Whiny Guy 7 The Reset

Forget the best of times...though the worst of times is not quite here. It's odd that I have made so many posts today. I've barely made it through today. I don't remember making all those posts. But there they are. And here I am posting again. Odd.

I forgot a pill yesterday morning. By the time I realized that, it was too late to take it because the next dose was due in a while. This only happened once before, and I was sick for four days before my body got back in balance.

Today was very confused. It was mostly a dark silent room day. I made sure I took my pill, but it didn't really help. I should eat regular meals. That helps a great deal. But food was and is quite disgusting. I made myself to eat one light meal and I managed to eat most of a second meal at night. That didn't help.

I only made it to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee this morning. I really need to make a pot of tea for the day but I didn't manage to do that. The kitchen is too many steps away. Thankfully, the bathroom is closer. Bills are not getting paid and things aren't getting done, but somehow I made all these posts. And I am making this post. Nothing really makes much sense right now.

Hopefully, things will get better tomorrow. Until then this is your friendly local whiny guy, whining all he can.

Sometimes getting through the next hour is very, very hard.

Whiny Guy Mutters Aloud

Whiny Guy's back. Okay, so he  never really went away. He's just been keeping  his mouth shut. More or less.

So what's to whine about? Lots.  Racquel's deal to sell her house fell through. The guy who was buying it wanted sex to seal the deal. Obviously the deal fell through. What kind of man would do that to a widow of two weeks who so deeply and dearly loved her husband?

She can't afford to keep living there without Ed's income. So she has to come home, and that's that.

It will be good to have her home, but not like this. I've wished she and Ed would move back to California for a long time.  I didn't want her back as an alternative to being homeless after his death. 

James is going back to bring her home. I'll be paying for it. That's okay. It depletes my savings account and pushes the credit cards to the maximum, but that's what those things are for. For when my my family needs them.

Maybe, if I work hard to to pay some down and get some savings I'll be able to take the family to Disneyland next Christmas. It means so much to my little ones even though I can't ride any of the rides. I'm happy to see their joy when they come off and to take plenty of pictures.

At least some things got done yesterday. Things that have been hanging fire for the last few months of 2014. The problem is now I'm so confused when I tried to do a few things today I only made them worse. For all of you who understand that there's a point when I just have to stop and do nothing or I make things worse because my mind just can't work, focus, or function, you're a blessing from God, even if you don't believe in Him.

For the a few of you who don't understand, who think it must be that I am lazy, or don't care, or like things confused… I hope someday you understand just how wrong you are.  I don't want you to understand because you get confused like I do. Nobody should go through this. I just hope you understand and have the decency to be ashamed that you made things harder for me when you could've made life easier.

Whiny guy is sure at it today, isn't he? Well, I'm confused and so I'm expressing more than I normally do. Also, saying it somehow makes it better. It makes it somehow distanced and objectified if I  put it down on paper instead of just feeling it. That I think everybody understands.

So I'll post this now or I'll think about it tomorrow and won't do it. 

Don't panic, by the way.  We are in this together as a family, and will get through this together as a family. If it weren't for James I don't know what Racquell and I would do. But he is there handling things. He's a real blessing in my life.

Data Access Error -- Code 203

Written in response to a friend who was surprised I recalled some details from a conversation we had a couple of decades ago...she said she wished she had a memory like mine and asked for any memory improvement hints. I replied:

I don't think you really want a memory like mine, sweet girl! It's functioning is really bizarre. We were walking out behind your apartment, and I remember the conversation and how you looked that day quite distinctly, well... I couldn't tell you what you were wearing, bit I recall the look on your face. On the other hand, as I have been wont to confess of late because it's getting hard cover up, many times I don't remember people I know very well.

Sometimes I'll talk to someone (and I know I know that person really well) and I'll try to cover up because it hurts people' feelings when you admit you don't really remember them. They think was because they were not important to you, which is not true. It's because I have a very strange memory. Sometimes even weeks later I will suddenly the remember who that person was and think oh my Lord what an opportunity I passed up to catch up on old times!

It's actually been a problem since I was a little kid. Not recognizing even close friends from time to time. But it's gotten much worse as I've grown older. I suppose there is some elaborate psychological or scientific term for it, but the fact is I would happily not remember details so well if I could remember everything in general more accurately.

Sometimes i see a face. I think, do I know that person? Sometimes it turns out I do and then again sometimes it turns out I don't. A lot of times I don't try to check because, as I said, it's embarrassing to admit it.

I was in line behind a woman I knew I recognized. But I just couldn't place her name. Finally I broke down and asked her. It was Shirley Leary! I mean, I'd only known her for 30 years. Okay, I haven't seen her in a few years, but still!

I'm fond of telling people that it is said that FDR had a forested mind. Meaning a mind with a rich ecology and many varied forms of life, or in this case, ideas. I then note that I have swampy mind. It doesn't look like much at first glance, but you never know what's going to bubble up to the surface, hang around for a while, and then sink slowly out of sight again.

My family is becoming accustomed to it. James takes a lot of time to try to get me to remember certain individuals that he knows I knew very well at one time, and sometimes it does work and I do remember them. Other times it doesn't.

I miss those old walks...

Whiny Guy, Part 465

I wrote the following a couple of weeks ago:  It's very good to say that after a very difficult month things are getting better. However,  I'm at that point where I am not so down that I can't function at all, but not well enough to get much done.  Still, if things keep on track, I will be functional in about a week.  It's hard to be patient, but experience has taught me that if I push now I will mess things up rather than make them better and, in the process, push myself back into a black hole.

So now, two weeks later, I'm still struggling to get better, but I must actually be getting succeeding as I'm managing to make some posts, including old posts from Facebook which I'm reapplying to my blog that's progress.

Whiny Guy Continued

I've had such a marvelous weekend that it seems strange that I should find my body suddenly coming apart.

 It was a three day weekend for me and every day was absolutely wonderful, including today. The weather was beautiful, the breezes cooling and pleasant, I was relaxed and at peace. I even got a lot of writing done (only at the blog level, but that is still writing).

Then, without any warning, a bad wave of vertigo. Bad enough to constitute an attack. Decades of experience have taught me that now I must to be careful for a week. Until seven days have passed without a repeat, I will be vulnerable to vertigo attacks at a higher rate than normal.

Although I have had some problems with my gut in the past few days, they appeared to be completely gone today. Until they came roaring back with a vengeance. Too unpleasant for details in a public post, but suffice to say this hasn't happened at this level in quite a number of months.

I have done the usual things. I made myself eat, although I wasn't hungry. I took a dose of pills. I drank more coke than I wanted to (for the caffeine). And it really hasn't helped much.  The edge is less cutting, but I remain in distress. 

That means it's time to lie down in a dark, cool, silent room. You have no idea how boring that is unless you have been forced to do it. But, it is a necessity. I will end up there sooner or later tonight. And if it is later I will end up there back in the midst of a severe vertiginous event.

I shouldn't complain.  I had most of three fine days, but I miss the days, so long ago, when vertigo was a rare attacker instead of a constant occupier and frequent conqueror.

Whiny Guy Returns

Today I'm going to grumble. I'll try not to mumble. Some of you are chronically ill and you know what I'm going to say all too well.  I hope it makes you feel feel a little bit better because you know that there is someone else out there who knows what you are going through.  I'm not going to detail a long list.  Let it suffice to say that in the last few hours I have managed to break a tooth while chewing soft food, broke my favorite teapot, well… You get the picture.

The feeling I'm referring to is the awareness that your body doesn't work right anymore. I'm not just referring to age, this can happen to people of any time of life. I'm referring to the feeling you get when that car you love so much not only doesn't work but the mechanic says, "We can't get parts for that anymore. I don't think sure we CAN repair it."

As some of you know, I spent years training my family to laugh at these problems. Given the choice of crying about them or laughing about them,  I'll choose laughter without hesitation. 

But right now I just want to grumble a little.  Writing this and then posting it makes me feel a little better.  I invite everyone to shake their heads, put on a wry smile, and laugh about it. That will make me feel much better.

Post Taps

This was a long day. Not the easiest day, but the best I've had in months. I was up today. And by up I mean upstairs. Not for any reason, just to be there.

It's remarkable how pleasant it is to go to bed when you haven't been stuck there all day.

Whiny Guy Iratus

I was innocently watching the Daily Show when that other John pulled a really nasty one on me.  He said, "It's like, imagine you had the same refrigerator for the last 27 years.  You haven't cleaned it and all of that time, but you keep putting food in there..." Well, I'm not gonna say the rest of it. Okay, so what if I have had the same refrigerator for 27 years?  Maybe I haven't taken absolutely every single thing out of it, unplugged it and spent a few hours scrubbing it. That is not to say it hasn't been cleaned. It's been spot cleaned. Very effectively spot cleaned.

 By the way, you do know I'm talking about that other John, don't you? You know, that English one. I don't think Stewart would have ever done such a thing to me!

I guess he's getting even with me for all those  comments I made on the royal birth, but I really ought to stop watching the show in protest until Stuart returns. But then I'd miss a lot of fun, so I guess I can put up with it.  Nevertheless, I have been insulted!

Whiny Guy Saves The, I Mean, Loses a Day!

Whiny guy strikes again! …flops again?  I just discovered that today is Wednesday. That's not so unusual. I often feel like I have lost or gained a day based on discovering that the date isn't what I thought it was. What's different about today is that I am absolutely convinced that it's Tuesday even after I've discovered that it isn't.  I haven't just lost track of the days, which happens on at a least weekly basis; this time a day has genuinely disappeared. I'm sure I had it just yesterday but somehow I've lost it.

This is both terribly disturbing and at the same time not really that bad. Taking them in order, it's extremely bad because I have lost today. I feel as if I laid down in bed last night and woke up two days later.  That harkens back to the bad old days when I could lose two or three or, in some extreme cases, even four days.  At least, I think it sometimes added up to four days.  To tell you the honest truth, I really am not sure. I know I've lost as many as three days and I'm pretty sure that once or twice I lost four. Pretty sure.

So the bad news is for the first time in six years, it's happened again. Unless it's the first time in seven years…Who knows?

Now to get to the good news!  No, really, there is some good news.  Specifically, the good news is that if I lost a day, and I did, it wasn't due to the most terrifically intense levels of vertigo.  Those are the really bad days, the ones I've referred to occasionally in previous posts. Those are the times when, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'm off the scale. It's so bad there is simply no way to rate it.

That didn't happen this time.  Obviously, I have not been doing very well. I'm sorry to admit that that's been extended over the past couple of months, which are, essentially, a very poorly focused blur . Nevertheless, although I have once again found myself cut adrift in time like a character out of a science-fiction movie, the day disappeared with the minimum amount of suffering.  I even got out yesterday to restock the dwindling supplies in my freezer -- unless that was the day before yesterday.

So, although I have lost a day, I don't feel that I spent it in hell. I don't think I used that particular reference before to the public, but yeah, it's actually that bad. Only this time it wasn't!

So if I, as Whiny Guy, am the bearer of bad tidings, I'm also the bearer of not so bad tidings. I guess that's gonna have to be good enough.

And hey, if it's only gonna happen once every six or seven years and it's with a minimum of suffering and if it's only one day lost, that ain't so bad!

Whiny Guy, Superhero!

A view into Facebook.

This is part of an exchange with an old friend of mine. I had mentioned that my house was tilting the right no matter which direction in which I looked.  She asked me to explain.  So I did.

Nothing to worry about, Joyce. Just my body being itself again. Every now and then, my brain insists that the world has been tilted. The most common effect is tilling to the left or to the right. Every sense of my body says that the world is in fact tilted, so much so that it is difficult not to grab hold of the bed, couch, or chair upon which I'm sitting to avoid falling off and smacking against the opposite wall, which is now down so low that gravity should be pulling me there. Of course, I'm not going to fall and gravity has not altered, but my senses insist that it has. They very convincingly insist that it has.  Only the fact that I do not actually fall proves that my senses are wrong.

This one actually isn't too bad. At its very worst I literally cannot walk unless I watch my feet. If I take my eyes off them I am so unaware of up versus down that I simply fall over. That, thankfully, is very rare. It's usually much less extreme.  Sorry I worried you! I just thought everybody knew about my...peculiarity.

P. S.

Actually, when it's at its worst I don't have to watch my feet; I have to watch my hands, because then I have to crawl, standing up isn't possible. But again, that's very rare occurrence and hasn't happened in a number of years, though once it was rather common. Let's hope it never happens again!  At times like this, I'm fond of declaring to anyone in the vicinity that they must be human flies since they don't notice the tilt and show no fear of falling.

Life is strange, indeed!  I try to keep smiling and laugh at myself.  It really helps to do so.

Having made this post and thought about it, it occurs to me that I have been underestimating myself

I don't need to be the wannabe, almost, but somehow failing to quite make it, superhero,  "Couch Potato Man" -- lying  around dreaming and hoping for the day when I can find a willing sidekick to be Wifey. I already am a superhero. I am Whiny Guy and I don't need no stinking sidekick! I'm  a real good whiner all by myself. 

Watch out world!  Here I don't come to save the day!

.

Today's Song

Some days, Stephen Foster has it right. Over a century and a half ago, he wrote... http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=95itEHED8Hk

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.

Chorus:
Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard Times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh hard times come again no more.

2.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

3.
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

4.
Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus.

Today used as the theme song to the show, Copper.

Thanks to YouTube and Wikipedia

Addendum to Whiny Guy

I found a nasty and scabbed scratch on my arm this morning. It must have hurt when it happened, but I have no memory of the injury. I only realized it was there when I saw it in the mirror. Typical of me when I am disoriented. I refer to such incidents as burnt towel episodes, a reference to an incident previously described, in which I rather severely burned a towel, and then couldn't remember doing it.

Whiny Guy Strikes Again!

Friday was bad. Saturday I survived. Sunday I made it through. Monday was difficult, but I can honestly say that at least I lived it. Tuesday I broke down and made a blog entry; the price of which entry which I'm paying even today. And today I'm not doing very well at all. Still, things are better than they were on Friday!

Staccato

After so many days of things going so well, I suppose was inevitable that things should take a turn to the worse. Sunday was not a very good day. I found I'd lost my cell phone and I took a rather bad fall in the shower. But on Monday things went well with Austin, and, though I wasn't feeling at my best, we had a good day together. Today was not the best day either, but I finished the poem, Solo, and that is very good. The music keeps on playing even though the instrument is in need of much repair.

Resurrection -- Well, Sort Of

Three days ago I went out very worried. But I made it back intact. Today I went out again. Only three hours in a silent dark room after I got back, and I feel OK. I am getting better and getting there fast.

Thriller

Man the barricades! Once more, dear friends, into the breach! And other expressions of valor, courage and risk-taking!

I'm about to undertake a dangerous assignment, an odyssey into the unknown. In the past five weeks, I left the house only twice, not counting walks to the mailbox. The first trip triggered the worst vertigo attack in years. The second was a necessity two weeks later as I was out of bread and Ritz, essentials when I have difficulty getting upstairs to the kitchen. Surprisingly, it wasn't bad. Still, vertigo resumed, the next day.

I am now running low on supplies and think I can make the trip without restarting the whole mess. If religious, pray for me, if not, send good vibes via the fifth dimension.

I'm going in!

Tune in, Turn on, Fall down?

What strange night I had!  I hesitate to discuss it since it was SO strange, but like Ray Bradbury and his horror tales, putting it down on paper takes away much of its force. It is similar to the belief that if you know an evil spirit's true name, it loses it's power over you.  So I'll cry out, "Rumplestiltskin" and procede.

The heat wave has had it's usual bad effect on me, but August is making up for years of being less intense than July and hit us with three weeks of heat and high humidity which evaporative coolers just can't handle.  

The effects began early yesterday. As so often happens, I woke to find the world was tilted.  As usual, my eyes insisted that the entire room was tilted down to the right by about 40 degrees.  Oddly, this changed when I moved my head.  Normally, moving my line of sight does not alter the tilt.  Yesterday, when I looked to the right, the room was tilted to the right.  WhenI looked straight ahead, the room  was level.  When I looked to the left, the room tiled down in that direction.

It made walking even harder than it it is when my room is tilted one way.  During a regular event, as I move through the house, the tilt varies with gravity as I move along, although it tilts consistently when I am lying down.  Yesterday was even more chaotic.  I stayed upright, but my wrists paid for it as I veered about.

In the heat wave, I needed a shower badly last night.  I put my wrists under even more strain until I gave up and took the shower sitting down.  A wrist brace eased the pain on my left, and I collapsed into bed.

But instead of simply sleeping, I began to drift.  Normally a delight, this time drifting in and out of dream was disturbing.  I had the oddest sensations and dream drifts I can recall, even including a fever dream or two when my temperature tried to poach my brain.  Shadows became strange and troubling.  They glowed a soft blue and moved and shifted in ways I'd never seen before.  I thought that these living shadows should frighten me, but they didn't.

My fingers seemed to fold backwards like a carpenter's ruler, unfold and then refold again--over and over.  Since I was drifting, I could reach over and hold one hand atop the other.  This stopped the weird sensation.  But soon I was adrift again and could see and hear the clicking of my now mechanical fingers as I dreamed.
It all sounds so 60's psychedelic, but I do not now, nor have I ever, used drugs.  I say again, this is the oddest thing which has ever happened to me.  I wondered if I had food poisoning or if there was some pollutant in the air.  The oddity began to fade, until by pre dawn I began a poem for which I have great hopes.  Then I slept.

Today was a difficult day, but not exceptionally so.  I am 63 and this is the strangest thing that has ever happened to me.  I have no explanation and feel an urge to conceal this bizarre experience, but I believe it will be better to go ahead and open myself to criticism by speaking openly about it.  It happened. It  has never happened before.  I do not expect it to ever happen again.

By speaking openly of it, I intend to strip it of its power to disturb me.  Better to say, "Hey, you want to try to top this one?" and laugh about just how odd an experience I can have.  As I say, and as I sincerely mean, it's good to laugh at yourself.  Otherwise, you tend to take yourself way too seriously.

So, please join me in enjoying the joke.  It is evident that I can freak out from the effects of a lengthy heat wave, I bet you have to take drugs to get the same effect.

Lucky me!

Thesis Comments

OK, everyone, I had a bad night and a worse day. I tried to get off Bentyl yesterday and ended up forced to take a late night dose when my guts refused to cooperate. So I'm going to cheat a little today. Bobby, I'm posting my slightly edited responses to your thesis. It would be clearer with the thesis added, so, if you can, and if you wish, please post a link to it in comments. If you don't want to, no problem! My comments can stand alone, but lack depth. If anyone else is reading this, Bobby's thesis is engaging and well worth reading.

And so:

THESIS

Notes for Bobby

What I'm going to do, Bobby, is just make recordings here on Dragon as I read your paper. That means it'll be rather chaotic, but consider it an going one-sided conversation.  I'll make comments in the middle or at the end of each page, not reading ahead.



Page 1

On the marketplace of ideas. It seems to me that conservatives frequently refer to the benefits of the marketplace as benefits which accrue because of what is, after all, a form of natural selection! Considering their enmity towards science and most particularly toward the theory of natural selection this is quite remarkable! Indeed, if taken at face level as they themselves present it, this suggests a literal state of anarchy. 
It can only be accurately descrdined as Social Darwinism.  Darwin hated social Darwinism, but the zealots have seized upon it since the days of the Monkey Trial to condemn the unrelated science.  It was Spenser who created the  actual social movement BEFORE Darwin's theory of natural selection was  created.  He simply  coopted the science to support his already declared twisted view of human nature-- a view utilized by William Jeenings Bryan, Hayek, Ayn Rand, the GOP, Reagan, Thatcher, the Tea Party, etc. to attack the unrelated science. So they utterly hate Social Dawinism, but desperately want it adopted as our economic and health care systems. I mist say again, considering their devotion to law and order, to anti Dawinism, and supposedly, to Jesus, this is quite  a strange position for them to take.


Page 2

If we accept market demand as an essential ingredient, it also occurs to me that means that the free market says we should certainly totally legalize drugs as well.  The market demand is there isn't it? 


Page 5

Do individuals really value truth over falsehood? We all say we do, but I seriously to question whether this is in fact.

Page 6

This all reminds me of the theory that everyone acts rationally in the marketplace, therefore you should simply carefully calculate these rational human responses and you will be a great success. The group which practiced this were referred to as quants, or quantifiers,  on Wall Street. They are the people who destroyed our economy with their foolish misunderstanding of human nature. 

Page 7

The independent media? You mean like FOXNews? Rigorous, disinterested; I wonder where you can find things like that? 

The rational public? A very tiny minority. 

The most fundamental problem of the whole free-market concept is that the free market sells what people want to buy. On what basis do all these academics assume that people want to buy facts or accurate information? What people want to buy is  reassurance, comfort. excitement, and emotional highs. They don't want facts. That's the last thing on their agenda.


Page 8

I can't help but make a contrast between the situation in World War II in which FDR was forced to attempt to convince the American people that the danger was real and that keeping our national head in the sand would not make the scary Nazis go away and the Iraq war in which the majority of the American people supported the war which was clearly and obviously going to be a complete disaster. Clearly, the power of the president is at once vast and almost nonexistent depending upon many other circumstances. FDR faced the problem that Americans felt cheated and tricked into World War I and therefore we're about to be tricked again whereas Bush had the advantage of having had 9:11.


The public seeks accurate information? No, they don't. At no point in the process do the great majority of the people seek accurate information. That is simply a baseless concept. You might just as well say that people going to the local drug dealer are seeking a nice safe medication to cure their illnesses. The so-called news media today or more in line with sports events than a history class. People watching football may display concern about facts in regard to statistics but only to support their team.. People watch the news for the same reason they watch the Superbowl -- emotion. They seek excitement and pleasure from watching their team win and the other team lose.


Page 9
At the top of the pager making my point. If we assume the public really wants accurate information than all the rest follows. But of course they don't.

Excellent! I was beginning to get a little bit worried about you. 

Page 11

The psychological disciplines are finally ceasing to be a fantasy of individual researchers and becoming a real science.  NOTE :  I said, beginning to...

Page 12

Perhaps the most primal function of reasoning was to understand other's motives in a complex social group. How do I protect myself? How do I cheat and get away with it? How do I keep others cheating me? 

Page 13

Speaking of mental maps, it is also beneficial to be able to understand the seasons in order to know where to go exploit available resources. Exploiting seafood seasonally makes an excellent example -- Neanderthals in one area did not, modern humans in the same area did.

Page 14

Bottom of the page-and there's the research that nails it. Emotions are fundamental, reasoning is an add on.

PAge 15

S1and S2--Thing one and Thing 2. Not a cat in 
hat in sight!  Excellent idea!  It strikes me, on an intuitive level, that S1correct

But, in terms with which you should be familiar, having listened to me for a few years now, S1 is the cognitive autopilot while S-2 is the copilot whose function is to make certain that the pilot knows what he's doing and where is going. . 


Page 16

In other words thinking is hard work.

Page 17

A pre-constructed mental space--love that.

Page 18

And this makes me think of the individual whose name escapes me, who makes millions of dollars by convincing people to do the wrong thing simply by changing the terms used. The most classic case. of course, this changing the name of the inheritance tax to death tax. Everybody hates taxing death, so what is actually an inheritance tax, aka just an  income tax, becomes a horror show plot.

Page 19

This is interesting in relationship to the problems with patients who have damage to one side of the brain or a severed corpus callosum impeding communication between the two halves of the brain. You're probably familiar with the classic case in which an individual is shown pictures and then asked to choose the tool appropriate to handle the problem shown in the pictures. An individual whose nonverbal side of the brain sees a picture of a snowy driveway picks a snow shovel, even though the other side of his brain sees a picture of a broken window ( not the actual example) But the verbal side of his brain didn't see that picture and so generates elaborate and very confusing rationalizations for choosing a snow shovel.

Page 20

Illusion of objectivity-– and that explains creation science.
Which is a more scientific and documented way of saying what I say quite often-man can reason but most often man rationalizes. A biologist might say man is a faculative reasoner and an obligate rationalizer.

page 21

Rather sanguine indeed . I don't want sound like Mark Twain or Kurt Vonnegut but I think that's overstating the case and being too generous to us hairless apes. The human brain is always making compromises, taking shortcuts, and constructing a sense of reality. It actually does this surprisingly well, but not as well as that statement would indicate.  Evolution makes do with the raw material it has on hand, human reasoning could be much better designed.

Page 22

This is why it's so important for us to choose carefully with whom we intimately associate. It especially is important for us to choose carefully whom we except as a leader, or former of opinions.

Page 23, 24

In other words, the Greeks' cherished belief, and subsequent Western thought, is mostly wishful thinking in regards to man the rational animal.

Page 26

Well said! Well written.


Page 27

The first paragraph-Obama seems to be finally beginning to realize this.  He was the penultimate rational man.  In an irrational world, he was I'm trouble.  Reminds me of me and the school board...long story


Page 31

Not much to say about the preceding pages. Making the case well, describing the attitudes of others well.  I'm glad to see you moving toward pointing out the flaws of some researchers inherent assumptions. Too many people think far too highly of human capacity and desire to be accurate and factual. Ask anyone in high school, belonging and fitting into the right group are much more important than facts or even reality itself.

Page 32

Interesting point! I hadn't realized the lack of correlation between the WMD deceits and and support for the war.

Page 34

Trusted elite cues, exactly the point. We are a species of followers. If we ceased being that we would cease being human. We're not a flock of sheep as so many writers have suggested-we are a troop of apes. But that doesn't mean we don't follow our leader.

Page 35

A sad, but accurate view of human nature. You're hinting at some hope on the next page. Well I hope so!


Page 40

It sounds good. But I think the likelihood that ever happening is vanishingly small. It was only government regulation, agreed upon by both sides in a bipartisan  manner, that prevented this current state of affairs until Ronald Reagan gutted the regulatory process, allowing the wealthy to poison the news media.  See my quote from Fukuyama on the entrenchment of the rich.

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But Americans strongly tend not to vote. I think our greatest hope lies in movements like the occupy movement. Unfortunately, such movements arise only at moments of desperation. We let the system go corrupt and practically fall apart, then desperately repair it, only to watch it descend into  corruption all over again. Not a very hopeful view, on the other hand it is a view that allows for the system to continue to survive and function, if poorly.  Still, reforms are hard to  undo.  From Reagan on the Right has attempted to undo FDR's  legacy, and failed.  Blacks are not likely to be reenslaved, etc.

Plurality of outlets. Yes, exactly. But that's what we've lost. We need to reregulate the media.  A guest on Bill Moyers tonight mentioned a book by another author who referred to the free enterprise system as a garden. A garden is not simply allowed grow or die depending whatever happens. It isn't just planted and abandoned.  It is regulated, controlled, watched, watered, weeded, nurtured, et cetera.

An excellent paper. The opening was heavy on data and jargon, unavoidable in the scholarly medium.  Once through that obligatory groundwork, you made your case smoothly and convincingly.  I find your conclusion overly hopeful, but very defensible.

Thanks for sharing!  I enjoyed.













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Un grito en la noche

I am having a bad night.  I've fallen a few times, once actually ending up in the closet as the floor suddenly tilted and dumped me against the door, which popped open.  I am in and out of awareness, sometimes asleep and then in whatever state entraps me whenever I am so disoriented.  I hope I can get back to actual sleep.  I was even having pleasant dreams.  In any case, here is a post from the holidays:

It's a beautiful day today. A Symphony in Gray. With luck, it'll rain or maybe even snow . This is good because right now I'm not feeling so great. I was feeling really fine yesterday, catching up on Big Bang Theory and thoroughly enjoying the evening. Then I got up and found myself against the wall, which, for some odd reason, had become the floor.
  
I had a very bad night. And I'm not doing so well today, as everything seems to be tilted. You know, like being in one of those fun houses at a tourist attraction. I know the house isn't actually tilted because I'm the only one who's trying to keep his balance as he walks across the floor. Logic forces me to conclude that either I am extremely disoriented or my family is following the lead of Jeff Goldblum and  have all somehow added fly DNA to their genome and are now capable of walking up walls without even blinking. Note: for the age limited, look up the movie The Fly to understand the previous reference.

This, of course, is just an aspect of my life as it is been for the past 15 years or so. What really troubles me, is that this is my favorite time of year. The holiday season begins with Halloween and ends with New Year's. Of course, I will have the great joy of all of my family with whom I have contact. But I cannot help but be wounded and sad as my prodigal daughter still has not contacted me and so I still have little hope of seeing my lost lambs who she is withholding for me because of resentment over step family issues. 

And now let's end with one of my favorite songs, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i94JqPKmgc.
Of course, I prefer the original lyrics: 


I am a really whiny guy.

All I do is whine and cry.

Alone again,

Wonder why?

Whiny Guy

The title is a warning!  Whenever you see it, be aware that I am entering into territory which is treacherous and full of shoals.  It comes from my version of one of the dreariest, most reeking of self pity, wretched songs ever written.  Alone Again, Naturally.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alone_Again_(Naturally). 

It my subtle way of warning potential readers that I am NOT happy at the moment.

Read on at your own peril!

I had a very long, but accomplished day yesterday.  I got my taxes done (thank you, Debbie!) and relocated/rewired my upstairs sound system.  The latter was a frustrating experience,  but was successful. The result was a difficult night.  As always, I pay dearly for demanding my body function for an extended time.  OK, so I had a mild crash.  That is hardly surprising.

The  problem is today.  My grandson's dog, normally a welcome visitor, ate a few things I value...well, details don't matter.  The point is, I needed a quiet, peaceful day. I got a noisy, irritating mess.  I am irritable, confused, vertiginous and generally unfit for  company, human or animal.

I am posting because, late as it is, I am trying to post on  this blog every day during Lent. I am retreating from the world and my family for the rest of the night.  I hope for a better day tomorrow.  I end this day with my words for the above referenced song:

I'm a really whiny guy,
All I do is whine and cry,
Alone again,
Wonder why?