Alternate Universes

  Yesterday I took the plunge. I donned my face mask, which may or may not protect me or may or may not protect others, I got in my car, which may or may not need gas, and I drove to the medical center to get my Covid booster. I’ve mastered all the basics: park on the top level (direct sunlight kills the virus, adding an extra level of protection), don’t take the stairs (even going downhill exhausts me), know where I’m going (fortunately Covid signage is much clearer than signage to the Psychiatric ward, my usual destination. Getting the booster was a lot easier than getting the original shots. Better scheduling, less panic, and a more orderly process. Not only was my provider able to give me the booster, but they were able to update my records so that my first booster was included. And, as an added bonus, I was able to get a flu shot. Ah, I feel so protected now! Then I got home. “What? You got the booster? Don’t you know that’s going to cause heart failure?” (Yes, I have ...

I often find that I have problems with people who confuse data and information. Data is often cited as proof that some proposition is true, but it is only when data is collected and presented in a rigorous organized manner that it becomes information. Let me see if I can give an example. Data is the collection of instances of a specific occurrence. For example, four people on a deserted island are women. You know nothing about the gender make-up of the island's population. The number four constitutes data. While we need data to interpret the universe, data itself is insufficient. We need information.  Now if I told you that the total population of the island was one hundred people, and four of them are women, you have not just more data, but enough data to start comprehending the nature of that data. But even this is insufficient. If I told you that the island had a population of one hundred individuals and ONLY four of them are women, you have have a more complete understanding of...

I watched a segment on Morning Joe with Laverne Cox. She is a 50 year old transgender woman who looks and sounds quite feminine. She started transitioning in her twenties, which is probably why she looks so good. She commented that since Jan 1 of this year, states have introduced 151 anti-trans bills into their legislatures. As I was viewing her, it occurred to me that she puts me to shame in a number of ways. First, as a transgender woman, she looks damn good. Oh, I know. Most of you probably don't think that transgender women worry about their appearance, since their "gender identity" is so important to them. Well, I can tell you that's a pile of bull. Transgender women stress and worry about how they look as much as any cisgendered female does. We want to conform to the "standard" as much as any teenage girl does. (The good news is that after many years, trans women outgrow their teenage traumas and begin to accept themselves for who and what they are. ...

I tried writing a post about my life, and I discovered that my protection software suddenly decided this site was potentially dangerous. It kept me from coming here, and when I did manage to access the blog, my most recent post was blacked out. I don't like that. I don't believe in censorship. I don't believe my post was advocating anything immoral, illegal, or wrong. But if this site is going to be compromised by other people censoring my thoughts, I am not happy with it.  I reposted the blog I wrote, but without the Labels. It seems to have posted correctly, but I still need to check it out.

Recently, my daughter related a tale to me about her son. He's a teenager in high school, a promising junior who excels in academics, participates in many organizations, studies martial arts, and is a whiz at military history. He is a shy young man, yet is popular with his peers. As he and his friends were coming home from school, my grandson noticed an elderly man, bent over with age and arthritis, studying a map. The old man appeared to be lost and unable to determine which way to go. My grandson saw the man's confusion. He hurried across the street and asked the old man if he needed help. The old man nodded, then described where he was trying to go. My grandson checked the map, then explained how the old man could get to his destination. The old man started along the route, but was hesitant and uncertain in his movements. My grandson realized that the old man might still get lost, so he caught up with the man and then guided him ultimately to the man's destination. When ...

I recently heard about a new show on HBO Max called Velma. It is an animated spin-off of Scooby-Doo, a show popular with my kids when they were quite young. I am sure I watched some episodes, though I can't remember them. Good thing for Wikipedia to remind me of who the characters were. The current version of Velma has all the same characters as the original series - Velma, Shaggy, Daphne, and Fred, but alas, no Scoobert. The current versions of these characters are all tainted with the cynical, depraved, and bankrupt attributes the current writers in Hollywood (or wherever they're located) like to attribute to every character they create. I understand there was some ambiguity about the original Mystery Team. Was Velma a lesbian, or merely a butch girl? Was Shaggy really a consumer of pot, or was he merely a significant deviant from the mean? I don't know. The original story didn't focus on those qualities.  But in this day and age, those qualities seem to be the primar...

The Republicans all try to justify the four day debacle this week as just “messy democracy.” They cite that this is an example of open debate on the issues.  They claim this is the way the founders wanted it to be. I’m not at all sure they have any idea what the founders wanted, but that’s beside the point. The real issue is that what we saw in the first four days of McCarthy’s attempt to be Speaker of the House is a farce. There are several reasons why I believe this. First, the debate was hardly open. All the agreements took place behind closed doors and in non-public arenas. The C-Span cameras didn’t catch real debate. No one except eavesdroppers heard a word of the discussions, concessions, and arguments of the GOP as they wrangled the objectors to McCarthy’s rule from twenty to six to zero. Yes, we did see a disturbing instance of one Representative having to be restrained because he wanted to attack one of the hold-outs. And later, as we usually do, we learned that his outr...

When I started this blog, I thought I was going to have fun parodying the Trump Presidency. But it soon became apparent that the Trump Presidency was too serious to parody. It was not something that you could make fun of, as though it were a harmless prank played on a college roommate. The Trump Presidency was a real decline in civility, rationality, and humanity. It was worse than the debacle we had when we had Richard Nixon as our President. As the days wore on, I found I couldn't joke about the things that Trump was doing to our great country. I realize that others, more talented people than me, were able to mock what Trump was doing, and mock it in a way that highlighted the evil and corrupt things that were going on just below the surface. But I couldn't be one of those people.  I hid from what I regarded as a dive into hypocrisy, deviousness, and criminality. And by the time our country returned to rationality, with the election of Joe Biden, I had forgotten that this blo...

 As I watch the House of Representatives try time after time to select a Speaker, I am torn between competing value judgments. On the one hand, I admire the perseverance of Kevin McCarthy in pursuing his dream of becoming Speaker of the House. It is the kind of personal dedication that I keep telling my children to pursue. It is the lesson I got from Galaxy Quest. It is a value I try to emulate myself. On the other hand, when I see McCarthy exemplifying this value, I feel tarnished. He is the exact wrong person to be demonstrating something I prize as a great human trait. He says one thing one day, then humiliates himself kowtowing to the person he has condemned. He is deceptive in ways I cannot imagine. So when I see him modelling a behavior I value, I find myself feeling betrayed. Not just by Kevin McCarthy, but by all those who support him. The current Republican Party.

 I noticed that I have not used this blog site for quite a long time. In fact, I got so depressed with the direction our society was moving that I felt like I did not want to participate in social communications. I can't say that things have gotten much better, but maybe, just maybe, they are heading back in a progressive direction. I am upset that so many states are limiting personal freedoms, but I have never believed that progress was a straight line upwards. It's always been two steps forward, one step back. I can accept that, as long as we keep taking two steps forward. I am pleased with the state of the Democratic caucus in the House. I think the party reflects the country as I like to see it -- diverse, allied in general policies, yet willing to tolerate differences in opinion. A party open to compromise. A group of people willing to live by a set of standards that speak to decency, integrity, and honor. So, who knows? Maybe in 2023 I will post more often on this site.