Is It Not Pathetic?

I don't mean to harp on this--after all, every comedian in America is having a field day with the subject of Anthony Wiener and his (ahem) wiener--sorry this is virtually unavoidable--which apparently was  brandished about photographically for several women in several public places on the Net and in some cases for ladies not even old enough to be considered adults. Not only is this incident so monumentally stupid that words fail me, but consider: how can a member of the United States Congress possibly think that he could get away with something like this? Unbelievable. But this whole affair is also pitifully pathetic on two levels, and you can decide which is lower:

• The acts themselves. The whole notion of parading your naked self before strangers. Well, I don't care how you do it, mama always told me that was something you just didn't do. Maybe I'm just too old and not hip enough about everything that's happening out there in cyberspace. Apparently it's a regular meat market out there. Can guys really find women to bed this way? I mean what's up with this? I fear I'm showing my age.

• The ludicrous attempt by Wiener to first of all lie his way out of his guilt by concocting phantasmal stories that only invited even more slavering hounds of the lamestream and low road media to jump on him, and second of all, Wiener's attempt after his astonishing press conference where he 'fessed up to everything, his pathetic attempt to carry on as if nothing happened and this will all go away. It's the equivalent to standing in a house that's burning down around you and claiming it's just a little heat wave that will pass.

Here's the thing. Up until this incident, I rather liked Wiener . . . I saw him frequently on Rachel Maddow and admired his unflinching progressivism. But, dude, you are so far beyond my caring about what happens to you now . . . just slink your sorry ass out of Washington, go home, and for God's sake, shut up. Don't worry. Give it a few years, and you can become a respected commentator like Elliot Spitzer. 

Related articles

• Rep. Anthony Wieners "motives" (smacktalkradio.wordpress.com)
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• Multiple Wieners Threaten Democrat Party Survival (economicnoise.com)

Addictive

Sometimes nice thing happens when you're out of town. A really nice thing happened for me while I was in Louisiana. My iPad2 arrived. (A gift to myself with the honorarium from the talk in Hammond.) All the way from China. Well, it wasn't exactly while I was gone to be precise. UPS attempted to deliver the thing last Friday, but since no one was here to sign for it, they left only a notice and I had to make arrangements for it to be brought here on Tuesday, when I was sure to be home.* I have to say, I've been pretty much entranced with the thing since. I'm right now, five days later, just getting to the point where I can initial set-up has just about finished. You know, all that stuff you have to go through when you get a new computer (laptop, smart phone, tablet, etc.): getting to know the device, setting up where you want all the applications, playing with them and others, and generally learning how the new toy works.

There are all kinds of excellencies about this device, not the least of which is that I can access the Internet now from anywhere in my house, which means I will be able to spend more time in the same room with Susan. The way our house is situated when I'm sitting at the computer I'm away from the kitchen/living room where my spouse is most of the time (when she's not outside puttering around in the garden/yard, which she does a lot). Her laptop is there. So closing that physical separation will be nice.

Plus, of course, there are literally over 300,000--I think that's right--apps (applications) that running independently accomplish about any task you can think of.

I'm still having some glitches getting everything to work the way it's supposed to, but I can tell you now, friends, these things are addictive.

*And as luck would have it, the iPad I got had a defective wall plug-in so the damn thing would not charge up. I had to drive 30 miles to the nearest Apple store to get a replacement plug.

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Is Stupidity Rising?

As you all know, it's a question I put to you at regular intervals. It takes no thought whatever to answer the question. The evidence, in my opinion, is overwhelming that we're soon to be completely inundated, drowned miserably in a vast ocean of stupidity. Ran across an interesting article on a blog called "The Hammock Physicist." In it, the blogger, one Johannes Koelman, references a 35-year old article by Italian economic historian Carlo Cipolla entitled "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity". Let me quote:

"A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses."

"Always and inevitably everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation."

"Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places and under any circumstances to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake."

and further

"Our daily life is mostly, made of cases in which we lose money and/or time and/or energy and/or appetite, cheerfulness and good health because of the improbable action of some preposterous creature who has nothing to gain and indeed gains nothing from causing us embarrassment, difficulties or harm. Nobody knows, understands or can possibly explain why that preposterous creature does what he does. In fact there is no explanation - or better there is only one explanation: the person in question is stupid." 

What's to argue with here? All you have to remember is Hanlon's Razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. Precisely.

Think George W. Bush. Think Anthony Weiner. Think your basic person on the street in any city in America. It's all very distressing.

Related articles

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Would You Eat One?

Yummy! Grasshoppers.

What you see over there to the left is a mess of grasshoppers ready to eat. I don't know if I would have known what these were had they not been identified in Boing Boing's entry today. (At a quick glance, they look like crawfish.) Seems that La Oaxaqueña Bakery and Restaurant in San Francisco has been banned by the city health department from serving its famous grasshopper tacos. Not because grasshoppers are gross, but because they are not from an FDA-approved source. They are, in fact, straight from Oaxaquena, Mexico, where they are sold everywhere and eaten in swarms, if you will pardon the expression.

So, OK, what is an FDA-approved source where a hard-working restaurant owner can get some hoppers? Well, there is no FDA-approved source. Next!

Aside from the Kafka-like mess this restaurant finds itself in, I find myself wondering about the cultural boundaries that surround food that humans consume. Entomophagy--eating of insects by human beings (can you believe there's a word for it?)--is not only verboten by the cultural norms of this country and Europe, but the very notion of eating a bug causes lots of people to gag. I would be willing to bet that the vast, vast majority of Americans would not even try eating a  tasty insect.

Once again, as in health care, the Western World is out of step with the non-Western world. According to Wikipedia, 80 percent of the world regularly eats insects, and if you want to be technical, arachnids. Over a thousand different kinds of the former and over 1,200 of the latter.

Some of the more popular insect and arachnids eaten around the world include crickets, cicadas,grasshoppers, ants, a variety of beetle grubs (such as mealworms), the larvae of the darkling beetle or rhinoceros beetle, a variety of species of caterpillar (such as bamboo worms, mopani worms, silkworms and waxworms), scorpions and tarantulas. Entomophagy is sometimes defined broadly to include the practice of eating arthropods that are not insects, such as arachnids (tarantulas mainly) and myriapods (centipedes mainly). There are 1,417 known species ofarthropods, including arachnids, that are edible to humans.

Now the question is, given the chance, would you eat one? Or several? I can say positively that I would. Hell, I'm from South Louisiana. If you can eat a crawfish or an oyster, you can eat a bug. Besides, they are good for you. Loaded with vitamins and minerals and protein. Unsaturated fat in some. And think about this: isn't eating insects more ecologically sound than depleting the oceans of fish and feeding half the grain  grown in the world to cows?

Related articles

• Ever Eaten A Beetle? Studies Show Grasshoppers Provide More Protein And Less Fat Than Beef (thatgirlisfunny.com)
• A diet of insects by 2020? (guardian.co.uk)

A Decent Idea Out of Texas

Stop the presses! This is an unusual story, indeed. I'm about to say something good about Texas that doesn't involve my Texas Rangers baseball team. To wit: in a rare action that actually meets my approval the Texas House of Representatives recently passed a bill banning searches by TSA agents without probable cause. (Read about it here. See also here.) The law says that searches by these ubiquitous airport agents unless they have good reason to suspect that a person has committed a crime are illegal in Texas. The Boing Boing writeup has a wonderful description of the TSA's reaction: "The TSA has responded with headless chicken hysteria, making up gradeschool misinterpretations of the nature of US federalism." The TSA claims that the supremacy clause of the US Constitution (Art. IV, Clause 2*) "prevents the states from regulating the federal government." A bald-faced lie, according to knowledgeable commentators. Good writeup why is here.

So we have the long arm of federal intrusion into our lives claiming basically that there is nothing to restrain their intrusive power. I'm not interested in the constitutional niceties here. The huge public outcry against the latest outrages on Americans perpetrated by the TSA had no effect whatever. The intrusive pat-downs and scans have simply continued. So it's time for a state legislature, or many of them, to step in and protect the basic constitutional liberties of the citizenry.

Too bad it had to be Texas, though, a fruitcake state if ever one there was.

*This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.

Related articles

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• In Ruthless Act of Economic Warfare, Tsa Threatens to Make Texas a No-fly Zone (worldtruthtoday.com)
• An Example of the TSA's Sexual Assaults and Texas Pat Down Ban Back? (thepursuitofliberty.wordpress.com)

I Miss George Carlin

George Carlin died too soon. I would love to hear his commentary on the times right now. Here's the kind of thing we're missing. This is the rap/poem he delivered on his last appearance on The Tonight Show. (Source). We could use his wisdom . . . and can you imagine? His wit would be savage.

I’m a modern man,
A man for the millennium,
Digital and smoke free.
A diversified multicultural postmodern deconstructionist,
Politically anatomically and ecologically incorrect.
I’ve been uplinked and downloaded.
I’ve been inputted and outsourced.
I know the upside of downsizing.
I know the downside of upgrading.
I’m a high tech lowlife.
A cutting edge state-of-the-art bicoastal multitasker,
And I can give you a gigabyte in a nanosecond. (The rest after the jump…)
I’m new wave but I’m old school,
And my inner child is outward bound.
I’m a hot wired heat seeking warm hearted cool customer,
Voice activated and biodegradable.
I interface from a database,
And my database is in cyberspace,
So I’m interactive,
I’m hyperactive,
And from time-to-time,
I’m radioactive.
Behind the eight ball,
Ahead of the curve,
Riding the wave,
Dodging a bullet,
Pushing the envelope.
I’m on point,
On task,
On message,
And off drugs.
I got no need for coke and speed,
I got no urge to binge and purge.
I’m in the moment,
On the edge,
Over the top,
But under the radar.
A high concept,
Low profile,
Medium range ballistic missionary.
A street-wise smart bomb.
A top gun bottom feeder.
I wear power ties,
I tell power lies,
I take power naps,
I run victory laps.
I’m a totally ongoing bigfoot slam dunk rainmaker with a proactive outreach.
A raging workaholic.
A working ragaholic.
Out of rehab,
And in denial.
I got a personal trainer,
A personal shopper,
A personal assistant,
And a personal agenda.
You can’t shut me up,
You can’t dumb me down.
‘Cause I’m tireless,
And I’m wireless.
I’m an alpha male on beta blockers.
I’m a non-believer and an over-achiever.
Laid back but fashion forward.
Up front,
Down home,
Low rent,
High maintenance.
Super size,
Long lasting,
High definition,
Fast acting,
Oven ready,
And built to last.
I’m a hands on,
Foot loose,
Knee jerk,
Head case.
Prematurely post traumatic,
And I have a love child who sends me hate mail.
But I’m feeling,
I’m caring,
I’m healing,
I’m sharing.
A supportive bonding nurturing primary care giver.
My output is down,
But my income is up.
I take a short position on the long bond,
And my revenue stream has its own cash flow.
I read junk mail,
I eat junk food,
I buy junk bonds,
I watch trash sports.
I’m gender specific,
Capital intensive,
User friendly,
And lactose intolerant.
I like rough sex.
I like rough sex.
I like tough love.
I use the f word in my email,
And the software on my hard drive is hard core, no soft porn.
I bought a microwave at a mini mall.
I bought a mini van in a mega store.
I eat fast food in the slow lane.
I’m toll free,
Bite sized,
Ready to wear,
And I come in all sizes.
A fully equipped,
Factory authorized,
Hospital tested,
Clinically proven,
Scientifically formulated medical miracle.
I’ve been pre-washed,
Pre-cooked,
Pre-heated,
Pre-screened,
Pre-approved,
Pre-packaged,
Post-dated,
Freeze-dried,
Double-wrapped,
Vacuum-packed,
And I have an unlimited broadband capacity.
I’m a rude dude,
But I’m the real deal.
Lean and mean.
Cocked, locked and ready to rock.
Rough tough and hard to bluff.
I take it slow.
I go with the flow.
I ride with the tide.
I got glide in my stride.
Drivin’ and movin’,
Sailin’ and spinnin’,
Jivin’ and groovin’,
Wailin’ and winnin’.
I don’t snooze,
So I don’t lose.
I keep the pedal to the metal,
And the rubber on the road.
I party hearty,
And lunch time is crunch time.
I’m hanging in,
There ain’t no doubt.
And I’m hanging tough,
Over and out.

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Hi There!

Here's what I'm about today: Deep Delta Civil War Symposium

Gone Again . . .

Dear Readers, I'm gone from my little abode for yet another weekend trip, as I think I warned you. But this time I've been so jammed up with stuff to do, I was not able to post ahead, as I did last weekend. But who knows? I may find a way even from the heart of darkest Louisiana. In any event, I'm back with you on Monday, so you will have to just endure the weekend without my blather. And then, when I'm back, I get to stay home for a little while. That will be great.

You Will Be Delighted to Learn

That the outbreak of sickness and more than several deaths in Europe and being attributed to food-consumption is being caused by what is described as a "an unusually virulent strain of E. coli that scientists haven't seen before and that may be dramatically more dangerous." This bug is more brutal than previous strains because it attacks the blood in such away that it induces renal failure.


I heard about this on NPR yesterday and today I read that they still haven't pinpointed the source. Apparently the killer bug is being transmitted on fresh vegetables: cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce. 


All the healthy foods, you will note. So consider the irony that people who are trying to eat healthy are much more likely to contract a death-dealing illness from their "healthy" food.

E coli . . . nasty looking little sucker, no?

Related articles

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Who Would Have Thought . . .

The Face of Millions of Americans: Homeless & Hungry

. . . that the level of poverty in the U.S.A. would rival that of North Korea? My sister, the same one who sent the piece about education I talked about yesterday, sent this one a while back. For reasons that will become apparent below, you might want to check out the CNN source for the story. Both articles have all the grim facts, and they are grim indeed. I've saved it on my desktop and have been meaning to talk about it since.

I just haven't gotten around to reading it till now. One does not have to agree with the Biblical outrage in the piece, nor its pro-Israel bent* to be appalled by the facts here presented. In North Korea 5 million people face "food shortages." In this, the richest country that's ever been in history, the number of similarly situated people is 45 million. Why is no one, why isn't everyone just completely scandalized by this?

But no, we just go about our business, getting and spending. Out of sight is out of our mind. This goes for everything harmful, from pollution to the graft, lies, and corruption that grease the wheels of our "democratic" government at every level to the killing being done in our name in Afghanistan . . . and of course, the millions of poor people in their miserable tent cities all over the country.

*I have to observe that these sentiments are decidedly not those of my sister. As far as I know, and I know her pretty well, she doesn't embrace the virulently pro-Jewish partisanship of this website. 

Related articles

• US team in N. Korea over food shortages: Xinhua (alternet.org)