Archive for April, 2007
Instapundit Gets Rich
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007Hark, but is that a big advertising square featuring the benefits of a McDonald’s Big Mac on Glenn Reynold’s blog? Maybe there’s a future in this blog business.
How To Waste Time
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007Do you really need to know how to waste time? Well, I’m a pro and feel that I should share my expertise:
- Blog–It takes up lots of time, the returns are rarely financial, just the warm fuzzies
- Make excuses–Today, I’m wasting time because it’s raining. Headaches, phone calls, the list of time wasters is endless.
- Blame others–The baby made the mess, my co-worker is an idiot.
- Watch Oprah–Watch the news, watch TV in general. It’s wasted time in one efficient package.
- Don’t take showers–Smelliness stops most public excursions.
- Read all email. All of it.
- Clean obsessively. I know. It’s counterintuitive. But you wouldn’t believe the number of people who think they are actually accomplishing something when the house is perfect. Mice on those little circle things think they’re going somewhere, too.
The list is endless. Another time waster. Beautiful.
American Idol Gives Back: Just Imagine
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007Melinda Doolittle made me cry. This whole show is making me cry.
Blake did Imagine…..just as I imagined he would. The melody is so magical and if I pretend to not hear the line “imagine there is no religion”, the song takes me away to that place of imagined perfection. While he is no vocal powerhouse ala Melinda or LaKisha (later: or as Jordin), this is the first time it seemed like he believed what he sang. I still see him as a front for a boy band.
LaKisha sang beautifully and got ripped by the judges. I’ve never heard Fantasia sing this song, so I have no reference point.
Wow. Phil is growing on me like a fungus. He was so awkward. He viewed himself as such a poseur for so long he convinced me to see him that way, too. Last week he seemed like a real person for once. And tonight he did it again. Simon gives him really good advice. Go country, young man. My brother thinks he’s “thoroughly mediocre.” Well, his mediocre has gotten better. Maybe my expectations were so low the only way to go was up.
You’ll Never Walk Alone. Go Jordan, go! And boy does she nail it. Ha! The kids in my church choir will know the song now. I told them that they’d be singing this and they said, “What?” They’ll know now. Good. What a beautiful song. What a lovely voice. She believes…..
I missed Chris’ performance. And seeing the recap, I think tonight might be his last night.
How great is it that American Idol is turning its massive audience toward helping the world’s needy? It’s a thoroughly American solution: innovative, efficient and, fun. Who knew that stamping out hunger could be fun? Wait a minute, lots of people know that serving their fellow man is fun. And that brings me to Simon.
Simon’s comment about the food bank volunteers,”I’ve never met nice people” struck me. Really? He’s never met nice people. Huh. England must be more far gone than feared. My thought was: Simon needs to get religion. There are nice people serving the needy in churches all across America and all over the world. Who does he think serves meals to the starving? Who runs the food banks? Who gets to New Orleans before the Feds? Who houses those displaced? Who feeds them? Who clothes them? Churches. Christians. Believers.
Maybe he just doesn’t know any religious people. Or maybe he is getting to know them. I heard on the local Christian station that one of the past Idol contestants believes that Simon’s heart is changing. Melinda Doolittle “has a heart for the Lord” and what we see on Idol, what Simon keeps thinking is fake, her friend says, is real. She really is that nice and that humble. He has a tough time believing.
That’s okay. Lots of people struggle to believe. It’s tough to have faith in a Higher Being who can’t be touched or felt. It’s tough to imagine that a person’s life can be transformed by faith in a Savior who died for each person. Hang out at the food bank or visit missions in Africa, it’s a little easier to believe. Imagine, Simon Cowell being transformed by the witness of believers.
Just imagine.
Home Sales Decline
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007MaxedOutMama explains what it all means. If you have investments or own a home or wish to own a home or have money in the stock market or care a whit about the economy, you need to be reading Mama. Half the time I don’t understand her.
In the most recent Money magazine, a guru said that he’s getting out of real estate. Hmmmm……
Obesity Related To Mom’s Age of Menarche
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007Interesting research about obesity: children of mothers whose period started at 11 of younger had 11x the chance of having fat kids as the women who started their periods at age 15. Why are women having periods earlier and earlier? My vote is for the estrogens in the environment including food such as soy formula rich in phytoestrogens. Bleach is a hormone disrupter, too.
Virginia Tech Killer’s Alleged Autism
Monday, April 23rd, 2007I know. I know. Why? Why give this crazy guy more press? Because I can’t take comments like these from Huffington Post resident Autism expert Blake Fleetwood (full disclosure: I have an eight year old son who was diagnosed autistic at age two):
The first and most obvious of Cho’s symptoms – from early on in his life – was that he was suffering from characteristics of Autistic Spectrum Disorder – difficulties with: social skills, communication, obsessive tendencies, adaptability and speech articulation, amongst other possible symptoms.A high functioning autism to be sure, perhaps Asperger’s, but certainly in the spectrum.
Call me pedantic, but I would like proof of this diagnosis. The word of a relative in South Korea seems like hearsay to me and not exactly iron-clad. Not to mention, Cho didn’t come to America until he was eight years old. He wasn’t diagnosed in South Korea? A shy, socially awkward child who gets language late and interacts oddly doesn’t guarantee an Autism diagnosis. My next door neighbor had six boys who fit that description and all matured in college, half are married and they each are contributing members of society.
What Fleetwood seeks in the V-Tech massacre is a platform to discuss bullying and mental health disorders in young people. He wants compassion for victims, like Cho, who strike out (no doubt, the suicide bombers in Iraq are victims, too). But most of all, he wants government intervention. Once the autism premise is accepted as fact the next step is simple: more government intervention for children with all forms of mental health issues. He is joined by other journalists who speculate and end with this hope:
We seem to disregard history and this is one major mistake. It has been mentioned that by doing something repeatedly and gaining the same bad results is a sign of mental illness. Let us take this tragedy and learn just what caused it. Make the necessary changes and at the very least try to avoid another Virginia Tech.
From what little is known so far, though, Cho presents as a socially awkward, language-challenged kid who was picked on for being different as a teenager. While he may have been traumatized as a teen, his college acquaintances seemed more than kind to him and he didn’t respond or responded weirdly. Not only did he have trouble with friend relationships, he had trouble with women, too. And a real expert says this:
Robert Ressler, the retired FBI profiler who is credited with coining the term “serial killer,” said he thinks Cho had an inadequate-personality disorder with psychopathic overtones.“Oftentimes there are sexual underpinnings to inadequacy,” he said, noting authorities say Cho stalked two Virginia Tech students in 2005, leading to two encounters with police. High school classmates say they never saw him interact with girls.
Ressler added that Cho seemed “so mission-oriented. That would go against schizophrenia and more toward psychopathy.”
Muscari said Cho’s apparent level of organization, as evidenced by the multimedia manifesto he mailed to NBC between Monday’s shootings, could be evidence of psychopathy.
He’s not the only one skeptical of the autism connection:
James Kauffman, a retired University of Virginia education behaviorist, dismissed any possible link between Cho’s violence and autism.“I don’t see any connection to autism at all, even if he was diagnosed,” Kauffman said. “It doesn’t wash.”
Clint Van Zandt, another retired FBI profiler, said he could not call to mind any serial killer who was autistic. “None,” he said.
As I’ve noted before, though, the killer did receive intervention in the medical and educational community, and, even more significantly, in the judicial system. This was not a young man who didn’t receive intervention.
Even still, all this speculation matters little. For every unbalanced person who snaps, there are scores who bumble through life, self-medicate, get medicated, or live borderline lives. And a great number of people are content with their neurosis or psychosis, thank you, and resist intervention. And while some journalists pine for more mental health intervention and portray a false dichotomy–locking down campuses on the one hand or serious mental health intervention on the other–the truth is that save locking this kid up (and would he and his family submit to this and is society at large comfortable with this) this kind of thing will happen again and not because of undiagnosed mental illness, but because people snap at weird times for weird reasons.
As a parent of an autistic kid, I’ve been around lots of autistic people–children and adults. Some parents have children who grow up big and strong but have the emotional responsiveness of a young child. Invariably these people are institutionalized to some degree. But they are childlike in all their emotions–not just anger. Note that I acknowledge that autistic people can get angry, even violently so. Still, I have never seen an autistic person being methodically violent such as displayed at Virginia Tech. It just doesn’t fit.
Bullying is another issue. I’m so worried about the bullying that does come to those on the Autism Spectrum that I’m considering home schooling once he reaches middle school age. We had our first incident of aggression on the bus last week. We intervened and it stopped. We have concerned neighbor kids and an ever watchful sister to alert us to potential problems. When my son gets frustrated because he has to work so much harder to “get it” (socially and academically), I tell him that life is tough. Everyone has difficulties. Some things are easier for him (and some things are) and some things are tougher. And while bullying is unacceptable to me and the teachers that look the other way are complicit in abuse, bullies are wily creatures. I got bullied in middle school and the most dangerous times no teacher was in sight.
Bullying is wrong. Unsupported at-risk children is wrong. A lot of wrong happens, and none of it excuses guys like Cho. Really, none of it explains guys like Cho. When considering that 83% of middle schoolers report bullying it’s hard to make the connection that his background somehow caused the violence.
I know it’s uncomfortable acknowledging that some people snap in horrible ways for their own reasons. Every criminal in the blames someone for their nefarious ways. Members of the media using autism as the hook to explain the killer’s behavior is worse than ignorant. People need to get okay with the fact that some people are evil, some deranged, some filled with hate. And some kill. And one did. And no one is to blame but him.
One Square A Day–UPDATE Sheryl Crow’s Personal Requirements
Monday, April 23rd, 2007What woman in the Western world uses one square of toilet paper? You know, when Laurie David and Sheryl Crow talk like this, they sound insane or insanely privileged. Do they even wipe their own rears or are they so squeaky clean that TP is unnecessary?
Can you go too far with bloviating? Not if you’re absolutely sure of your own moral authority. Between Al Gore and Laurie David and Sheryl Crow, the American public are going to be completely turned off from any ideas of caring for the planet. Sheesh. Who doesn’t care about their environment? Most people want to keep their plot clean. Most people want to recycle. Most people would love a vehicle that got 500 miles to the gallon–if there was no loss of power. It is just good stewardship. Not to mention, I for one, would really like to not have to rely on the benevolence of Middle Eastern oil cartel member’s generosity for fuel. But that’s not what this toilet paper stupidity is about. It’s all about finding religion.
And, most people already have a God and religion, thank you. And the first law isn’t to remember Gaia. Do the save the earth types realize they sound like IRS agents with OCD? For every thing a person wants to do, there’s a rule. A person can be a complete jackass, but if she uses one square, she goes to heaven.
As an aside, I think that there is one thing Gore, David and Crow have in common: a search for something to believe in and a search for personal meaning. Gore lost the presidency and has sought to matter to someone, anyone, ever since. He needs a stage to exist.
David and Crow are searching for mission. They need a child to mother. The children of the world will be their children. They need to get out of the theoretical and get real: have a child. Grow up and learn what parenting is really like. These ladies are like the childless women cluck-clucking at the public park about “kids these days”. Spare us your discipline theories, ladies, and make them real. Even the uber Material Girl has been forced to grow up some. At the very least, having children keeps you so busy, that you can’t, even if you want to, enlighten the world with all your pet ideas all the time. Children help focus the mind.
Too many people have too empty lives. It’s not that caring for and keeping the environment isn’t a worthwhile goal. It’s that there is absolutely no perspective. Using toilet paper to imbue one’s life with meaning is just….lame. Get into church. Listen to a sermon. Giving sermons on toilet paper squares just sounds as superficial and vacuous as your lives must really be. It’s pathetic and out of touch.
Update: Instapundit links to Crow’s requirements when she is on tour.
I’ve Always Wanted A Butler
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007Of all the inventions of civilization, a butler seems to be one of the best. Imagine: a person to remind one of where she need to be, who she needs to contact, what would be appropriate to wear, what the meal should consist of, who gets thank you notes, greets the door, and generally manages one’s life, and if one has kids named Buffy and Jody, nannies the children, too.
I want a butler. I need a butler.
Alas, Mr. French is not in the budget. However, this little invention just might be–with Mother’s Day coming up. Even though the narrower bag looks better, I need something stylish to carry my laptop and/or books in. Opinions?
Men, I really think you could hit a homerun on Mother’s Day with this bag. It’s unique. It’s affordable. It’s beautiful. It’s functional. She’ll love it.
Iraq’s Sunnis in Anbar Want to Join The Process
Saturday, April 21st, 2007They finally view the terrorists as enemies. Time. We need to give our soldiers time. Captain Ed comments:
The Los Angeles Times reports that the security situation in Anbar has shown real improvement. Some of that improvement comes from the efforts of the local tribes, but that wouldn’t be possible if the US hadn’t started its new strategy of clearing and holding territory and establishing credibility in its commitment. The Marines that have boosted their numbers in Anbar have made believers out of the locals.
Now the sheikhs have given their blessings to recruitment for the Iraqi Army, which has up to now been a mainly Shi’ite force. The Sunni recruits will help to balance the security forces and bolster that group’s credibility in Iraq as a whole. It’s the only way that Iraq in the long run can hold itself together.
Baldwin-Basinger Slug Fest
Friday, April 20th, 2007Does anyone need any more evidence that two people bound by a child should stay together for the sake of the child? I know, it’s counter-intuitive. Imagine this: Had this family chosen to stay together they would all have access to their possession–their child–anytime they want.
Instead, they fight over the child as if she were a ….. prized thing.
Alec Baldwin is an insufferable pompous ass. Kim Basinger is not a negotiator in good faith.
Hello? There is a child in this mess and she has the pleasure of hearing her father call her names and thanks to her mom, publicly. She is forced to defend two parents doing the indefensible. Unlucky girl.
Baldwin has an anger problem. He keeps it up, he’ll never see his child.
