Friday, June 23, 2006
Silly Anglicans
Well, before ELCA does something even sillier, I'm going to capitalize on some riotously funny quotes Chad has posted at his blog site The Vossed World:
Presiding Bishop-elect Katharine Jefferts Schori: "Our mother Jesus gives birth to a new creation. And you and I are His children."
Reverend Eugene McDowell (on rejecting resolution that affirmed Jesus as Lord and the only way for salvation): "This type of language was used in 1920s and 1930s to alienate the type of people who were executed. It was called the Holocaust."
Preferred Superpower
In order to advance the cause of philosophy and religion I must pose a very important question: if you were to choose one super power, what would it be?
[Uberich: Hmmm, seems like you're advancing the cause of the Ungame?]
In talking with my wife, I decided the coolest super power would be the ability to read at a super-human pace with maximal reading comprehension. I consider this a kind of super power because, as it probably apparent to anyone who attempts to read material other than the newspaper, real reading isn't at all like optical character recognition with a little character encoding thrown in.
I guess I'd miss out on flying, invisibility and telepathy, which all seem fun - but I'd rather be reading I think. My main attack would have to be uttering just the right quote to diffuse a situation and make my nemesis ponder their own existence.
[Uberich: Hmmm, seems like you're advancing the cause of the Ungame?]
In talking with my wife, I decided the coolest super power would be the ability to read at a super-human pace with maximal reading comprehension. I consider this a kind of super power because, as it probably apparent to anyone who attempts to read material other than the newspaper, real reading isn't at all like optical character recognition with a little character encoding thrown in.
I guess I'd miss out on flying, invisibility and telepathy, which all seem fun - but I'd rather be reading I think. My main attack would have to be uttering just the right quote to diffuse a situation and make my nemesis ponder their own existence.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Better Living Through Chemistry Really Is Better Living
Jodi at I Cite writes (commenting on Susie Bright's post on AlterNet):
First: yeah, it's a shame some of these medicines inhibit sexual desire, but it's a bigger shame that this issue is being framed as some kind of loss of existential authenticity. Susie Bright has the nerve to say "young people are being treated with this crap."
The "crap", as Bright calls it, and its fruitful adjustment to one's neurological plumbing, more often than not enhances life instead of diminishing it, especially for those who suffer from real neurotic disturbances. Those are the kind of anxiety disorders and mental illnesses that can't be mistaken for living in the Village, smoking pot, and listening to folk music while wondering how to be authentic and hoping a war will come along one can protest. In other words, cry about the abstractive eliminitivism of Kraepelin diagnoses all you want, the DSM IV is greater than the romanticism of pomo existence.
Now, of course there are real existential problems. And yes, authenticity requires passionate engagement with others and with the world. But many of these drugs help folks get to the stage where they can actually begin to live. Psycho-pharmacology isn't the enemy, and it bears little resemblance to Huxley's soma.
One last jab. Bright writes, "And what infuriates me is that young people are being treated with this crap as if their libidos were expendable." No good psychiatrist prescribes drugs thinking "Well, healthy sexual activity isn't such a big deal, so let's go for it!" The principle of triage comes into play in psychiatry as much as in the emergency room: you save what you can.
Happiness (or non-depression, non-anxiety) at the cost of desire. Living, persisting, but not desiring. What, then, is left? A terrain of drive, of continuing, circling, persisting in the cycles conducive to work and consumption, play and expenditure, part of contemporary communicative capitalism?Ok, time to pull out the vitriol. Let's end the 'psycho-pharmacology as whipping boy' routine so many pomos have fallen in love with. Sorry Jodi, I love your blog but I gotta speak my mind here.
First: yeah, it's a shame some of these medicines inhibit sexual desire, but it's a bigger shame that this issue is being framed as some kind of loss of existential authenticity. Susie Bright has the nerve to say "young people are being treated with this crap."The "crap", as Bright calls it, and its fruitful adjustment to one's neurological plumbing, more often than not enhances life instead of diminishing it, especially for those who suffer from real neurotic disturbances. Those are the kind of anxiety disorders and mental illnesses that can't be mistaken for living in the Village, smoking pot, and listening to folk music while wondering how to be authentic and hoping a war will come along one can protest. In other words, cry about the abstractive eliminitivism of Kraepelin diagnoses all you want, the DSM IV is greater than the romanticism of pomo existence.
Now, of course there are real existential problems. And yes, authenticity requires passionate engagement with others and with the world. But many of these drugs help folks get to the stage where they can actually begin to live. Psycho-pharmacology isn't the enemy, and it bears little resemblance to Huxley's soma.
One last jab. Bright writes, "And what infuriates me is that young people are being treated with this crap as if their libidos were expendable." No good psychiatrist prescribes drugs thinking "Well, healthy sexual activity isn't such a big deal, so let's go for it!" The principle of triage comes into play in psychiatry as much as in the emergency room: you save what you can.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Pandora - Dig It!
So I'm reformatting my laptop to destroy the vile remnants of my programming past (sorry jdk1.5, time for you to split!) when I decide to try an online radio/music matching service that my mother-in-law recently told me about: Pandora. It's awesome!
The idea is too play song after song for a listener while the listener fine tunes the program's selection criteria. So far I've got my own old-school gangsta rap channel. My speakers are thumping Boyz-N-The-Hood (remix) by Eazy-E - a perfect chaser for Public Enemy's Don't Believe the Hype. Don't worry Chuck D, I don't - indeed I don't. As Pandora tells me:
In time I should have my own channel playing Snoop, NWA, Jurrasic 5, Busta Rhymes and Dr. Dre.
Maybe I'll have to break soon to start my McCartney & Wings channel as well. :D
The idea is too play song after song for a listener while the listener fine tunes the program's selection criteria. So far I've got my own old-school gangsta rap channel. My speakers are thumping Boyz-N-The-Hood (remix) by Eazy-E - a perfect chaser for Public Enemy's Don't Believe the Hype. Don't worry Chuck D, I don't - indeed I don't. As Pandora tells me:
Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features west coast rap roots, gangsta rap attitudes, violent lyrics, explicit lyrics, and a bumpin' kick sound.
In time I should have my own channel playing Snoop, NWA, Jurrasic 5, Busta Rhymes and Dr. Dre.
Maybe I'll have to break soon to start my McCartney & Wings channel as well. :D
