive for April, 2006
Gas Prices Inflation Chart
Wednesday, April 26th, 2006On the phone with my friend this weekend he was spittin’ mad about home heating oil prices. He voted for Bush twice. His livid about lots of things. He said he might vote Democrat for spite. If the Democrats could concoct one affirmative plan, it could happen. That’s a big IF.
Anyway, for those belly-achin’ about gas prices (I must admit, it is breathtaking every time you fill up a Big, Beautiful, Black Bad-ass SUV like my Beloved Suburban–and I do love her so) here is an inflation chart that might interest you.
Childrearing
Wednesday, April 26th, 2006There are two topics that you won’t see any advice about in this column: marriage and childrearing.
Why?
Both are so complex, so daunting and so enigmatic that to advise anyone while in the thick of the challenge would seem the height of folly. So I’ll spare you.
This post sent by my brother offers excellent childrearing advice, though. The guy seems older and been there, done that. I don’t know what his results have been, but it is still good advice.
P.S. He says that he doesn’t set bed times. Hmmmm…. Well, I do. It is for the mama sanity factor.
PT-141 Chemical Coercian: New Meds Change Your Mind About Sex
Monday, April 24th, 2006Some of you wondered what the heck I was talking about when blogging about the fututre of cyborgs (a combination of computer or mechanical device and man) and chemical enhancements. Already the hormone Ocytocin (in its synthetic form Pitocin) is used for bonding or feel-good attachment. Others like Growth Hormone, Insulin, Steroids, Erythropoitin are used to enhance the bodies ability to grow, repair, manage blood sugar, deal with inflammation, enhance the bloods ability to carry oxygen, etc.
My point? These substances are not just used for medical diagnosed deficiencies now (and that’s a VERY broad notion indeed) but to increase ability, enhance experience–become “super” human.
I can sense your doubt. Here are just two examples: Athletes are the first to morph themselves into something super human for the benefit of sport. Lovers everywhere who find one encounter per day, simply not enough (they believe that “too much of a good thing is a good thing”), take Viagra or Cialis to become super human.
When Oxytocin came to market as an atomized spray, my anxiety rose. The dubious uses for this are many. Instead of nasty stinky perfume blasted in your face at a store, this hormone could be released and cause you to want to bond to that Prada handbag–”must have handbag, must have handbag” your subconscious chants.
Now a potentially harmful medication, PT-141, is being studied. An aphrodisiac that causes recipients to feel aroused and ready not by manipulating the vascular system to send blood to the nether regions but by manipulating brain chemistry–turning you on. Like a button.
Can you imagine? “Not tonight dear.” And the husband responds with a spraying this drug in your face, “Yes tonight and you’re gonna like it too!”
Here is the future: clubs with “hormone modifiers” kinda like Smoothie King is now. Want to feel sexy? Spray here. Want to get the most of this workout? Spray here. Want to feel more bonding love with the little cretin going through Tormenting Threes? Spray here. Want to drop ten pounds the easy way? Spray here. Want to make it through the tough week at work? Spray here.
Sounds good right? A little bit o’ this, a little bit o’ that and medical doctors are the modern witch doctors–although I think that these drugs will see their most generous usage once out of patent and made for OTC use. Anyway, these meds will enhance, extend and excite lives. Woo hoo!
And then people will believe, as at least 50% of the population already does, that their bodies, just as they are, are inadequate. They are inadequate. If a little is good, a lot is better. Since all experience will be heightened (doctors will say at normal levels–they choose the normals afterall and when you fall outside the normal levels you’ll get the med) regular life will feel like a windless day at sea: you’re on the ocean but man it is soooooo boring.
Is anyone slowing down and considering the ramifications here? Who makes these decisions about who and what is normal? How much better is enough? When is medication manipulation of the worst kind?
Selfishness: Comments About Ayn Rand
Friday, April 21st, 2006Well, my post don’t get nearly as many comments as I would like, but this post about selfishness and Ayn Rand did. You might be interested. Or not.
Build The Fence Prez
Friday, April 21st, 2006Well, The Minutemen are putting pressure on Amigo Bush. He is responding by lighting a fire of fear under businessmen who employ illegals. Here in Houston, that would be everyone. E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E.
Meanwhile, the illegals pour over the border in greater numbers in anticipation of emancipation.
Here’s what I don’t get: we have the best scientists in the world. Why can’t we set a number of immigrants that we need in the U.S. to sustain the level of growth needed. Then, ease up passage to America. It’s called Ellis Island. Open it. Make a similar one on this side of the Rio Grande.
Coming to the U.S. is an event! It is a gift. Skulking in like a criminal should NOT be part of the experience–unless you’re a real criminal and then you should be rounded up by border patrol and sent to a Mexican prison.
Stupid straw-man arguments like “Can 11 Million People Be Deported?” irritate the heck out of me. I suppose they could if we tried really hard. But most Americans don’t want this and every lawmaker and the insipid journalist/pollsters/news creator knows this even before they ask the stupid question.
Most Americans DON’T want to PAY FOR ILLEGALS. That’s right: most Americans want illegals to pay taxes, like they do, pay their hospital bills and insurance, like they do. They don’t want to pay school taxes for people who don’t pay taxes and yet demand an education.
Ensure that every student, every patient, every welfare mom and dad is a citizen. Give drivers licenses and other licenses and homes to citizens ONLY. Two things will happen: the black market will grow bigger and many will go home because the services there will be better–or the same as here. Dry the well–people will go somewhere else to drink.
Make the people who want to be citizens go back and do the paperwork. Yes, a lot of them have businesses. Yes, a lot of them have knitted themselves into this society. Yes, this will cause hardship. Life is tough. Becoming an American has never been easy. It is a prize worth fighting for and hard.
Ungum the beauracracy here so people wanting to do the right thing, can.
Americans want immigrants. Americans love the fact that people love this country and want to come here. But the last thing Americans want or need is another entitled (and worse illegal) underclass.
Make it legal.
P.S. Build the fence. It’s not the big deal Congress makes it out to be. It’s called a border for a reason.
Duke Lacrosse Boys Indicted for Rape
Tuesday, April 18th, 2006When I was in Chiropractic College, a friend of ours with a drinking problem slid off the black-ice covered road on a freezing cold night. Bleery eyed, he walked the block home through the snow and went to sleep.
The police found his car stuck in a snowbank sometime in the middle of that night and came and arrested him for drunk driving. He was terrified. Not that he had been caught but that he could have hurt someone and not even remember. “What if I had killed someone?” he asked us, frantic. That was the last time he took a drink to this day. Almost ten years dry.
Well, it was just the beginning of a very big ordeal. We urged him to hire the best, most connected defense lawyer in town. We were in a tiny area, the judge was a local farmer–a very fair-minded man, I might add. The townies, including the cops, generally hated the college kids (rich, privilaged, blah, blah, blah.) In this case, as in most cases, it wasn’t true. Our friend is one of the few pure genuises I’ve met, his parents poor, always just got by. Every family member was alcoholic. He was the first person in his family o both sides to go to college. He was scholarshipped through undergrad and now paying his own way through grad school. He was anything but privilaged.
But since our friend didn’t have money, he relied on the public defender. The public defender was no more interested in helping him out of this than the cops. An election was coming, the new District Attorney was running on “getting tough on drunk drivers”. Our friend needed this over and fast. It didn’t happen.
Our friend became the “example case”. It cost the DA no political will, because it wasn’t a local. It was PERFECT. While there is no question this kid did something wrong and it could have been bad. It didn’t turn out bad and the lesson was learned. If he had been the son of a local, it would have evaporized into thin air. As it was, the judge, a kindly spared him the worst, but it nearly wrecked his life anyway.
The difference between our friend’s case and the Duke Lacrosse case, is that the evidence against the players is even less substantial. It doesn’t matter. The boys will be forever tarnished. Their reputations destroyed. The jury of public opinion lead by a zealous, up-for-election DA, Mike Nifong, already confirming their guilt.
It is sick.
Now, I’m a person who thinks stripping should be illegal like pornography and tittie bars and prostitution. Yup. I’m a PRUDE. Those boys are absolutely stupid for hiring a stripper to come on to campus. This type of situation is ripe for exploitation–on both sides. At the very least it looks really bad. It confirms all the stereotypes all the way around.
But stupid isn’t criminal. And stripping is legal. And these young men are young and men. And this girl is desperate and has zero self-worth to be doing what she is doing. But she chose it. And so did the guys.
That doesn’t mean that a rape didn’t happen Colin Finnerty, one of the boys indicted got in trouble before for beating up a guy and calling him gay in D.C. He’s from Mineola, NY where a number of kids I went to Chiro College were from. It is macho Long Island culture.
Reade Seligmann, 20, the other kid indicted has a name that just reeks of aristocracy, right?
Where I went to school two extreme developed: the extreme macho end and the extreme feminist end. They HATED each other. The macho guys always lost to the feminists. Put on probabtion, told to be quiet. Yes, they were often pulling stupid stunts and saying inflammatory things. The women, in my opinion were way too senstitive.
This polarization makes it nigh to impossible to feret out the truth. When something bad happens, no one believes either side if they are fair-minded. And those who side up reveal their prejudices.
The problem with a sexual assault case is that hard evidence is almost impossible to come by in situations like these. If the boys are convicted, doubt will always swirl around it. If not, they’ve been convicted publicly anyway. And the woman, somehow, will always remain the victim.
I hate these cases.
Duct Tape: Uses You Should Know
Tuesday, April 18th, 2006Ok, so my poor widdle baby has plantar’s warts on his foot. On the Internet (where else) is a bunch of helpful advice. The most interesting by far is the DUCT TAPE CURE. Read more at the link.
I’ll tell you if it works. Scroll down. There is some advice about Ring Worm, too.
Tom Cruise’s Baby Blues
Monday, April 17th, 2006A few weeks ago, I discussed (making my rare foray into pop culture) Scientology’s Silent Birth. Of course, it seemed utterly ridiculous. A quiet mother during birth? Puhleeze…
However, in the ensuing weeks I realized that this notion could possibly be the best thing for Katie Holmes. Since Cruise can’t seem to keep his yapper shut, this whole silent birth thing could be just the ticket.
Evidently there was misunderstanding all around about the silent birth deal. Everyone else has to be quiet. Mom’s can make noise (no words) and do what must be done to get to get the kid out.
Let’s hope the birth takes a good 72 hours, pain free of course, so that the world can be spared Mr. Teeth’s wisdom. Three whole days without Cruise talking? Maybe Katie will learn to believe in The Full Quiver.
Peace and quiet. Something any spouse of Tom could learn to believe in.
Iran’s Crazy Talk
Saturday, April 15th, 2006Everyone has a crazy relative that sputters and blathers. He or she gets ignored by the family or nodded to politely. Conspiracy theories, persecution complexes and recycled stories receives dutiful head nodding and sometimes some nodding off. Most people also have a truly crazy relative. When he comes to the family reunion looking to pick a fight, sometimes armed and always dangerous, people scatter, designate a “communicator” who gets the delightful task of 1) escorting crazy, unhinged person out [isolation] 2) speaking in hushed tones about grandma’s heart and the children [diplomacy] or 3) a group intervention that lands crazy person in jail, rehab or with a soundly kicked butt–I live in Texas, remember? [threat elimination]
So, which is Iran? Crazy harmless or crazy unhinged?
Can anyone honestly say crazy harmless? Yes some can, and do and will.
Can anyone credibly say unhinged and dangerous? Yes some can and do and will.
You see, President Bush has a dilemma. Iran going nuclear is not an option since her president has already announced, loudly, his intentions. But this means some messy business ahead. This messy business will be soundly denounced by the Code Pink crowd. But what, pray tell, will these same people say if Iran’s neighbors, and us too, are nuked or threatened or blackmailed?
First, I would cut Iran off from the world oil market. They only have money because of their oil. Stop their income. That makes it harder to do or make anything doesn’t it?
Second, I would bomb the bejeebers out of the ruling Mullah class. What the heck are precision bombs for if to not annihilate specific psychos? There seems to be a fair number of rational younger people in Iran. Could they pluck up their gumption if their nut-job leaders were scattering like cockroaches for survival? Possibly.
Third, I would be arming a nice internal resistance. The Islamists over there are creating every kind of hell all over the world. Funding terrorism here and there. Agitating in Iraq. Covering for Syria. Baddies, all of them.
If Israel gets nuked by Iran, one gets the feeling that a fair amount of Leftists will be delighted/shocked. No one uses such materials except the big, bad USA. Well, we’ll see, won’t we?
One thing I hope: if we do blast away at Iran, I hope that we don’t give the whole world a heads-up. Sheesh. Can we at least keep our war plans secret? It might help meeting the objective a bit faster.
