Wrong For So Many Reasons

There was a contest on a social media site for a  list of  50 objects that say Vermont.  One entry was "One word: Empathy (with one another)"

Wow!  Where to begin?

1. Object!  Empathy is not an object, it is a thing but is not visible or tangible.  We are looking for things like Fall folliage, sugar shacks or trustafarians on Church Street in Burlington.

2. "(with one another)"  As opposed to what? Rocks, trees and rivers?  

Enough with the trivial and easy criticism, what is the underlying meaning that is being, perhaps unwittingly, betrayed?

Since the contest is for things that say Vermont, a fair assumption is that they should be things which would be particular to Vermont and not to other places.  That is, we are looking for things which are distinctively Vermont.  The implication is that empathy is something unique to Vermonters.  Well, don't we have a high opinion of ourselves?  And by implication, low opinion of people from outside.

Clannish, check.  Self-satisfied, check.  Fully confident in one's moral superiority, check!

Because I Can

So, what should one make of this Superbowl ring controversy?

In case you haven't heard, the story is in all the papers, here is the Washington Post's version:

What are the facts and what should one make of them:

1.  There seems to be no dispute that the ring was passed between Mr. Kraft and Mr. Putin.

2. Kraft has variously claimed it was stolen from him and that he was just joking about it being taken and that it was actually a gift.  What makes this hard to believe:

     --Kraft's own claim that he was pressured by the Bush administration to not make a fuss over this is believable and even though he claims it is all a joke, his current backing-off from the story could just be that the Obama administration is applying the same pressure on him that was done before.

     --Who would give away such a one of a kind object?  It just seems unbelievable.

     --If Putin was a "normal" kind of person he would diffuse this by making a public statement that, if there is some kind of misunderstanding, then Mr. Kraft can have the ring back any time.  He only needs to ask.  This has not happened, or if it has, it has not been reported.

     --The ring is claimed to be on display in the Kremlin library.  This claim could be easily checked, though to my knowledge it has not been verified.  If it is true, then I would find this fact to be exonerating of Mr. Putin.  If he did not take it for his own personal pleasure, then he must have been acting out of higher motives.  On the other hand, one could suppose that the ring was put on display exactly for the reason of insulating the Russian President from criticism.  He would still have the pleasure of seeing his own power validated by being able to steal a prized possession with no repercussions.

Okay, Hot Chicks Finally

I have not been able to decide whether to be impressed with or appalled by Edward Snowden:  


Here is a guy who looks like this.

Who reportedly pulled down about $ 200,000.  And is only 29 years old and apparently abandoned a girlfriend who looks like this:

So, in other words-- Idiot!  or Wow! A guy who would give up all of that must have some inner drive that is stronger than what would seem to be a pretty ideal situation.

Hamburgers and Hot Chicks

They are only related in that I've had small thoughts on both and neither are really enough for a blog post, but possibly, together they will clear the bar.

I have a self-imposed "goal" of running 30 miles/week with an associated goal of keeping the pace to under 8 minutes/mile.  The week worked out well and my mileage was in by Wednesday, which was great for two reasons:

1.  Thursday was a fasting day and it is not fun at all to; first of all, run on an empty tank and second of all, to not get to eat after the run.  So, I went for a nice walk in the drizzle of Thursday and it really helped to ease the soreness from Wednesday's 13 miler.

2. I've been wanting to try the Deluxe Quarter Pounder and have a coupon for a free medium fries and medium drink with the purchase of the sandwich.  The problem is that I normally run every day on my lunch break and that does not allow time to drive to McDonald's.  See above, my lunch hour has been freed-up by early week diligence.

My normal order is for a McDouble since, even though I like the Big Mac better, the McDouble is pretty good and is 1/4 the price.

Recently, I came across a variation on this burger, the Daily Double, which is more-or-less the same except has mayo, lettuce, sliced (instead of minced) onion and a slice of tomato.  It looked good so I tried it:

It really is quite different and I liked it a lot.  The Deluxe Quarter Pounder looks like it is essentially the same except for one large piece of ground beef rather than two small ones.  I wanted to try it, plus the coupon--but there is a fly in the ointment:

That bun looks too bready for my taste.  "Have it your way" is that other place and so I was reluctant to ask but the guy behind the counter was very friendly so I asked if they could make me one with a normal Quarter Pounder bun.  No problem!  Verdict:  It was good but I think that I like the Daily Double better.  Cheaper too, double plus good.

One thing I would like to try is to make my own root beer float:  Normally a small beverage is on the dollar menu and they have been offering small cones for 49 Cents.

Pour a root beer, lop the top of the cone off into the drink & voila!

Hot Chicks?  Eh, there is enough here for a post after-all.  Hot Chicks can wait.

Will This Convince Them?

In my judgement.  No.

Case in point:

The left is still lionizing Paul R. Ehrlich even as his predictions have proven comically wrong.  It is almost as if the guy has been on a 40 year conceptual art project with half of us taking him seriously and the other half thinking he is a moron.

So, Let me get this straight: He is wrong about something?

Prog:  I have no problem with these shady teabagger groups being investigated by the IRS.

Me:  Well, President Obama said he was outraged by it.

Prog: So?

Me: Well, is the President lying about being outraged?

Prog:  Yes.

Boom! The President is a liar.

OR

Prog:  No.

Me:  Is he wrong to be outraged?

Prog:  Yes.

Boom! The President is wrong about something.

Note:  This fantasy is flawed by the fact that progs often take exception to anything the president does that smacks of moderation.  That is to say, when he deviates from their far-left ideology, then and only then is he flawed.

A Great Observation From Neo-Neocon

"...if even the great and noble Obama fell prey to the seduction of power that Big Government represents, then wouldn't practically anyone?"

The rest here:

How To Change Your Mind and Not Be a Hypocrite

1.  Acknowledge that your view has changed.

2. Explain why you now think differently on the issue.

3. Give some credit to those who disagreed with you before you changed your mind--you know, since you have come around to their view now.

OR

Do it Obama's way:

I welcome this debate and I think it's healthy for our democracy. I think it's a sign of maturity because probably five years ago, six years ago we might not have been having this debate. And I think it's interesting that there are some folks on the left but also some folks on the right who are now worried about it, who weren't very worried about it when it was a Republican president. 

1. No mention that he was one of the fiercest critics of President Bush' intelligence gathering.

2. None given.  We did have this debate "five years ago, six years ago" and Obama was on the opposite side of it then from where he is now.

3. No.  Rather criticize them for now believing what you used to believe.

The exact opposite of what it means to be a statesman.

Added:

Just so head-off the possible complaint that there is no graceful way to perform my statesman-like standard, the below is a shot at it.  Bear in mind, I am not a professional writer and so this could probably be greatly improved.

Fellow Americans.  I'm sure you are well aware that when I was a Senator from Illinois, I was one of the most fierce critics of President Bush's intelligence-gathering program under the Patriot Act.  I think this stemmed from at least two sources:  First, a general distrust of the Bush administration and second, as an outsider to the executive branch, a lack of understanding for the capabilities and responsibilities of that branch.  As President, I have come-around to the need for programs such as these since I take seriously my responsibility to protect the American public from attack and see the programs as well within constitutional privacy protections.  As for liberal and conservative critics of theses efforts, some of whom did not oppose them when George W. Bush was President:  I understand your concerns and share those same concerns.  People of good faith can come to different conclusions about the balance between privacy and security.

Thank You and God Bless. 

Added:

By JAMES TARANTO

"As for our common defense," Barack Obama declared in his First Inaugural Address, "we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. . . . Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake."

Last Friday the president said this: "I think it's important to recognize that you can't have 100% security and also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience. We're going to have to make some choices as a society." 

Scientists Behaving Badly

When I had read about the study indicating that a bit of extra weight might not be so bad, I kind of expected the pushback that ensued.  A nice surprize is the editorial in Nature linked to below:

Shades of grey

It is risky to oversimplify science for the sake of a clear public-health message. 

The problem with simple messages and black-and-white statements is that they tend to be absolutes and so the easiest to falsify. The line that the science of global warming is ‘settled’ must have seemed like a good idea at the time, and when taken to refer to the narrowest of scientific questions it is correct, but it was (fairly) interpreted as insistence that no queries remained. Even legitimate debates on outstanding issues — climate sensitivity, say — can now be painted as unsettling not just to the scientific position, but also to the policy response it demands.

Scientists or I should say "scientists" who make claims which go beyond what the actual data says, think that they are furthering social good.  They are not.  They are trading in credibility for short term goals.  Ultimately, a technological society depends on belief in the truth of science.  The foisting of junk science has the result in all of it being seen as garbage.

Yeast Waffles

For some reason I have long wanted to try making yeast waffles.  Possibly it is because in the foam stage of bread making that batter just looks so fry-able.

I tried this recipe from King Arthur Flour

• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 2 to 3 tablespoons maple syrup, optional
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast

Verdict:  It is good, though not really a huge amount better than with normal baking soda based versions.  It is not really much more work though. All you have to do is mix the batter up an hour before cooking.  Next time I think I will sub in a cup or 3/4 cup of butter milk.

The "Bounty" of Self-Help Experts

New York couple, hosts of self-help radio show, commit suicide, authorities say

I suppose one could say, " The jokes write themselves" but I want to focus on something else.

Read more: 


They were very smart about how to go about it:  The story above gives these details:

Autopsies found that both Littig, 47, and Rosen, 45, died from asphyxiation after inhaling helium, a spokeswoman for medical examiner's office said Thursday.

Asphyxiation by inert gas is thought to be totally painless.

An additional detail is that their bodies were only discovered by the smell from decomposition.  
So they planned out very well how to easily and painlessly dispatch themselves, but could not be bothered to arrange for someone to find them before the stench did this?

I don't know.  It might be hard to send out a notification that doesn't risk being found while still alive, right?  Wrong!  You can schedule a blog post.  This post, for instance is scheduled to go out at 7:00 but I wrote it earlier today.

This couple wins my "prize" as the most self-adsorbed.  Who will win the next Bounty prize?

Last Week's Running Workouts

For reasons which do not matter here, I ran three days in a row on the same course:  An 8 and one quarter mile loop.

The first run was on Wednesday, which was cool but which was also a fasting day (my wife and I are trying the fast diet, which is a subject on which I will probably blog about at some point).  Anyway, I had nothing to eat that day except for coffee in the morning.  I did fine on this run and kept the pace at 7:55

The next day I had a good breakfast but by the time of my run in the early afternoon, it was already in the low 90's. The run was miserable and slow at 8:26.

The final run was both a fast day and slightly hotter than the day before.  Yet somehow I pulled my self together and ran slow but not by as much as the day before:  8:22/mile.

Either the fasting is not a problem for running or my ability to adapt to heat made up for the hot fasting run.  I do feel tired and weak on fast days.

I generally consider any run of 13 miles or less to be a failure if it comes in over 8/mile, but I have to cut myself some slack considering the weather.

All of this effort, concentrated in the last three working days of the week, set me to musing about why I bother with it.  I've been 30 pounds heavier and I looked fine.  I felt fine too.  Why can't I settle into being a short, fat balding and jolly creature?  Maybe I will at some point.  I don't after-all feel any contempt for, or superiority to, other people who have let themselves go.  Anyway, the key point I was left with is that it is really hard to stay in shape.  I do it for some reason and it is my choice to do so.

I choose to make the efforts needed to stay in shape but how would I feel about such exertions if they were forced upon me?  Hard to imagine, but I think being forced would make it even more difficult because instead of it being a manifestation of my freedom, it would be the opposite:  It would be proof that I don't have freedom.  This is the fundamental problem with socialized medicine (actually, it is the problem with socialized anything):  If your health is the state's business, then they might intrude on your freedom to eat what you want, to exercise or not, to smoke, to drink etc.  Alternatively, they will not meddle; but then how is it fair for me to be in the same risk pool as an obese, sedentary alcoholic who smokes?

This is what socialism always comes down to:  Infringe freedom, punish virtue or both.

Grate expectations

The difference between the theft of my bike and the GOP's attempted piecemeal dismantling of Obamacare is that theft is a crime, while an opposition party's strategic resistance to the implementation of a law reviled by the party's supporters is practically an obligation. In any case, it's predictable.

Well worth a full reading... 

Without Double-Standards, They Wouldn't Have Any Standards At All...

The left likes to harp on how the right is just awful because of their endless desire to force their values onto the rest of the country.  The dirty little secret is that they are not so much against the imposition of moral values per-se, as they are against the imposition of conservative values.  They have no problem with imposing liberal values.  At all.  The really insidious thing is the refusal to admit* that they are trying to impose values too.

*I think "notice" might be a better word here.  They really are oblivious to the fact that they excel in doing exactly what they accuse the other side of doing.

The below article is exactly on-point.  In fact, its quote from Paul Ryan is the same one liberal friends on Facebook used to "prove" that the Wisconsin Congressman was basically an ayatolla.

America’s Anti-Gun Theocrats

Should rabbis and other clerics engage in politics? Only, it seems, if they support liberal policies.

Like Downhill Snow Skiing (in reverse)

Today, it fell to me, to empty-out the truck of the bamboo flooring which has been residing there.  Wife needs the truck early on Saturday to take another mom and six girls to a DI competition and I only have today off.

Each trip from the truck to the third-floor addition left me winded but I would recover on the way back down to the truck.  This is a lot like how I used to ski.  I would go from top to bottom and be out-of-breath by the time I got on the chair lift, but by the end of the ride I would be fully recovered.

Differences:

1. Today, there were 32 runs up the steps with a load of flooring--three more trips with underlayment, but it was light, even taking two rolls at a time.  The most ski runs I ever did in a day was 25 top-to-bottom runs on the last day I was at Sun Valley.  3,000 vertical feet each run.
2. One trip up 33 steps with a 50 LB load is quicker (about one minute) and less strenuous than  skiing down Baldy (about 5 minutes).  It only took an hour to haul the wood, but it took me all day to get in all of that skiing.  In fairness, the 9 minute chairlift ride was probably the most limiting factor to the number of runs I could get in, though I was very tired by the end of the day.
3. Obviously, the skiing was more fun.
4. Moving the flooring was more useful than skiing.

Losing Weight is a Bear

I don't understand what the problem is:

I lose the weight every Winter--but then I have gained it all back by Fall...

I am tempted to just leave it at that but will risk going on from here any way.

It is my hypothesis that a healthy person who eats whatever they want and doesn't exercise, ought to gain weight.  (I will note here that I claim no special knowledge:  My method is to see where commonly known facts lead us.)

Given that for most of human biological history, we have been hunter-gatherers;  the nature of this life style is that there are times of abundance and times of want.  There would thus be a huge survival advantage in being able to store energy on-board your body.  To survive in this kind of environment, you must gain weight when there is plenty so that you do not starve when there is scarcity.  

What about storing food externally?

With the exception of Diamond's pre-historic Japanese, H & G groups had to be on he move all the time and so transporting foods would be a challenge in a couple of ways:

• It takes time to preserve food by drying and this works against being constantly on the move.
• Once preserved, food needs to be packaged and carried along.

Once Humans took up farming and herding, the ability to lay-in fat was much less a benefit.  Farmers were, by their nature, fixed to a location and would have the time to preserve food and no need to transport it.  Herdsmen were still on the move, but the herd was the source of food--so they didn't need to transport or store it.   Additionally, it is hard to engage in the challenging physical activities associated with farming and herding without being physically fit.

The very physicality of the work was enough to keep its practitioners fit.  Now we have jobs that do not require physical fitness and are not demanding enough to keep us fit and so Quelle surprise  we are getting fat.

I have, no surprise, some thoughts on how to avoid getting fat and will outline them below...

JK!

Actually, my own experience has been that around 40 I started to steadily gain weight.  I began to exercise regularly and cut down, though not eliminate, the starchy parts of meals.  The weight I had gained was quickly lost.  But I did not continue to lose weight. 

I know that I could lose more weight if I ate enough less, the laws of thermodynamics being what they are and all.  It is just that as any dieter can point out; the body adjusts to caloric restriction and becomes miserly about expending energy.  In our modern times this is a bug, in times of need it would be a really nice ability.

Campodimele, Italy

How do you like them apples?

I had a bit of idle curiosity about the place where some of my ancestors came from and I came across a whole book about the community.  It seems that Campodimele is famous for its residents' long life span.

Many of the articles on the place say that the name means "Field of Honey" though a quick perusal of the web tells me that mele means apple in Italian.  This is a little disapointing since Pecchia supposedly means "industrious" or like a worker bee.  It should be noted that Pecchia is the most common last name in Campodimele, so it would have all made a lot of sense.  Though, if Campo (country) di (of) mele (apple) is apple country, then it is only fitting that my relatives settled in Washington State, which is famous for its apples.

The True Believers Know It's a Lie

Obama:
“I actually don’t think we should ban handguns,”

From THE HILL

But it is okay. He needs to fool the rubes that stand in the way of progress and when the time is right, he will show his true feelings.

Remember when?

Obama:
"marriage is between a man and a woman".

The Telegraph

Charlie Freak

Sonia Sotomayor on Charlie Rose

Not a show I normally watch but as is typical of my late-night television viewing, I fell asleep while watching something else and awoke to it.

I haven't had much interest in her beyond some attention paid to "a wise latina woman" of her confirmation hearings.

I was really impressed with her affect: Here was a woman who does not just love life, she is in-love with life! She came across as smart and well-informed as well. Except for one thing: Mr. Rose asked something along the lines of what she looks for in a law clerk and she said that she wants someone smarter than herself, or at least better at the thing she needs them for. She also noted that President Obama is the same way. What!

It is pretty clear that Mr. Obama does not admit the possibility of there being anyone smarter or better than himself at anything. So, Obama may want to do that kind of hiring, but why would he waste time pondering impossibilities?