Lunch Conversations

This is fairly typical of the conversation we used to have at our Friday lunches:

Lady and Gentlemen….

You would have to do an MRI scan to know what part of the brain is at a high functioning level to draw a conclusion in this experiment. Several extremes are in play here. Beauty is in the eye or should I say the ear of the beholder. This is a place where a man who falls from the platform. No one stops to help. What value did the observer place on the man? Actually Rob and I have some great discussions. I love the opportunity. Retired or not. 

Great to hear from you Lee.  Let us know when you are going to visit Ca. and we can all get together and catch up.

Sincerely

Carole, The wife of the Great and Powerful Oz!  Oh I mean Rob…..

From: leelu [mailto:lawebber@cwassociates.net]
(redactions)
Subject: RE: Joshua Bell Plays in Subway

First:  Carole, has Rob gotten more like this since he retired?  Does he need to get out more??

 

Late to the thread, I know.  The value discussion has some, well, value, but I don't know if that is "it".  I'm inclined to think that it more about basic human psychology, and the states of mind of the people passing thru.    How aware are they of what is actually going on around them?  Are the focused on where they've been, or where they're going, or what just happened??  We're fairy accustomed to muzak, so there might be a tendency to take Bell's playing and treat it as such.

 

I remember Nordstrom's at SCP would, from time to time, have a pianist at a full grand piano, playing lovely music.  I was one of the few, if not the only passer-by to stop.

 

I guess one other way to find out would be to get Mr. Bell to play again, and ask the passers-by why they did or didn't stop. In the case of Nordstrom's, my answer would be, "I liked the music, and had the time."  Heck, I've even stopped for a player piano...

 

On May 14, 2013 at 2:45 PM rob wrote:

I'm still stuck on this discussion a few days ago about the value of performance art. It caused me to perform a little, as Einstein used to call it, “thought experiment” to help put the issue in the abstract.

Suppose you are transported to the planet Oozor where evolution has taken a very different path. Fortunately for you there is a breathable atmosphere with a slight smell of Magnolia blossoms brought on by the thin jasmine-colored film of algae covering the vast bog laying before you.

As you investigate closer, you can see hundreds of tiny colorful slug-like creatures along the shore. Whether they are near-sighted or simply don’t care about your approach is unclear. As you kneel down and watch, you observe a few of them blowing colorful bubbles of various shades of blue and green, and on rare occasion, of purple or red.

For a few of the pseudopodia blowing bubbles, the other creatures surround them with bits of sand and moss and appear to watch transfixed as the bubbles float away. As the bubbles rise to a height of eight or nine inches the observers begin to squeak in what you can only interpret as approval. The herd pushes more and more pieces of moss toward the central creature encouraging a frenzy of bubbles to be formed until finally the creature can blow no more and collapses from exhaustion on the mound of moss. The herd disperses.

Other pseudopodia blow bubbles also, but curiously these mostly going unwatched and unappreciated by their kinsmen. These solitary creatures blow their equally delightful bubble without the remuneration of any gifts at all.

You begin to wonder why. Fascinated by the admiration surrounding some bubble blowers and ignominious nature surrounding others, you slowly begin to realize that the purple bubbles seem to attract great attention and the green ones do not. The color seems to be the only difference that you can perceive for the apparent diversity of attitude.

Being of a curious and thoughtful nature, you speculate why the purple bubbles have more apparent value than the green ones. Is it because purple bubbles contain some needed nutrient more than the green ones? The bubble flow away and are never consumed so that is not likely the reason.

Still the purple bubbles are clearly more appreciated than the green ones. Is it because the purple ones are so much rarer than the green ones? Yes, that is it! The rarity is the answer and you are quite satisfied with your discovery, that is until you see a single pseudopodia blowing red bubbles only inches from many other creatures without being noticed for its efforts. Obviously rarity, though a possible factor, is not the only pertinent factor.

Then is comes to you. This is art. Given no practical reason other than the bubbles are just appreciated, they are art. If you can blow purple bubbles, you get attention. If you blow green ones, you don’t. Personally I prefer the red bubbles and I can save myself a few bits of moss.

Now don’t ask me why people like bagpipe music. That’s just a completely different planet.

 

---

From: ed
To: rob

Subject: Re: Joshua Bell Plays in Subway

Rob, this is why I miss our lunches with you -- you always bring up interesting points...

Value *is* a subjective quality (as I'm sure Carole will attest to with real estate prices) and varies with the audience and the demographic that pays for $100 tickets is certainly not the same as the ones rushing for the Metro.  However, it seems to me that a musician who has a world-wide reputation must have sufficient credible skills to impress a larger percentage of the estimated thousands that passed by him without a second look.

On the other end, which I think is relevant to your point, a given individual may detest Bell's playing and think another "ignominious" musician's performance heavenly, so for him the assessment of value would be different.

I guess the proper scientific method would call for the same set of people who paid for $100 tickets to be followed around and see if they would pay attention to another violinist of Bell's stature in an unconventional setting.

On 5/7/2013 9:13 AM, rob wrote:

Well, true or not, it raises a plethora of  points. The "stop and smell the roses" point notwithstanding, it is normal that humans filter their environment.  It is dysfunctional to focus on everything.
 
I'm uncomfortable with the superficial concept of value. An ignominious musician's music can be more valuable than a famous musician's. A child's finger painting can be more valuable than a Picasso.
 

> Date: Mon, 6 May 2013 22:14:24 -0700
> From: ed
> To: gay, rob, lawebber
> Subject: Joshua Bell Plays in Subway
>
> Got a link to this, wasn't quite sure if this was legit, but snopes
> checked it out:
>
> http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp

 

"When is leelu not in trouble?"
Korben Dallas

Benghazi It's starting to heat up, boys and girls!

Res Ipsa Loquitur

IIRC, he had a fundraiser in Vegas to get ready for.

Retweeted by leelu

Sharyl Attkisson @SharylAttkisson  ·

Correct story link to docs showing terrorism right away: http://www.sharylattkisson.com/state-dept.-al-sharia-email--may-1--2014.html …

Go, RTWT.

 Damn Obama's ass. And Hillary, too.

Sane Discussion About Abortion

I found out about Cecile Richards and her "hand wave" about when life begins in this article at NRO yesterday.  She says:

“It is not something that I feel is really part of this conversation,” Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood told Fusion’s Jorge Ramos on Thursday. “I don’t know if it’s really relevant to the conversation.”

I started reading the coments, and found this one, by Bob Wynne:

 

Bob Wynne • a day ago

If any of you full grown adults that are definitely alive needed to be hooked up to my blood supply for months, would the choice to carry that burden be up to me or not? It is not a question of whether you are alive. I accept that you are. Yet there is still a question.

 It piqued my interest, and I responded to him.  I was expecting the "forced gestation" argument to surface pretty quickly, but it didn't.  Instead, I found myself in a conversation with someone who has genuine concerns about the rights of the mother vs the rights of her unborn child.

See what you think.  My initial response:

 leelu Bob Wynne • a day ago

Wonderfully bogus argument, and totally off the point, too.

Bob Wynne leelu • a day ago

No argument from me, Boss. Just asking a question. You might wonder, "Why would Bob ask that?" In order to get an answer. So far I have been unsuccessful.

leelu Bob Wynne • a day ago

 Ah... To answer your question, I would say yes, you definitely should/would have a say in it. OK?

Bob Wynne leelu • 21 hours ago

Now, I am asking what the point is that I am off of?

leelu Bob Wynne • 21 hours ago

What I perceive as the point of the article - the assertion that the issue of when life begins is irrelevant to abortion. I just don't see a connection there?

Bob Wynne leelu • 8 hours ago

The point is that I think that if we, as civilized people, can agree that society cannot force an individual to share their blood, oxygen and nutrients with another living person, then it is not relevant when a cell mass becomes a person for purposes of abortion rights. If we can agree that society can force a person to share their blood, oxygen and nutrients with another person, then personhood might be relevant in the discussion.

leelu Bob Wynne • 3 hours ago

The short answer is, if "it is not relevant when a cell mass becomes a person", then ,by a simple logical extension, there no reason why I should be penalized in any way for shooting you. (This is *not* a threat, btw.)

Your whole "sharing" example is irrelevant as well. In your case, you are talking about somthing that, absent force, would be, by definition, a contractual arrangement. I expect that you would not let me "hook up" for nothing. That is not the case between a mother and child - no contract exists. It is a moral issue, based exactly on the point of the start of personhood. Hand-waving it doesn't make it go away.

Bob Wynne leelu • 3 hours ago

You may be right on your primary position here. We all agree that you cannot do anything to another person. I am suggesting that if the fetus is a person, that there is more to discuss along those lines.

Some would argue that refusing to share your resources is not doing something to them. It is not allowing them to do something to you. You are removing them from your personal space. You are redirecting your blood flow for your personal use. They are free to go on their way. But they feed on you only by your grace and agreement.

That is what I would say if some born person needed some component in by blood for some period of time. I do not believe in killing another, but I do not belive in forcing anyone to support someone else, either.

As far as the comparison to the abortion debate, I have no answers. I cannot support forcing anyone to make that sacrifice. Even if the fetus is deemed a person, why would I give him or her more rights than me or you? I am glad that the decision does not rest on me. I feel that it should be left up to those that will have to live with it.

leelu Bob Wynne • 2 hours ago

If you donate blood or are an organ donor, then the resource sharing issue is moot. You may, if you want, or not. Same with me, as a first responder - I am under *no* legal obligation to administer CPR, just as you are under no legal obligation to give blood. 

"Feeding" suggests a parasite-host relationship, which again, is moot, since we are agreed that you have voluntarily donated blood or organs (I'm thinking "live donor" here, as in kidney or liver parts).

I don't think it's ultimately about rights, altho that certainly is a big part of the legal debate. If we agree that the unborn baby is human, then I would argue that his/her "right to life" is equal to yours or mine. So, in spite of Richard's hand waiving, it really does come down to that.

I'm enjoying this discussion. I can relate to your dilemma- my Catholic upbringing informs my conscience even today, yet I don't want to see women forced into the old "back alley/dirty coat hanger" environment. Women *will* get abortions, legal or not. If it came to a vote, I *would* vote my conscience ("No"), and still hope that women who sought them would be well cared for.

I'd like to post this to one of my blogs (leelusplace.blogspot.com). If you prefer, I will "anonymize" you.

Bob Wynne leelu • 2 minutes ago

Post it if you like. But I would like to close with the notion that not all decisions that need to be made, need to be made by government. And if the solution is not universal, then it should not be enforced by law.

leelu Bob Wynne • in a minute

Agreed!

And there we have it.  What do you think?

My Birthday Request

If you've wandered by here, please take a moment or two to go read this post over at the other blog.

Thanks

Shamelessy stolen...

...from Gerard.

I love this idea.  And his other one about us taking a year off from policing the world.  And making Israel the honorary 51st state while we do.

Nukes: Time for a Live Demo

Dear LowInfo Citizens, It's been about five years since this was first proposed. It is still something to keep in mind as you hope for change and a better world via magical thinking. You may not be interested in false hopes, but false hopes are interested in you....

People get ready.... Police in India’s Kashmir publish nuclear war survival tips, say notice doesn’t signal concern.

... Yeah, right. Duck and cover!

A bomb called Licorne. Fired at 18.30 on July 3, 1970, and yielded 914 kilotons (Think "57 Hiroshimas"). Imagine it being fired next door. Hope that if it is ever fired, it is fired next door.
Sixty-seven years ago : "On Monday, August 6, 1945, the nuclear weapon Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima by the crew of the American B-29 bomber Enola Gay, directly killing an estimated 80,000 people. By the end of the year, injury and radiation brought total casualties to 90,000-140,000. Approximately 69% of the city's buildings were completely destroyed, and 6.6% severely damaged." - Hiroshima
"Little Boy," the aptly named 16 kiloton bomb that took out Hiroshima, was -- in comparison to the nuclear devices in the world's arsenals -- sort of a light field artillery shell. There was, at the time, a second bomb called "Fat Man." Weighing in at 21 kilotons it would put paid to Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. With the erasure of Nagasaki, the world was fresh out of nuclear weapons. It was only a temporary lapse. Today we've got about 25,000 of these little items of discipline scattered about.
The largest nuclear bomb ever detonated in the atmosphere was The Soviet Tsar Bomba , or "Big Ivan" which at 50 Megatons was very harmful to every living think on Novaya Zemlya Island (located above the arctic circle in the Arctic Sea) in October of 1971. Whatever else you might think about them, you can't deny those Soviets dreamed BIG dreams.
No matter what our political feelings, I believe we can all agree that the world is getting just a wee bit too hot for comfort these days, and I don't mean "Global Warming." I mean that people here and there about the globe are getting just a wee bit too hot under the collar. They seem to have forgotten just exactly what comes into play like the force of gravity when whole nations or peoples get really ticked off. Time to refresh our collective memories.
I think we need to have the people of the world focus like a laser on the table stakes of going beyond these little patty-cake wars we are currently diddling around with and look, really look, at what can actually happen with one little slip.
What we need to do this is: "The Live Demo." By this I mean we need to find a small island or deserted space somewhere on the planet and sacrifice it for the greater good by setting off one, just one, low-yield thermonuclear device in the atmosphere for all the world to see.
Think of "The Live Demo" as a remedial educational moment for the entire world; a kind of slap upside the head coupled with a large shout out of: "PAY ATTENTION!"
I believe this "Live Demo" needs to be announced -- in date, time, and place -- to the entire world with something approaching the intensity of the promotion dumped on the Beijing Olympics.
I believe that we should allow any media organization that wishes to to cover this event and provide the infrastructure necessary to film and broadcast it (from a safe distance) to the entire world in all media -- live. I believe we should re-task a satellite to give us a view of the event from space.
No matter what many may think, this event would be the essence of "appointment television" for the people of the world.
I think we should also construct some of those quaint suburbs, villages, and towns that were set up in the ancient Nevada tests to demonstrate just what happens to a family sitting down for an evening snack when the sun is brought -- for one brief shining moment -- to the surface of the Earth. (Those of you who saw the opening scenes of Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull probably got some laughs out of this stuff, but it is not really a laughing matter, is it?)
I know that there will be an army of Environmentalists around the world that will bitch and moan about the "harm to the environment" from setting off a single nuclear device in the atmosphere. Those same people need to contemplate instead the "harm to the environment" that comes from setting off several hundred or several thousand of these devices in one very bad afternoon. They need to, for one brief and shining moment, sit down and shut up!
Then there will be those who will carp about "The Test Ban Treaty." They need to take a chill pill, lie down and think of England... or Cleveland... or Tel Aviv... or Tehran.
I can assure you that having the entire world tune in for "The Live Demo" -- and the whole world will tune in -- shall give the entire planet pause. It's not enough for humans to be told about nukes. Every so often, we need to see to believe.
Let's touch off a nuke for world peace next year on August 6. It will be a fitting memorial to Hiroshima. Nothing else we can do will have quite the same... impact.

---

Lest we forget: Here's 10 minutes about the first "live demo" on a city.





I would imagine that if you repeated those grisly facts to most of the people of the world today they'd express either some polite sadness, a bit of political high dudgeon, or the classic contemporary rejoinder, "Whatever." It's not that they don't know or care, but that -- for the vast majority of the population of the world -- they simply cannot imagine a Hiroshima.
It has been 65 years since the incineration of a city in a second, and we've lost any sense of exactly what happens. The images only survive in black and white films of a long-ago era, films of before (a city) and after (rubble and ash). In black and white images blood is the color of shadows and that's what we have, as a race, of memories about what these weapons can do -- shadows of victims seared into stone at the moment of the blast; the moment the Sun was allow to bloom on the surface of the Earth.

Christmas 2012

My Christmas status report...

Well, it seems we are all still here, Mayan calendar not withstanding.  I kept telling people that their calendar stopped because they ran out of numbers!

I've been living here for about a year and a half now.  Doc Deb was gracious and invited me to move in when I lost my job last year.  I'd been doing maintenance stuff in exchange for my keep, until she lost her job in March.  She decided to move down to Texas to be with her parents, who are getting a bit frail.  I'd pulled the pin on my retirement benefits (such as they are), so now I'm staying in the house, making the mortgage payment.

The last three months have been exciting - I started working as a contract writer for a company called Remilon.  I'm writing on-line classes on programming for them, for starters.  The idea is, you could take a full class on one of many subjects for free, and then take the CLEP exam, and get college credit for the class.  It's an inexpensive way to clear out a lot of undergrad requirements, given that the cost of a CLEP exam is usually under $100.00.  My first lesson is finished, and I just uploaded the video for my second one yesterday.

Given that I live at the main crossroads in Red Lion, there is a *lot* of traffic, and traffic noise, which makes recording my lessons pretty much impossible.  I went to the local library, and asked if I could use one of their conference rooms as my recording studio.  I wound up talking with the director, Don, about it.  One thing led to another, and I wound up hanging a projection screen in the board room for them.  We are working on starting some computer skills classes there.  I use the library as my office sometimes, as it gets me out of the house and away from potential distractions (like Baxter helping me type).

Got the heater working, and think I've located the leak that flooded the basement.  It's not the boiler, nor is it the water heater.  I believe that it's in one of the pipes going through the cellar wall to the heater in the kitchen.  That means, the kitchen floor will have to come up in order to locate and repair said leak.  Fun.

I got an estimate on getting the old siding replaced.  The Home Depot guy (also named Don) was mostly worried about the sagging laundry room.  I did a little poking around, and it looks like there is no really code-grade footing for it.  The floor will also have to come up for diagnosis and repair, and possible jacking/shoring.  Yay.

Christmas... I'm going to get the place picked up and cleaned up this weekend.  My plan for Monday is to bake.  Current projects are to be two pumpkin pies and weapons-grade fudge topped brownies.  (I may do soft oatmeal cookies before that, just to get me through the weekend.)  Christmas day will be my Christmas movie marathon: The Ice Harvest (John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Connie Nielsen), The Holiday (Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jack Black, Jude Law), Scrooged (Bill Murray, Karen Allen), and a new one, the 200th episode of NCIS.  I think of as a take on "It's a Wonderful Life", with Gibbs taking George Bailey's place in the center of things.  And maybe, if I can find them, the "Eureka" Christmas episodes, too.  Dinner will be turkey tamales and Caesar salad.  And french vanilla ice cream laced with brandy (from the book "Ice Cream Happy Hour").  And, of course, I hope to chat with my daughter.  She is on the road from L.A. to Billings, Montana as we speak.  She expects to arrive today, and will be staying with my cousin and his wife until she can get situated.

Update - pictures!!

Living room with tree, candles, and Baxter

Dining area/work area

Bar, red hat, and Dakota

Kitchen work station, with pie!!

Close-up, workstation and pie!  Kitchen composting happens in the green bins on the left.

And that's about it for year end here in PA.

Merry Christmas to all!

Elevating Thought

 It's been a month since the election, and I'm still trying to re-group.  What upset me the most (after the outcome)  was the encroaching lack of civility and clear, useful journalism on the Right as well as the Left.  I find that disheartening, since one of the Big Deals we made about the Left was and is their lack of civility, and the mendacity of the MSM.

One writer who comes to mind is John Nolte, at Breitbart.  Here is his opener on the Zimmerman/NBC suit:

"Though it might feel like a hundred years ago, it was only last April when the media joined Barack Obama's cynical crusade to gin up his base in Florida through the artificial inflaming of racial tensions. And there was no question NBC News was the worst of these co-conspirators after the network was busted editing a 9-1-1 call to make Trayvon Martin's suspected shooter, George Zimmerman, look like a racist. Today, Zimmerman filed suit against the Peacock Network."

Now, I gather that his basic assertion about NBC editing the sound track of the 911 call is factual.  But I don't think anyone would deny that the inflammatory nature of the paragraph.  I'm not suggesting that Mr. Nolte do anything differently - he has his "bully pulpit", the editors must like the way he's writing, and the First Amendment applies.  You go, John.

But I think this kind of writing only helps to maybe put an up-tick in the pitch fork, torch, tar, feather, and rail markets.  Which I don't think is really helpful at all, even in the short term.

My metaphysics training has taught me to stand guard at the doorway of thought.  In a nutshell, this warning is based upon the idea that we see and become what we think and believe.  If we don't pay attention to what we are admitting into our thoughts, we can start to slide downhill.  A practical example - repeat a lie often enough, and it (seems to) become true.

My distress is in no small part to my own slippage.  Looking back over my pre-election and near-post election posts, I'm struck by how they could have been less, well, vulgar, and more informative and thoughtful.  Fortunately, Gerard turned on a light for me, and gave me a glimpse of what I've been seeking.  It has apparently been wending its way thru the web.  One full copy of it is at The Thinking Housewife.  I'm excerpting the first section here:

A Plan for Traditionalists

AT The Orthosphere, Kristor offers a reasonable guide to survival and affecting the culture. In the immediate future, he recommends:

1. Resolve to pay no more PC jizya (beautifully spelled out in the Solzhenitsyn essay that has been discussed a lot lately in the wider orthosphere). Tell the truth, and call a spade a spade: calmly, politely, and without being obstreperous about it, but nevertheless firmly. Without making a big deal about it or calling attention to yourself, fail to appear for the public rites of Moloch. If you must thus appear, quietly fail to meet the requirements of the rite.
2. Write, read, blog, talk: join a book club, an apologetics roundtable, a bible study group. Learn the arguments for reaction, for Christianity, for theism; learn the arguments against them, and how they may be defeated. Speak up: fearlessly, scandalously, but always humbly and politely.
3. Live a virtuous, upright life, at home and in business. Speak the truth, and do the right thing. Whatever it happens to be, don’t let it be about yourself; let it be about the True, the Good, and the Beautiful.
4. Beware; and be prepared to move, quickly. Get rid of stuff that you don’t need or that is not positively beautiful to you in some way – especially debt and belly fat, which are likely going to cost you as the financial and medical sectors of the economy devolve over the next ten years.
5. Maintain tradition in small things: e.g., dress more formally than is customary these days, practice old-fashioned manners, refrain from swearing; read old books, and then discuss them around the family dinner table; join together in regular and serious family prayer, if only to bless each meal; remember your family holiday traditions, and observe them gravely and with joy.
6. Pray without ceasing. Pray whenever your attention is not wholly consumed with the task at hand. Work toward praying even when it is. Nothing is so convincing as sanctity, or so attractive, or so authoritative. Without it, personal rectitude can seem like Pharisaical arrogance (and risks becoming just that). You can’t push sanctity. But you can work at allowing it to happen.

 (Debt isn't the huge problem it was five years ago.  The belly fat, though continues to be tough.)

There's more, all worth read, pondering, and incorporating into our lives.  Go!

Getting The Poverty

Sippican has a post up about splinters and poverty, which prompted me to comment.  As often happens, my comments are turned into posts...

I too have caught the poverty. Ten years ago, I was a well paid contractor at a Major Aerospace Company in Southern California.  Now, I'm trying to get along on Social (in)Security and what little pension I have from said Major Aerospace Company; renting my friend's house in SE Pennsylvania from her so she doesn't get foreclosed.

I love it and wouldn't trade it for anything, except, perhaps, to hear from my daughter on a more regular basis.

Updating a bit, from a second comment:

A further thought.  I infer from the comments here, that we all are relatively safe and dry (if not as warm as we might like).  I presume we have enough to eat, lights in the house, and (obviously) the interweb.

We are not impoverished, just broke.  Yes, the lack o' cash does focus the mind, as V-man says.  It seems to focus it on the more important things, like God, family, friends and country.
 

Fatima and the Nazis

My mind tends to meander a lot.  One of the exes said once that, had she not seen me sit and read a book to the exclusion of everything else around me, she would have bet I was ADD.  What I've just described  has both advantages and disadvantages, but perhaps another time.  Point is, about a week ago, a remembrance of something I read or saw popped up.  For no apparent reason.  (I'll go with synchronicity, myself.)  What I had seen was a story about an ethical, if not downright moral conundrum.

During WWII, the Nazis did absolutely horrific medical "experiments".  We would call them "torture".  Thing is, they accumulated quite a bit of data about human performance in what could only be described as extremely hostile conditions.  The one that sticks in my mind had to do with hypothermia, basically tossing people into ice water to see how long they would live. The conundrum arose after the war.  All of this data became available, but many scientists and doctors were hesitant or unwilling to use it, because of how it was obtained.  Those opposed found it repugnant to use data that was "tainted" by the horrific manner in with it was obtained.

As an IT guy, I view data by itself, as neutral, neither good nor bad.  When enough data is collected, it becomes information, and can eventually lead to understanding.  It is true that many medical advances are made as a result of wounded and injured soldiers in battle.  Field medicine propagates to the E. R.  and to other medical specialties.  The circumstances surrounding this data collection is hardly different in the level of horrors from that of the Nazi's manner of developing their data.

There is the obvious difference in circumstance - our wounded have put themselves in harm's way voluntarily for almost the last  40 years.  And they do it with some level of informed consent.  By enlisting in one of our branches of service, they are made aware (or at least have been told) that they could easily find themselves in harm's way.  The Nazis used slaves as their subjects.  The subjects were coerced.  Morally, there is no comparison between the two scenarios.

And the data is still useful.  It can be used to save lives.  So, do we ignore it, because of it's provenance, or do we hold our noses at the stench of it's origin, and go ahead?

"Baruch Cohen,a Californian lawyer and Holocaust researcher, argues that ‘although use of the Nazi data might benefit some lives, a larger bioethical problem arises. By conferring a scientific martyrdom on the victims, it would tend to make them our retrospective guinea pigs, and we, their retrospective torturers.’’[1]

Cohen goes on to say:

"Absolute censorship of the Nazi data does not seem proper, especially when the secrets of saving lives may lie solely in its contents. Society must decide on its use by correctly understanding the exact benefits to be gained. When the value of the Nazi data is of great value to humanity, then the morally appropriate policy would be to utilize the data, while explicitly condemning the atrocities. But the data should not be used just with a single disclaimer. To further justify its use, the scientific validity of the experiment must be clear; there must be no other alternative source from which to gain that information, and the capacity to save lives must be evident.

Once a decision to use the data has been made, experts suggest that it must not be included as ordinary scientific research, just to be cited and placed in a medical journal. I agree with author Robert J. Lifton who suggested that citation of the data must contain a thorough expose' of exactly what tortures and atrocities were committed for that experiment. Citations of the Nazi data must be accompanied with the author's condemnation of the data as a lesson in horror and as a moral aberration in medical science. The author who chooses to use the Nazi data must be prepared to expose the Nazi doctors' immoral experiments as medical evil, never to be repeated." [2]

So, with appropriate care and citation, the data may be used ethically.  Now, what about Fatima?

"The essence of the Fatima message concerns conversion from sin and a return to God, and involves reparation for one’s own sins and the sins of others, as well as the offering up of one’s daily sufferings and trials. There was also a focus on prayer and the Eucharist at Fatima, and particularly the rosary, as well as the Five First Saturdays devotion, which involves Confession, Holy Communion, the rosary and meditation, for five consecutive months with the intention of making reparation to Our Lady (for more details visit Theotokos.org.uk)." [3]

The key phrase for my purposes is "...reparation for one’s own sins and the sins of others...".  No one but themselves can know the state of soul and mind of the doctors (and others) who performed these tortures.  But, I think that if they are willing and able to accept it, using their data for a good cause could be redemptive for them.

A tool is just a tool, and data is a tool.  They quality of the results of it's use depend entirely upon the intention of the person wielding the tool.  A gun can be used to commit a crime, or stop one.  Data can be used to harm or endanger someone, or it can be used to educate, illuminate, enlighten, or even save a life.

I felt that a couple of citations were in order:

[1]  Bogod, David. "The Nazi Hypothermia Experiments: Forbidden Data?", Anaesthesia,
       Volume 59 Issue 12 Page 1155, December 2004.
[2]  http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/naziexp.html (accessed 6-30-2012)
[3]  http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2010/08/05/the-priests-who-survived-the-atomic-bomb/
     (accessed 6-30-2012)

The Universe is God Dreaming

Gerard has this up, and its too good not to share:

Por Favor...

When you drop by, leave a comment, even if it's just to say "Hi".

I'd like to know who my visitors are.

Muchas gracias!!

I'm getting pinged lately...

...or, "Context is Everything"

It's been my experience over the years that God does, in fact, talk to us.  The problem for any one of us being talked to is  noticing that it is happening.  I think the communication channel used is syncronicity.

Wikipedia has a pretty good definition:

 "Synchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are apparently causally unrelated or unlikely to occur together by chance and that are observed to occur together in a meaningful manner. The concept of synchronicity was first described in this terminology by Carl Gustav Jung, a Swiss psychologist, in the 1920s.^[1]
The concept does not question, or compete with, the notion of causality. Instead it maintains that, just as events may be grouped by cause, they may also be grouped by meaning. A grouping of events by meaning need not have an explanation in terms of cause and effect.
In addition to Jung, Arthur Koestler wrote extensively on synchronicity in "The Roots of Coincidence" ^[2]"

 Seems to me that syncronicity falls between absolute random chance, and events that have statistical probability.

F'rinstance, suppose my birthday is August 30.  A friend invites me to go with her to a concert.  It starts at 8:30.  We get there, and pick up our tickets.  We are seated in row eight, and my seat happens to be number 30.  That's syncronicity.  

But, what about the meaning?  If this were to happen to me, I'd be surprised.  I'd probably say something to my companion about the Universe (a.k.a. God) wishing me happy birthday.  And that would be that.

No context, really.

Context:

Here are some numbers:  12345

What do they mean?  You might say "The first five digits."  But since we are at the Post Office, I would say, "It's zip code for Schenectady, New York." (Really!)

If  it were an arithmetic class, your answer would have more meaning than mine, based on the context.

Context shapes meaning. 

So, the pings that I'm getting lately are about Catholicism.  Ever since the Obama/HHS decree that all health care providers *will* provide all "reproductive services"  (birth control and abortions), many of the blogs I read have been discussing it from a Catholic perspective.  The new friend I'm busily making is working her way towards Catholicism.  A couple of my college buddies have returned to it over the years.  I didn't think I would ever go back, and I'm still pretty sure it's a low-probability bet, but lately I'm becoming not so sure I won't.

I turned away from the Church (yes, I still capitalize it...) when I was 20.  I had concluded that I was agnostic.  (The fact that not being Catholic reduced the course requirements for Theology and Philosophy might also have figured in to it.)   About ten years later, I met wife #2, who was a practicing Christian Scientist.  We would discuss it on the drive to and from work (it's where we met).  It started to make sense to me.  About a year and a half after we met, I signed up for an EST-like training.  I knew that it included some exercises that would let me fiddle a bit with some of the theories I had learned.  I did, and they seemed to actually work.  Fast forward a few years later, and I was playing with first, the Church of Religious Science, and then with another church called Teaching of the Inner Christ.  After about 10 years of metaphysical study, I gave up any formal association with a church, and went my merry way.

There are some things that will have to be reconciled somehow if I am to return to the fold. In no particular order:

•  While I am a firm believer in evil and sin, I don't believe in "the devil". 
• I believe that, because we are made in the image and likeness of God, we are already perfect.
• I think that salvation is a matter of becoming the perfect expression of our perfection.
• Original sin?  Choosing to live in this physical state, apparently separated from God.
• I believe that we have chosen the life we live, and the experiences we create.
• I believe that sin is simply turning away from God.
• I believe that evil, like darkness, not something in itself, but an  absence of something.  As darkness is the absence of light, evil is the unwillingness to hear and respond to God, or, our absence from God.
• I believe that what we call God's Laws work in a way that is similar to gravity.  Hold something up and let go of it, and it will fall.  Do something contrary to one of God's laws, and it *will* come back to bite you.  Because of Divine Law, God doesn't need to micro-manage things.  (This leaves God more time for important things, like managing the outcomes of NFL and college football games based on teams' prayers...) 

I'm still on the fence about birth control.  I think "family planning" is a good thing.  My take on the Church's view is that they see it as the peak of a very dangerous and slippery slope that leads to sin and depravity.  They may be right.

Abortion is murder.  I think the Church and I are pretty much in agreement there.

I've gotten a pretty good handle on patience.  I fear my next lesson is humility.  I can see it coming, and I can't stop it.

Cheers!
 

 

I think I've Found...

...my true patron Saint:

Saint Dymphna,
Patron of Mental & Spiritual Afflictions,
Pray for Us

The last two lines from the website tell all:

"Gheel (where she lived and was martyred) has long been known as a place of pilgrimage for persons seeking relief of nervous or emotional distresses. In our century, the name of St. Dymphna as the heavenly intercessor for such benefits is increasingly venerated in America."

Amen.

(By way of Zilla of the Resistance)

Who's in Control??

I drive about  8 hours/week to and from my teaching gigs, which gives me a fair amount of time to, essentially, meditate  Not to worry, not the closed-eye, unresponsive, belly button lint gathering kind, but the contemplative kind - by which I mean exploring and chewing on a an idea or two or three.

What got me started last week was a TV show the Doc had on.  A crime drama, this episode about a college kid who was helping a local bar promote itself and make money by holding weekly wet T-shirt contests. He got murdered by someone, and, as they say, we're off.

The thing about it was the one young woman who threatened him with a lawsuit for putting a video of her topless on the internet.  She protested to anyone who listened that she was forced into participating in the contest, so should not have wound up shirtless on the web.  She described being forced to drink then forced to go on stage because she had been picked up bodily, and passed up to the stage. She never said that she felt she would be safer on stage.

To which I responded, "Show me the damned bruises."

Here's why...

There is one, and one thing only that each of us has control over.  That is ourselves.  I may not like the circumstances I find myself in and I may not like any of the apparently available options that I have, but I do have control (another word for it is "choice) over what I do.

Now, before you go all sputtery and "Butbutbut..." on me consider this parable:

You wake up in a 8x8x8 room.  Metal walls, nt apparent door, window or other means of entrance or exit.  You feel OK, but have no recollection of why or how you arrived in such a predicament.  You are clothed, but have nothing about your person that could be used as a tool for escape - no belt, no shoes, empty pocket, no smartphone.  Nada.  Zip.

You notice, in your examination of the room, that there is a 3 foot diameter hole in the center of the floor.  Upon investigating, you discover that it is full liquid cess to within 18" of the floor.  (Cess - as in cesspool.  Contents of a septic tank or outhouse pit.  You get my drift??)

As you make this discovery, you notice something else - two of the walls have begun to advance toward each other in a way that, if unchecked, will absolutely squish anything (or anyone) between them to a very thin smear.  As the walls continue their advance, it increasingly apparent that this is going to happen  in the next couple of minutes.  To you.

Now, you have two choices.  Ponder for a moment, and then tell me what they are.  (Hint - one is fatal, the other just really, really unpleasant.)  Assuming that you are not generally given to suicidal ideation, and that you brain chemistry fall into the statistically abstract range called "normal", I'm betting that you choose the un-fatal but highly unpleasant option available to you.

As you jump in (feet first, of course), you discover two things.  Well, three, actually.  One - you can stand up without crouching or bending.  Two - the liquid poo it just up to your chin.  Three - the walls have slammed shut, so you are now trapped in the mini cesspool.

And, once again, you have two choices - one may easily lead to an unpleasant drowning death, the other again is highly unpleasant, but not immediately fatal.  what do you do??  Hint - it you hold your breath long enough, you will pass out.  Most likely, you will collapse, and submerge yourself in the liquid poo.  Worst case, you will drown, not quite so worst case is you will come to, completely submerged in the liquid poo.

Or, you could continue to breathe and not pass out.

Ponder and/or discuss.

More later.

Closure

It seems that I'm correct in my assessment of what's happening at school. They are doing their best to thin the herd of full-time instructors, and replace them with part-timers (adjuncts), who work for much less $$.

I got fired about 2 months ago, and it was my own stupid fault. We were on a field trip to a computer vendor show in DC. It was light on content, I was bored, and there was a bar and grille next door, so I ducked out and had a beer. Like I had done at many a vendor conference before. Most expensive beer of my life. Drinking at any school function is verboten, and I was told that one of the students "complained", and there I went.

In a recent job interview, I was asked what I liked most about the job. My answer was "graduation". It is heartwarming and rewarding to see the students graduate. For many of the families there, this is the first person ever to receive a college degree. And it, temporarily, almost makes up for the chintzy wages.

The I was asked what the worst part of the job was - my answer was how instructors are evaluated on performance. Instructors are measured on two main things: retention, and student success. These are two things that no instructor ever really has any direct control over. In a theoretical environment where incoming students could demonstrate basic competency in the "Three Rs", this would be a sane and valid measure of instructor performance. Sadly, that often isn't the case here in the Baltimore area. Students get dropped, don't turn in any work, so retention and student success numbers are low.

The good news for me is, I'm more relaxed than I have been in about 6 years, my seemingly chronic gastrointestinal troubles have cleared up, and I'm sleeping much better.

I need to say this in fairness: it is quite possible to get a good, solid education there. As I've told my students many times, you need to show up, do the work, and turn the work in. It isn't rocket science - I worked around that for many years, and that ain't it.

This is Depressing...

...the whole Skippy Gates thing, I mean.

Not his predicament, tho. Long ago, in a traffic school class far away, we were advised by the police officer/instructor that the first thing we should do when stopped is "pass the attitude test". This has always made excellent sense to me, mainly because a) said "stopper" can arrest me, and b) he or she has a gun they are allowed to use to do a).

It's a no brainer.

Later in my life, my house was burgled. I came home, and after dealing with the LEOs, I wandered out to the back yard. An officer who was in the supermarket parking lot behind my house saw me, and firmly but politely asked me to come over and show some ID. My ID was in the house, and I told him so, and said that yes, it was my house. We agreed that I would go in and get said ID, and show it to him. I did, and it was all good.

Why would I want to get arrested and/or shot on my own property by someone who was ostensibly trying to protect aid property? For me. Who hadn't personally asked him!

Skippy is an idiot. OK, he's a Harvard Prof, which means he probably has a PhD.

He's still an idiot. If we define "idiot" as one who behaves in such a manner to endanger their own well being and that of those around them, for no apparently good reason.

But that's not what is depressing. I have a friend at work, Mr. T, who, based on his Facebook posts, seems to think that Gates was treated the way he was because he is black. (As is, I might mention, my friend. This is not mentioned trivially...) And yes, my friend voted for the big "o", too (lowercase intentional).

So, in my book, he's 0 for 2 in the brainwashed department. STG, I don't care that our Commander-in-Chief is a person of color. I really don't. On the other hand, I don't trust the skinny little weasel as far as I could throw him. He seems to be evidencing symptoms of what we might call being a "Strawberry Oreo". Black on the outside, Red on the inside.

Anywho, now my friend is on the side of Skippy. Mr T. is a very intelligent young man. But, brainwashed, it appears. (I think he reads Time magazine, the WaPo and HuffPo). He asserted that Skippy was handcuffed inside his house. According to the police report, not so:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0723092gates1.html

So, methinks it boils down to a division along racial lines. Which is truly sad. Because there is obviously a lot of "filtering" going on, still. By that I mean, if a white office arrests a (loud) black man/woman, the officer is obviously "racist". Even though said officer has been picked by his (black) boss to lead the political correctness..., erm, sensitivity training for the precinct. And, you'll notice that this terribly racist officer got Skippy his cane, and then waited until the maintenance guy could get on site and get Skippy's door locked.

What a flaming racist.!!

Of course, on my side of the fence, I'm dealing with my own upbringing, too. I still find myself hearing in my head the crap that I learned from adults around me (not Mom or Grampa G... they would't tolerate insulting words about anyone). So I hear the lie run by, and then tell myself, let's watch and see who this person/these people really are. So then I stop and see what I see. Most times, people are basically decent. I suspect, like me, they want to have a warm, safe place for themselves and their loved ones. And, yeah, there are some jerks out there. I tend to avoid them whenever possible, stand up to them when I need to. But it's all on a case by case basis. The one difference we all have in common is that we're all different.

It seems to me that, given the persistence of knee-jerking, that the heroic and historic efforts of Dr. King and Ms. Parks, to name only two, have been grossly wasted. Sort of like feminism, it all seemed about learning to treat each other with respect. Apparently, we still don't get it.

Now, it appears to be just about scoring racial and political points and getting "mine".

UPDATE:

Then, there's this at Power Line