Year: 2011
Insert a Trite Metaphor for a Corral #86
Posted on February 28, 2011 in Roundup
The last time I did one of these, I was cautiously celebrating the fact that Obama had won the Iowa Caucuses! The big news today was that the police union refused to oust the teachers’ union which busted the Wisconsin governor’s balls. I’m not calling us out of the tunnel just yet. Oh we are living in dire times now, but I have plenty of stuff to share that just might keep you engaged!
- It’s IGNORE SARAH PALIN WEEK! — You betcha!
- Buffalo Beast Poses as David Koch, Calls WI Gov. Walker — Probably the choicest and most disturbing story of the week. Also here
- Is Pro-Life Actually Pro-Abortion? — Another progressive notes that the so-called Pro-Life movement does very little to change the conditions that lead women to have abortions.
- I’ve just about had it with Ed Schultz — raises the question of just where were all these people who are mad as hell with Walker last November? Hmm?
- George Soros — He’s No Koch Brother — And unlike Glenn Beck, he is a GREAT man
- Starting With Your Own Answers to The Big Questions Leads to Reducing Stigma In Others — A psychiatrist who is also a patient considers religion
- How Corporations Have Mastered the Art of Not Paying Their Fair Share of Taxes
- Louisiana Just Printing Out Wikipedia Pages, Calling It History — No one writes their own inscriptions anymore.
- Vatican confirms report of sexual abuse and rape of nuns by priests in 23 countries – I’m waiting for Pope Benedict to blame this on homosexuals
- Really Bad Reporting in Wisconsin: Who ‘Contributes’ to Public Workers’ Pensions? – O’Really?
- Cops shut down Ga. Girl Scout cookie stand — I confess to stalking Girl Scouts for their cookies, but this is pure Chamber of Commerce
- Stop Buying Bottled Water Immediately! (INFOGRAPHIC)
- Another Runaway General: Army Deploys Psy-Ops on U.S. Senators — You got to love these guys
- The Death of Organized Labor, or its Rebirth?
- Paris Hilton’s birthday cake burgled! — At $3212, what did it taste like?
- The Man Who Wrote the Revolution Rulebook — Gene Sharp
- Introducing the American Dream Movement — One of many great answers to the Tea Party
- How to Build A Progressive Tea Party — The most important article of 2011 and, perhaps, the decade
In a Sad Corner of the Multiverse
Posted on February 26, 2011 in Depression Humor? Science
My current reading consists of three books crammed into my Kindle — Styron’s [amazonify]0679736638::text::::The Confessions of Nat Turner[/amazonify], Metaxas’s [amazonify]1595551387::text::::Bonhoeffer[/amazonify], and a curious but apparently true work of physics by Brian Greene called [amazonify]0307265633::text::::The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos[/amazonify].
I have to admire anyone who wades through piles of scientific papers in an attempt to explain how parallel universes — or taken collectively, a multiverse — arise from taking theoretical physics to its logical extremes. I don’t pretend to understand the math, so I am taking Greene at his word.
The concept shoves me into a place of despair. In its crudest form, consider that there are parallel Milky Ways with parallel earths ((Anyone who has watched Star Trek knows the theme)). On many of these there is another Joel, perhaps pecking away at his computer like I am, except his history has been different. Due thanks to the Universe issues from my lips that this is not the somewhere he lives on the streets (having never met his wife) or is even dead. But there’s a depressing thought that emerges as I read this and I find myself cursing conditions here.
It is possible, you see, that a new universe comes into existence every minute or so. And from this fruition, come new realities. One of these realities has brought me to a better place than this where I am successful or at least secure in a world where the politics are sane. I make a difference in that world. So why, I ask, did I get stuck in this time stream? Why have I deteriorated alongside the rest of the country? Why don’t I get to travel in a better one and stay there?
The despair grows unbearable when I think: “What if this is the best universe?” Ah, then it is tragedy all the way down.
Fork the multiverse. It’s screwed me.
The Paranoid Experience
Posted on February 26, 2011 in Depression
Paranoia burns both as one of the brands of stigma and as a symptom experienced by sufferers of bipolar disorder.
Bipolar Disorder and Accountability
Posted on February 23, 2011 in Bipolar Disorder Responsibility
I offer my illness as explanation not excuse.
A Mobile Doubt
Posted on February 23, 2011 in Anxiety PTSD Relationships Therapy
I am afflicted by what can be termed as a mobile doubt.
Science and Anti-Science on Depression
Posted on February 16, 2011 in Depression Thinking
Up to the podium they boldly walk and claim the Nobel Prize for themselves based on the same sort of reasoning that leads Creationists to dispute the Theory of Evolution. It amounts to “Science is not certain, so we have won the argument because we ~are~ certain.”
Ravens
Posted on February 16, 2011 in Creatures
The best events catch me by surprise. There’s a section of the Harding Trail that tightens itself into a fold before springing back. When you come down the hill, the trail slides down into this bend, then climbs again on the switchback before rounding a corner and again starting for the base of the unnamed mountain. It was here that the birds cried out to each other and here that I heard them. A pair of fine, large ravens grasped each other by the feet and plummeted head down into the nameless gorge. Two others swooped overhead as the first pair separated before a catastrophic stop and joined them in a flight that took them to the north north-east. I hoped to see more of their mating, but they disappeared over the crest of a ridge. A lonely white-tailed kite hunted for songbirds along this promontory, but it evacuated the vicinity as the ravens whirled past it.
Then the other day — Monday — Drake and I found a solitary raven squatting at a backroads cul-de-sac we frequent. The stout bird squawked and stared across Harding Canyon. Drake was drawn to it. The raven permitted him to come within a few feet and then wheeled into the sky. The rest of our descent was accompanied by caws which registered that the bird sought a mate without success.
The Sad Place Beyond Chemical Imbalances & Stigma
Posted on February 8, 2011 in Depression Reflections
I don’t like the drama as some do. But I so urgently need to talk about it.
Rape and Why I Became Pro-Choice
Posted on February 3, 2011 in Abortion Strange Violence
How do I distinguish between the ones who just didn’t report the rape and the ones who were intimidated into sex from those who are abortion junkies?
My Lack of Health Insurance Nightmare
Posted on February 2, 2011 in Bipolar Disorder Insurance
I’ve been locked out by my illness and by economic realities.
Toxic Society: It’s What We All Put in the Pot
Posted on January 23, 2011 in Abuse Civic Responsibility Compassion Terminology
With Utah Senator Bob Lee’s declaration that if we stop the violent rhetoric “the shooter wins” — for starters — I realize that National No-Name-Calling Week is going to be tough for me. But I do see value in holding my temper and refraining from short-cutting reasonable arguments against — there, I almost did it. I stopped myself. Let’s just say that Bob Lee is wrong in the extreme and doing little more than trying to find an excuse for continuing to be a — damn. I told you this wasn’t going to be easy.
These are terrible times. We confound the right of being able to say what we want — even that which is rude — and draw from that the confused notion that being offensive and divisive is an obligation. So we jump to the worst before we rise to the best — if we ever bother to rise at all. This week, I am going to try to mark a better course. If Lee persists in defending violent rhetoric, I will point out the act without adding an epithet. We have enough bullying going around (and Lee’s statement is as bad a defense of bullying as I have ever seen), so for one week, let’s try to find the better place of considered discussion. This week, let us refute and rebut the logic without resorting to the shorthand of abusing the messenger. Democracy is not for the lazy: we must work to gain agreement and consensus.
People not to think about this week: Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Boehner, Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, Bob Lee.
It is what we all put in the pot that makes for a toxic social atmosphere.
I promise you this: I shall do my best to argue the issues not diss the person. If I fail, I shall pick myself up pronto and set myself to the spirit once more. Wish me luck.
