Lettuce nose-stuffer avoids jail |
from the BBC.
via DaveBarry
FINEST KIND CLINIC AND FISHMARKET.... Discussing medicine, culture, and the joys of cooking Pansit.
Sunday, June 29, 2014
Friday, June 27, 2014
the enemy of my enemy is my friend
StrategyPage has a long analysis of the ISIS rebels, whose extremism is uniting both Iran and Saudi against them (and will result in the more moderate Syrian rebels to lose their fight for freedom). The ISIS is mainly from the desert tribes...
they also note 160 thousand casulaties of the Syrian rebellion so far.
the Saudis and Iranians have to pause their growing Sunni-Shia feud because both countries have more to fear from ISIL Sunni Islamic terrorism than from each other. Western nations know they are already on the ISIL radar and are cracking down on ISIL fund raising and recruiting in the West. Where does this leave the Syrian rebellion? The secular rebel groups and acceptably moderate Islamic rebels already have a coalition of sorts although that currently includes unacceptably radical groups like al Nusra. In short, things do not look good at all for the rebels. They are screwed.
they also note 160 thousand casulaties of the Syrian rebellion so far.
Stories that make you say "WTF"
Forget the NSA snooping into your LOLCAT emails: Now your doctor will phone you if you buy the wrong stuff at Walmart.
related item:
In Wednesday's decision in Riley v. California, the Supreme Court has unanimously decided that the right of people to be secure in their persons, papers, and effects that is protected under the Fourth Amendment extends to cellphones and smartphones. In doing so, the Court settled a question of growing importance, and gave some hints of how it views search-and-seizure in the digital age...The right of the police to search a suspect during an arrest is based on two considerations: One is officer safety—making sure that the arrestee doesn't have a concealed weapon or other hazard. The other is evidence preservation—that is, making sure that the arrestee doesn't swallow or otherwise destroy evidence in his or her possession.
Then why is it permissible for third parties to invade our privacy to know what we purchase?
And the next step: People (and school kids) buying chips with cash from the back of cars where their purchases won't be traced.
------------------------
update: RevSensing has this posted on his blog.
24 percent of third world women can't take modern birth control because of the price or lack of access, or maybe not.
--------------------------------------
No, I am not watching the world cup (here, the main sport is basket ball: lots of hoops in the side streets where boys play and shoot baskets).
My son played soccer with the local team (consisting of a bunch of Central American students, one deaf student, and one female from the local college, and a couple of rednecks. They won nearly all their games, partly because they shouted at each other either in ASL or Spanish).
Yet the yuppification of soccer (and the elites sniffing at American style football for being too violent) ignores the fact that the head injury rate of Soccer is the same as football.
actually, our medical school had only one team: a Rugby team.
and the injury rate in rugby is higher than that of football...
It misses the point: The reason for sports is to let boys "blow off steam" and as Orwell pointed out: Serious sport is war minus the shooting.
----------------------------------
actually it's none of their damn business...except of course, under Obamacare, it IS their business to "keep us healthy" whether or not we want to be healthy.
While all information would be bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, he said he’s aware some people may be uncomfortable with data going to doctors and hospitals. For these people, the system is considering an opt-out mechanism that will keep their data private, Dulin said.
While the patients may gain from the strategy, hospitals also have a growing financial stake in knowing more about the people they care for.via Drudge, of course.
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, hospital pay is becoming increasingly linked to quality metrics rather than the traditional fee-for-service model where hospitals were paid based on their numbers of tests or procedures.
related item:
Another article about the 4th amendment HERE at PopMech:
While yesterday’s Supreme Court decision unanimously rejecting the administration’s argument that a search warrant wasn’t required for the government to look at cell-phone records and data got a lot of attention, it’s not the first time the Obama administration has taken an anti–civil liberties stance. In last year’s case of U.S. v. Jones, the Justice Department essentially tried to convince the Supreme Court that the Fourth Amendment’s protections against search and seizure should not prevent the government from tracking any American at any time without any reason.
In Wednesday's decision in Riley v. California, the Supreme Court has unanimously decided that the right of people to be secure in their persons, papers, and effects that is protected under the Fourth Amendment extends to cellphones and smartphones. In doing so, the Court settled a question of growing importance, and gave some hints of how it views search-and-seizure in the digital age...The right of the police to search a suspect during an arrest is based on two considerations: One is officer safety—making sure that the arrestee doesn't have a concealed weapon or other hazard. The other is evidence preservation—that is, making sure that the arrestee doesn't swallow or otherwise destroy evidence in his or her possession.
Then why is it permissible for third parties to invade our privacy to know what we purchase?
And the next step: People (and school kids) buying chips with cash from the back of cars where their purchases won't be traced.
------------------------
update: RevSensing has this posted on his blog.
24 percent of third world women can't take modern birth control because of the price or lack of access, or maybe not.
reminds me of when I worked in Africa, when we had lots of children suffering from kwashiorkor, but any woman could get the pill from their local "pill lady" for free. Actually I support that, but the pill decreases the amount of breast milk and might contribute to the children's malnutrition, so we gave out Depo to increase breast milk to lower our rate of malnourished breast fed kids.
In Africa, which has the highest reported level of unmet need (23.5% of married women), 8% of those women cite lack of access as the reason they do not use contraceptives. In comparison, 28% cite concern about side effects, and 24% say they, their partners, or both, are opposed to the use of contraceptives. So, 8% of 23.5% – 1.88% – of surveyed married women in Africa have a lack of access to contraceptives.
That’s less than 2% of married women without access to contraceptives in the region of the world experiencing the greatest poverty and highest rates of hunger – the UN’s World Food Programme saysthat 24.8% of people in Sub-Saharan Africa don’t have enough food to eat.
--------------------------------------
No, I am not watching the world cup (here, the main sport is basket ball: lots of hoops in the side streets where boys play and shoot baskets).
My son played soccer with the local team (consisting of a bunch of Central American students, one deaf student, and one female from the local college, and a couple of rednecks. They won nearly all their games, partly because they shouted at each other either in ASL or Spanish).
Yet the yuppification of soccer (and the elites sniffing at American style football for being too violent) ignores the fact that the head injury rate of Soccer is the same as football.
actually, our medical school had only one team: a Rugby team.
and the injury rate in rugby is higher than that of football...
It misses the point: The reason for sports is to let boys "blow off steam" and as Orwell pointed out: Serious sport is war minus the shooting.
----------------------------------
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Progress in Africa
This is from AlJazeerah:
the article notes only 9 percent of folks have electricity, and that a local hydro electric dam is being repaired.
World Cup fever has forced the Democratic Republic of Congo's national power firm to tell customers to switch off everything but the TV, so that there is enough electricity for everyone to watch the games.
the article notes only 9 percent of folks have electricity, and that a local hydro electric dam is being repaired.
for later reading
It's housecleaning day.
WWI and Benghazi
------------------------
if you love the VA Scandal, just look at the IHS. The President visited Standing Rock last week and promised that the Great Chief in Washington would help them. Yet this 2009 article suggests things are still as bad as when I worked in the Aberdeen area in 1980.
the "wealthier" tribes are those who cashed in on the Casino system and took over part or all of their clinics/hospitals.
so the fracking boom should let the tribes take over, but the "green" alliance with the "native American activists" (often those who grew up elsewhere and got educated into Marxism/green religion in college, not by attending sings or ceremonies) are opposing it because being rich will destroy the culture.
in this case, those living in traditional trailer parks are being forced to move (where did all that money go that the BIA was supposed to build decent housing for them?)
no, it's probably good reporting but it follows the "meme" meaning I suspect that the stories were written before the investigation was done, or that the investigation was done to prove their pre determined ideas.
and guess what? Lots of money diverted in to tribal politician's pockets and to outside speculators.
WWI and Benghazi
------------------------
if you love the VA Scandal, just look at the IHS. The President visited Standing Rock last week and promised that the Great Chief in Washington would help them. Yet this 2009 article suggests things are still as bad as when I worked in the Aberdeen area in 1980.
On some reservations, the oft-quoted refrain is "don't get sick after June," when the federal dollars run out. It's a sick joke, and a sad one, because it's sometimes true, especially on the poorest reservations where residents cannot afford health insurance. Officials say they have about half of what they need to operate, and patients know they must be dying or about to lose a limb to get serious care.
Wealthier tribes can supplement the federal health service budget with their own money. But poorer tribes, often those on the most remote reservations, far away from city hospitals, are stuck with grossly substandard care. The agency itself describes a "rationed health care system."
the "wealthier" tribes are those who cashed in on the Casino system and took over part or all of their clinics/hospitals.
so the fracking boom should let the tribes take over, but the "green" alliance with the "native American activists" (often those who grew up elsewhere and got educated into Marxism/green religion in college, not by attending sings or ceremonies) are opposing it because being rich will destroy the culture.
in this case, those living in traditional trailer parks are being forced to move (where did all that money go that the BIA was supposed to build decent housing for them?)
Still, the tribe is raking in cash. The Fort Berthold reservation received more than $117 million in royalties in 2011, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Individual tribal members who own mineral rights on their private land, or allotments, receive anywhere from hundreds to tens of thousands of dollars a month. That’s about two-thirds of the tribe’s total royalties.a similar activist inspired stories in the StarTrib.
no, it's probably good reporting but it follows the "meme" meaning I suspect that the stories were written before the investigation was done, or that the investigation was done to prove their pre determined ideas.
and guess what? Lots of money diverted in to tribal politician's pockets and to outside speculators.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Ten myths about World War I
from the BBC
and note number one:
1. It was the bloodiest war in history to that point
and note number one:
1. It was the bloodiest war in history to that point
Fifty years before WW1 broke out, southern China was torn apart by an even bloodier conflict. Conservative estimates of the dead in the 14-year Taiping rebellion start at between 20 million and 30 million. Around 17 million soldiers and civilians were killed during WW1.
IRS problem? No problem
via Dustbury
Can’t find your tax-return documentation? Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) to the rescue:
Taxpayers who do not produce documents for the Internal Revenue Service will be able to offer a variety of dubious excuses under legislation introduced by Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX 36) a week after the IRS offered an incredibly dubious excuse for its failure to turn documents over to House investigators.Under Stockman’s bill, “The Dog Ate My Tax Receipts Act,” taxpayers who do not provide documents requested by the IRS can claim one of the following reasons:
- The dog ate my tax receipts
- Convenient, unexplained, miscellaneous computer malfunction
- Traded documents for five terrorists
- Burned for warmth while lost in the Yukon
- Left on table in Hillary’s Book Room
- Received water damage in the trunk of Ted Kennedy’s car
- Forgot in gun case sold to Mexican drug lords
- Forced to recycle by municipal Green Czar
- Was short on toilet paper while camping
- At this point, what difference does it make?
First they came for Bob Jones U
The anchoress has this snippet about Bob Jones losing their tax exempt status because they weren't PC.
more here from Father L, who notes that this type of thinking bodes ill for any church related institution.
and now the AMA says you don't have to have a sex change operation to change your sex. (I suspect it was a "focus group" at that institution, not those who represent doctors, which is why they are losing members...They do this all the time, and their website is constantly sending me emails about the wonderfulness of OBama care, while sending me other emails on how I can try to figure out how to change my practice and billing to get paid. Every hour spent learning billing is one hour less seeing patients and doing CME, but never mind).
and no links, but someone at the NYTimes had an editorial saying that marriage was the cause of most domestic violence, and another article somewhere lauded the fact that the "milleneals" didn't think that gender differences mattered any more.
The problem with all of this is that reality tends to bite back.
Gender differences are biological, and the trend of the elites to destroy any social institution that is based on this fact bodes ill for the future, because a society that insists on ignoring reality won't survive.
3) Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds excerpts an important part of Jonathan Turley’s thoughtful look at government agencies stretching their boundaries. Here’s what struck me:
Historically, the IRS adopted a neutral rule that avoided not-for-profit determinations based on the content of organizations’ beliefs and practices. Then, in 1970, came the Bob Jones University case. The IRS withdrew the tax-exempt status from the religious institution because of its rule against interracial dating on campus. The Supreme Court affirmed in 1983 that the IRS could yank tax exemption whenever it decided that an organization is behaving “contrary to established public policy” — whatever that public policy may be. Bob Jones had to choose between financial ruin and conforming its religious practices. It did the latter. . . .
Yeah, yeah, we all hate Bob Jones University because they’re a bunch of bigots so they got what they deserved and made their decision accordingly, right?
Well, late last week the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to redefine marriage as involving “two persons”. With this vote they join six other churches or religious movements willing to perform same-sex marriages. The Episcopals will not be very far behind, I don’t think.
Since the IRS can determine tax-exemptions based on whether organizations are “contrary to established public policy”, I suspect it will not be long before those churches determined to heed Jesus’ words over the times and trends will find their obstinate traditions deemed so contrary and will start paying through the nose for the privilege of exercising their first amendment right to be themselves.
“Be yourself” is still a thing, right?
more here from Father L, who notes that this type of thinking bodes ill for any church related institution.
and now the AMA says you don't have to have a sex change operation to change your sex. (I suspect it was a "focus group" at that institution, not those who represent doctors, which is why they are losing members...They do this all the time, and their website is constantly sending me emails about the wonderfulness of OBama care, while sending me other emails on how I can try to figure out how to change my practice and billing to get paid. Every hour spent learning billing is one hour less seeing patients and doing CME, but never mind).
and no links, but someone at the NYTimes had an editorial saying that marriage was the cause of most domestic violence, and another article somewhere lauded the fact that the "milleneals" didn't think that gender differences mattered any more.
The problem with all of this is that reality tends to bite back.
Gender differences are biological, and the trend of the elites to destroy any social institution that is based on this fact bodes ill for the future, because a society that insists on ignoring reality won't survive.
or as Kipling wrote:AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,
I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.
Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all...
Volcano factoids
Wired says Chimborozo volcano in Ecuador had the largest eruption in the past 2000 years.
erupted last about 640 AD.
another factoid:
between this and the Lacher See Volcano, (10000 BC) one wonders if many of the "dragon" legends are due to pre historic eruptions being put into stories of the Germanic tribes, in the same way that when Anaeis visited the "gates of hell" , he went to Cumae, located near Vesuvius.
Ulysses, however, found his "gates of hell" at the western edge of the known world,
and in the Percy Jackson series, one of the "doors of death" is at Epirus.
where the "dragon lakes" of Mt Pindos are located, but the volcanism there predates man.
and here is an article about volcanos:
Which three little pigs house would survive a volcano?
erupted last about 640 AD.
another factoid:
While the summit of Mount Everest is the highest point on the Earth above sea level, the summit of Chimborazo is the farthest place on the surface of the Earth from its exact center, a distance of 3,968 miles (6,384.4 kilometers). It’s important to remember that the Earth is not a perfect sphere but instead bulges out at its equator. Chimborazo is only one degree south of the equator, while Mount Everest is 28 degrees north. Chimborazo’s summit is 2.1 kilometers farther from the Earth’s center than Everest.and the wired article notes that France
the Chaîne des Puys lava domes (see below) formed at ~4040 BC, meaning they are very much still capable of another eruption. - See more at: http://www.wired.com/2014/06/volcano-world-cup-group-e/#sthash.1Qvkfos8.dpuf
between this and the Lacher See Volcano, (10000 BC) one wonders if many of the "dragon" legends are due to pre historic eruptions being put into stories of the Germanic tribes, in the same way that when Anaeis visited the "gates of hell" , he went to Cumae, located near Vesuvius.
Ulysses, however, found his "gates of hell" at the western edge of the known world,
and in the Percy Jackson series, one of the "doors of death" is at Epirus.
where the "dragon lakes" of Mt Pindos are located, but the volcanism there predates man.
and here is an article about volcanos:
Which three little pigs house would survive a volcano?
Smaug foiled again
So why did cutting the bridges foil Smaug's attack on Laketown in the book the Hobbit?
I always thought it was due to the fact that the houses were too small and flimsy to land on, meaning that he could only try to flame them. And in flying, the updrafts/downdrafts over the burning town surrounded by a cooler lake would interfere with his flying, and the smoke from the burning houses would obscure his aim.
and of course, it was a moonless night, so figuring out how high he was flying could lead to "controlled flight into terrain"...
Michael Martinez' take is here.
but since xenite won't load here, I'll have to keep guessing.
I always thought it was due to the fact that the houses were too small and flimsy to land on, meaning that he could only try to flame them. And in flying, the updrafts/downdrafts over the burning town surrounded by a cooler lake would interfere with his flying, and the smoke from the burning houses would obscure his aim.
and of course, it was a moonless night, so figuring out how high he was flying could lead to "controlled flight into terrain"...
Michael Martinez' take is here.
but since xenite won't load here, I'll have to keep guessing.
Monday, June 23, 2014
Remembering WWI
LINK
for later reading.
I have Professor M's audiobook on the Versailles treaty, and she is a good teacher, if you can afford her books.
Most WWI books are about the trenches: Her books see the war in it's geopolitical web and how that first war led to the second war. more here.
strategyPage's podcast on that war HERE.
for later reading.
I have Professor M's audiobook on the Versailles treaty, and she is a good teacher, if you can afford her books.
Most WWI books are about the trenches: Her books see the war in it's geopolitical web and how that first war led to the second war. more here.
strategyPage's podcast on that war HERE.
For Later viewing
Hieropraxis has a report on a CSLewis symposium
video links:
for later watching, as today is housecleaning day.
video links:
for later watching, as today is housecleaning day.
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Getting outside oneself
I enjoyed the Fault in our stars
and one of the points was that the depressed protagonist needed to get back into life, which she does by meeting friends at a support group "meeting in the heart of Jesus" (a phrase at which the kids all shrug).
Yet this is why support groups work: And why family and friends and societies that stress interrelationships and family ties are more flexible than isolated individuals who think they are the master of their fate.
from Rabbi Sacks:
a good religion is both going up and down to the deity (Jacob's ladder) and going out to those around us. The two great commandments...
and one of the points was that the depressed protagonist needed to get back into life, which she does by meeting friends at a support group "meeting in the heart of Jesus" (a phrase at which the kids all shrug).
Yet this is why support groups work: And why family and friends and societies that stress interrelationships and family ties are more flexible than isolated individuals who think they are the master of their fate.
from Rabbi Sacks:
----------------------
modern therapies tend to seek a solution within the self. It began with Rousseau, who thought that individuals were good and society bad, and it has continued unchecked ever since. Nowadays we are led to believe that it is we alone who are masters of our fate, we who preserve our freedom by steering clear of the entanglements of commitment and community. Hence the idea of self-help. But sometimes staying within the self is not a cure but the problem itself.One of the great blessings of religion is that it moves us beyond the self. It bonds us to others and to God. It trains us in the habits of loving kindness. It teaches us relational intelligence. It sustains oases of community in the desert of the lonely crowd. It supports the kind of friendships that can heal broken hearts. Sometimes, along with self-help, we need a little help from our friends.
a good religion is both going up and down to the deity (Jacob's ladder) and going out to those around us. The two great commandments...
Celebrating those who give the gift of beauty
Brian Sibley remembers Mary Blair, one of the concept artists at Disney in the good old days.
more here
more here
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Obama, Iran and the Goths
My only comment on Obama refusing to help Iraq, and standing by while Iran will pick up the pieces is to note the similarities of Rome in it's declining years using barbarians to fight other barbarians.
Hope this works out better.
AustinBay's cynical take is here.
StrategyPage has more: apparantly the US and Saudi are helping the Iraqis on the sly and the Kurds are coming into the fight.
The result will probably be ethnic cleansing of the Sunni minority, who are helping the terrorists, something that General Petreus stopped by getting them to switch sides during Bush's surge.
And a lot of the problem is corruption.
come to think of it, Rome's corruption is one reason the Goths turned murderous.
Hope this works out better.
AustinBay's cynical take is here.
StrategyPage has more: apparantly the US and Saudi are helping the Iraqis on the sly and the Kurds are coming into the fight.
The result will probably be ethnic cleansing of the Sunni minority, who are helping the terrorists, something that General Petreus stopped by getting them to switch sides during Bush's surge.
And a lot of the problem is corruption.
come to think of it, Rome's corruption is one reason the Goths turned murderous.
Family news
Today is house cleaning day.
The kittens are starting to eat, so more sleep for me at night maybe tonite.
And this morning, before I ate, (i.e. while getting a low blood sugar) I fed the dogs, the cats, the kittens, and then the fish...and accidentally spilled a ton of fish food into the pond, which we then had to remove as much as possible. I had a dream last week that the koi were dying off, so I hope they don't eat too much and pass to the great koi pond in the sky.
-----------------------------------
Yesterday I went with Ruby to see The Fault etc. movie. No, it's not "love story" remade, it's more like Anne Frank: Teenagers knowing that they may die at any time chose to concentrate on living not the fact that they are dying. But my two complaints: Like seeking a friend for the end of the world, there is only a vague deism in the face of death by very normal good people
and Gus is just too good to be true, although the Isaac character suggests that is because he is only showing his good side to Hazel.
Warning: a three handkerchief movie.
Oh well. It beats transformers.
The kittens are starting to eat, so more sleep for me at night maybe tonite.
And this morning, before I ate, (i.e. while getting a low blood sugar) I fed the dogs, the cats, the kittens, and then the fish...and accidentally spilled a ton of fish food into the pond, which we then had to remove as much as possible. I had a dream last week that the koi were dying off, so I hope they don't eat too much and pass to the great koi pond in the sky.
-----------------------------------
Yesterday I went with Ruby to see The Fault etc. movie. No, it's not "love story" remade, it's more like Anne Frank: Teenagers knowing that they may die at any time chose to concentrate on living not the fact that they are dying. But my two complaints: Like seeking a friend for the end of the world, there is only a vague deism in the face of death by very normal good people
and Gus is just too good to be true, although the Isaac character suggests that is because he is only showing his good side to Hazel.
Warning: a three handkerchief movie.
Oh well. It beats transformers.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
The "WTF" Headline of the day
from GMA news:
How could an opera about the deliberate murder of an elderly, disable Jewish man by terrorists be anti semetic? What, he 'deserved it'?
no, because it made the murder of a handicapped old man the moral equivalence to the Palestians, who fled but were refused resettlement in their new homes, but kept as tame animals by the UN and neighboring countries to fester in hate (compare this to the 2 million Germans resettled, or even the half million Jews who were forced to flee arab countries by pogroms after 1948. It's all about politics of course: As long as Israel is the scapegoat, they won't ask questions, like how did Mrs. Arafat get all that lovely money in her bank account).
and it seemed to blame him for his own murder.
NEW YORK - New York's Metropolitan Opera announced on Tuesday that it has canceled its plans for a live transmission of the opera "The Death of Klinghoffer" in movie theaters because of concerns that it could fan global anti-Semitism.
The opera house made the move after an outpouring of concern about the John Adams opera about the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by Palestinian militants in 1985 and the killing of disabled, elderly American Jewish passenger Leon Klinghoffer.
"I'm convinced that the opera is not anti-Semitic," Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, said in a statement. "But I've also become convinced that there is genuine concern in the international Jewish community that the live transmission of 'The Death of Klinghoffer' would be inappropriate at this time of rising anti-Semitism, particularly in Europe."
How could an opera about the deliberate murder of an elderly, disable Jewish man by terrorists be anti semetic? What, he 'deserved it'?
no, because it made the murder of a handicapped old man the moral equivalence to the Palestians, who fled but were refused resettlement in their new homes, but kept as tame animals by the UN and neighboring countries to fester in hate (compare this to the 2 million Germans resettled, or even the half million Jews who were forced to flee arab countries by pogroms after 1948. It's all about politics of course: As long as Israel is the scapegoat, they won't ask questions, like how did Mrs. Arafat get all that lovely money in her bank account).
and it seemed to blame him for his own murder.
. Then follows the rapid unraveling of the terrorists plans and the inexplicable decision to execute Klinghoffer. No one knows why this particular man was singled out for execution. Was he simply a sacrificial lamb in a terrorist scenario gone awry? Had he, through some exchange of words, prompted his own demise? Or was he, simply because of his handicap, an encumbrance?
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