Pride and Pus

My young one now wants to study astrophysics at a prominent university. This will cause us some financial strain but I do not want to stand in their way.

"Some of the “gossip” can be viewed as people trying to “understand” the suicide. But, still, openly conjecturing about causes and doing so in a pejorative manner serves NO positive purpose whatsoever." Kevin Caruso, Suicide.org.


I am so proud of my spouse who has little to no background in the hard sciences despite their expertise in their field of social science. They are reading the book In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, Quantum Physics and Reality by John Gribbin. "Far out and groovy" as WHRW used to broadcast with some frequency (Unintentional pun, otherwise the neologism "punintentional." Still... Yuck.)

10) "In spite of the hell that suicide survivors UNFAIRLY go through, the vast majority of suicide survivors are extremely loving and caring people who go out of their way to help other people."

(My insert: This is from Kevin Caruso's site noted above from a list of reasons why suicide survivors are heroes.)

"I rest my case...

Suicide survivors are heroes.

The people who SHOULD be stigmatized are the ones who spew ignorance and hate about suicide.

One more time: Suicide survivors are heroes.

Always remember that. And whenever you meet a suicide survivor, remind that person that he or she is A HERO…"





Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss. Funny and smart. (Video of the ASU chat here.

More from Mr. Caruso:

"You MUST talk about it; there is no question about that. Keeping the feelings bottled up will make the situation more difficult and potentially cause you to be more prone to suicide. So, again, you MUST talk about the suicide.

But who you tell, and how much you tell them, is YOUR decision, and only your decision."

[Snip]

"DO NOT let anyone push you into talking about something that you are not comfortable with. Period."

Please do not be a wire monkey mother. Please do not be a wire monkey *daddy* either. (Harlow's experiment summarized. More here.)

Please take this advice from Bill: "Be excellent to each other." If you can't do that then get off the bus.

Nurse's suicide highlights twin tragedies of medical errors.

Dona nobis pacem.

To all.

No Satisfaction, or The War Against Sick People: Bush Era Continued

The children’s rights group estimates that 994 people younger than 18 were killed in drug-related violence between late 2006 and late 2010, based on media accounts, which are incomplete because newspapers are often too intimidated to report drug-related crimes.

Taken from the basically harmless and partially venerable people at Salon, who had been parsing a Washington Post article. Amazing. Somebody still reads the Post. And in this day and age! More:

“It may seem contradictory, but the unfortunate level of violence is a sign of success in the fight against drugs,” said Michele Leonhart, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The cartels “are like caged animals, attacking one another,” she added.

They, the cartels, are not attacking one another in these hideous incidents. They target children to terrorize communities. And Ms. Leonhart thinks this represents a fucking success. I puke.



That's one crazy motherfucker right there that Michele Leonhart. She's the Bush leftover at the Drug Enforcement Agency; a lifer, and she apparently and admittedly chose a decades-long career in law enforcement because when she was little somebody tried to steal her bike.

You know. That old story. Epic cluelessness on a scale of magnitude measurable in billions and billions of lightyears.

She needs fucking therapy. Her parents should either have gotten her bike back for her or bought her a replacement. Pronto. (That means "fast," for all you Republican readers who may think I am referring to the archaic and archtypical (in the sense of an actor's portrayal of a character quite notable as a mind-shatteringly ignorant bigoted clusterfuck stereotype,) Lone Ranger companion.

We managed to at least elect a compromise like our dear Obama, so why do we have to be stuck with some freak with a fetish for increasing the misery of terminal cancer patients who obtain some relief from medical cannabis? This woman is like totally mental, dudes and dudettes. Okay? No. So like grossly un-okay




The Trumbull portrait of Jefferson is my favorite and the statesman himself has some very good ideas about government. Yet far too many people whose family histories are laden with the evil tragedy of slavery have Jefferson to claim as an ancestor... Yuck.

Yet:

"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes" [Letter to von Humboldt, 1813]. So much for the religiousity of the Founders. One of them anyways, but he's a biggie.

"Our principles are founded on the immovable basis of equal right and reason.

Let it go, Ms. Leonhart. Quit hassling 730,000 sick people with state-issued medical cannabis permits. There is no reason to do that. Get a fucking life already. Go catch a bike thief or something.

And what's with the $2,200,000 you DEA guys gave that perjuring snitch Andrew Chambers? He lied under oath, dumbass. Dear dear Michele sweetie, did you not get that this guy was an unreliable profiteering psychopath and that you, with your wonderful experience as an undercover agent, got totally PLAYED by this asshole? Great. Nice work that.

It's the old Peter Principle:

[Snip]

"...The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as "The theory that employees within an organization will advance to their highest level of competence and then be promoted to and remain at a level at which they are incompetent." ... "In a hierarchically structured administration, people tend to be promoted up to their level of incompetence," or, as Dr. Peters Principal explained more simply, "The cream rises until it sours."

You are bad cream Ms. Leonhart and I beg you to spoil no dinner of cooked potatoes. How nice of you though to carry on a grand Republican tradition: Cluelessness so lacking in empathy, comprehension, and reason that it seemingly and truly represents a new and stunning chapter in Devolution.

Mark Mothersbaugh is a genius. Maybe though Ms. Leonhart spells it with a "j."