Researchers at the University of California are trying to develop a pig whose organs contain some human DNA which will make it possible to use those organs in humans without rejection. Is this good news for those who will die waiting for a human donor or who don't qualify by reason of age?
I should think so, but of course we can always count on popular superstition, fear of the new and the love of making money from it. So as soon as hope emerges, headlines pop up to dash them. "Trading Ethic for Organs" blares the article, because if your 14 year old daughter needs a heart, if your dear mother needs a kidney or a marrow transplant, you're certainly going to have too much sympathy for a pig.
And of course this pig with some human DNA is successful, it will be GENETICALLY MODIFIED, and you all know what that means! All the other pigs will die, and the bees too and if you eat bacon you'll start to oink and maybe even vote Republican. That's just before the sky falls, of course.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
Monday, June 6, 2016
Great
Quite frankly, nobody is going to make America great again, at least not to any universal agreement. Nor is it really possible to define the word. That's why it makes such a catchy campaign slogan. Everyone has his own notions about greatness. For some it means to make America white again, for others it means to return to a day when this was a manufacturing powerhouse and assembly line jobs allowed workers to be part of a booming middle class, a time when foreign competition was feeble and public tastes preferred domestic goods. It's not going to happen and temporal dysphoria, like entropy, will increase. Short of an apocalypse, the world continues to get smaller.
Change itself , like the expansion of the universe, seems to be accelerating. By the time most people develop what feels like an understanding of how things are, it's all changed, the technology, the certainties, the requirements of social intercourse, the goals of citizens, the expectations and even the language change ever more rapidly. I doubt that even Taoists are comfortable going with this turbulent flow. I'm certainly not and it may explain my love of antiques, art and old technology. Perhaps it explains all those off-the-grid survivalist shows, the back-to-nature attempts that usually aren't very honest and it certainly explains the obsessive use of words like "artisinal," Natural, craft and Organic, one sees in advertising. Make no mistake, advertising is the soul of our culture and ours is a backwards looking one. At a time when cars are become autonomous robots, jukeboxes, internet cafe's and video game parlors all wrapped in armor, we still see ads telling us how the Lexus isn't produced, it's "crafted." We see clips of hands sanding a block of wood for the dashboard and we feel soothed even though we know it's all automated and turned out by robots. Deceit is the root of our culture although we may call it by other names, the cars we're told to worship for having 200 horsepower outsell those with 700 horsepower because we see the world through the dark lens of advertising. The way we smell and taste things owes far more to the expectations we've had instilled in us than it does to tongues or noses. Placebos are often perceived as more effective than real medicine and everyone with a cause feels justified in any level of misrepresentation to further it, it doesn't matter that a mushroom with a gene removed that turns it dark when cut simply must be dangerous to all life on Earth without any evidence just as surely as vaccinations don't work and cause Autism. You can save the planet by wearing organic hemp underwear, Reality terrifies us although we have no actual connection to it.
It's not new, the reaction to rapacious modernity, It was the industrial revolution that spawned the Arts and Crafts movement and gave most of us the wealth to purchase it. It's scientific farming that's allowed us the freedom and time to raise the hysteria and hypochondria that keeps the aisles at Whole Foods crowded and causes people to adopt the "Kale Cleansing" or Carb Counting Gluten-Free life style, or Copper Compression underwear tuned to Natural frequencies. Advances in medicine produce a distrust of medicine as do advances in most everything, including civil rights, justice, equality and freedom -- and we react accordingly. Is racism fading or getting worse? You tell me - and I'm sure you will.
Some of us resent losing the sense of White Anglo-Saxon protestant primacy we could feel 75 years ago and we support Trump. Others insist nothing has improved and nobody seems to like the way things are, the way they think things are going or their part in life. So we have Bullies for Bernie. We've had "leaders" dedicated to keeping things the way they were or we thought they were, no matter how awful it was for some and we have those who passionately hate what is and envision something altogether different and much more pleasant for them without much concern for what's possible or moral or legal. Welcome to the American fugue state.
America was once great we all agree as long as we don't have to be specific about for whom or when or in what sense that was. America's current greatness is still beyond challenge even while we complain so much about the current "disaster" or claim that everything is "broken," something we can do without any reference to a broader picture. It's enough to cite one talking point and one example real or manufactured, to support either certainty.
Is it any wonder that a candidate can base his campaign on returning to a lost greatness while his advocates insist we're the greatest there ever was? It's only a wonder in a rational world, and where are you going to find one of those?
Change itself , like the expansion of the universe, seems to be accelerating. By the time most people develop what feels like an understanding of how things are, it's all changed, the technology, the certainties, the requirements of social intercourse, the goals of citizens, the expectations and even the language change ever more rapidly. I doubt that even Taoists are comfortable going with this turbulent flow. I'm certainly not and it may explain my love of antiques, art and old technology. Perhaps it explains all those off-the-grid survivalist shows, the back-to-nature attempts that usually aren't very honest and it certainly explains the obsessive use of words like "artisinal," Natural, craft and Organic, one sees in advertising. Make no mistake, advertising is the soul of our culture and ours is a backwards looking one. At a time when cars are become autonomous robots, jukeboxes, internet cafe's and video game parlors all wrapped in armor, we still see ads telling us how the Lexus isn't produced, it's "crafted." We see clips of hands sanding a block of wood for the dashboard and we feel soothed even though we know it's all automated and turned out by robots. Deceit is the root of our culture although we may call it by other names, the cars we're told to worship for having 200 horsepower outsell those with 700 horsepower because we see the world through the dark lens of advertising. The way we smell and taste things owes far more to the expectations we've had instilled in us than it does to tongues or noses. Placebos are often perceived as more effective than real medicine and everyone with a cause feels justified in any level of misrepresentation to further it, it doesn't matter that a mushroom with a gene removed that turns it dark when cut simply must be dangerous to all life on Earth without any evidence just as surely as vaccinations don't work and cause Autism. You can save the planet by wearing organic hemp underwear, Reality terrifies us although we have no actual connection to it.
It's not new, the reaction to rapacious modernity, It was the industrial revolution that spawned the Arts and Crafts movement and gave most of us the wealth to purchase it. It's scientific farming that's allowed us the freedom and time to raise the hysteria and hypochondria that keeps the aisles at Whole Foods crowded and causes people to adopt the "Kale Cleansing" or Carb Counting Gluten-Free life style, or Copper Compression underwear tuned to Natural frequencies. Advances in medicine produce a distrust of medicine as do advances in most everything, including civil rights, justice, equality and freedom -- and we react accordingly. Is racism fading or getting worse? You tell me - and I'm sure you will.
Some of us resent losing the sense of White Anglo-Saxon protestant primacy we could feel 75 years ago and we support Trump. Others insist nothing has improved and nobody seems to like the way things are, the way they think things are going or their part in life. So we have Bullies for Bernie. We've had "leaders" dedicated to keeping things the way they were or we thought they were, no matter how awful it was for some and we have those who passionately hate what is and envision something altogether different and much more pleasant for them without much concern for what's possible or moral or legal. Welcome to the American fugue state.
America was once great we all agree as long as we don't have to be specific about for whom or when or in what sense that was. America's current greatness is still beyond challenge even while we complain so much about the current "disaster" or claim that everything is "broken," something we can do without any reference to a broader picture. It's enough to cite one talking point and one example real or manufactured, to support either certainty.
Is it any wonder that a candidate can base his campaign on returning to a lost greatness while his advocates insist we're the greatest there ever was? It's only a wonder in a rational world, and where are you going to find one of those?
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Stupid is as Stupid Does.
Many scholarly articles suggest a link between the easily disgusted and the chronic Republican voter. Reading that Donald finds windmills disgusting makes me wonder just how extreme this man is, as windmills are not typical gag reaction triggers for the party which abhors Humanism, homosexuality, pornography and most things with a sexual component. The Laissez Faire Conservative attitude extends only to the regulation of business and finance, not to how one might dress or with whom one forms romantic relationships or in what mythology one chooses to suspend disbelief. Windmills. I hesitate to hear his ideas about hydroelectric power or photoelectric panels, much less the satellites that collect global temperature data.
Indeed I have had about enough of all his ideas about race and gender and medicine and climatology: about his conspiracy theories and immigration fantasies. There's no drought in California, the planet is freezing! Rapist, Mexican drug mules are streaming North across the border and a president can, by fiat, make a major religion illegal and put a faith test on immigration laws. 11 million people in boxcars. It's certainly worth the 600 billion dollar cost to protect our dollars and daughters from people who have lived and worked here for decades and even lifetimes -- even the children raised here who know no Spanish. You know, the ones who pay taxes yet can't collect Social Security. Good think he's got a good relationship with "the Blacks." I might have worried otherwise.
Is all this cognitive chaos scarier than the fact that facts have no bearing on his opinions or the opinions of the millions of Denialists that clog the national arteries? Faith over fact, prejudice over principle: the equations of idiots and the answer is always Trump.
Compulsory cynicism and mean mockery aside, this is a man of no morals or ethics or conscience. It's not as though he is unique in this, but that our United States is unique among Western Industrialized and allegedly enlightened nation in having more than ten people who disagree with that. One thinks of Sodom or Gomorrah and weeps.
Indeed I have had about enough of all his ideas about race and gender and medicine and climatology: about his conspiracy theories and immigration fantasies. There's no drought in California, the planet is freezing! Rapist, Mexican drug mules are streaming North across the border and a president can, by fiat, make a major religion illegal and put a faith test on immigration laws. 11 million people in boxcars. It's certainly worth the 600 billion dollar cost to protect our dollars and daughters from people who have lived and worked here for decades and even lifetimes -- even the children raised here who know no Spanish. You know, the ones who pay taxes yet can't collect Social Security. Good think he's got a good relationship with "the Blacks." I might have worried otherwise.
Is all this cognitive chaos scarier than the fact that facts have no bearing on his opinions or the opinions of the millions of Denialists that clog the national arteries? Faith over fact, prejudice over principle: the equations of idiots and the answer is always Trump.
Compulsory cynicism and mean mockery aside, this is a man of no morals or ethics or conscience. It's not as though he is unique in this, but that our United States is unique among Western Industrialized and allegedly enlightened nation in having more than ten people who disagree with that. One thinks of Sodom or Gomorrah and weeps.
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
When You Gotta Go. . .
I'm sure the hope that those "smaller government" patriots will get their minds and their intrusive policies out of the toilet is entirely vain, but I read this morning that the plight of transgender high school students, banned from their desired washroom is headed to the Supreme Court. The spectacle of Conservative "thought" battling with ancient demons has lost its amusement factor after all these months of our grotesque presidential rhetoric and whether or not the SCOTUS will hear the case or what decision they come to the only solution I can see is one I'm told exists in Great Britain, is the ability to have one's birth certificate modified to show the gender one has adopted.
A shorter term solution, although I'm not recommending anyone adopt it, is for protesting students to simply do their bodily functions at the door of the Principal's office and trade one disgusting act for another disgusting attitude.
A shorter term solution, although I'm not recommending anyone adopt it, is for protesting students to simply do their bodily functions at the door of the Principal's office and trade one disgusting act for another disgusting attitude.
Monday, May 30, 2016
Let it Rain
There ain't no drought in California
There ain't no flames in Hell
The snow don't fall in North Dakota
His hair is free of gel.
The rain it runs into the sea
Because of Uncle Sam
It's all about some kind of fish
But Trump will build a dam!
"There can't be no climate change"
His beer is always cold
And all his lies are really great
The finest ever told.
The bear it's said, goes to the woods
When he needs to take a dump.
America goes to the polls
To vote for Donald Trump
There ain't no flames in Hell
The snow don't fall in North Dakota
His hair is free of gel.
The rain it runs into the sea
Because of Uncle Sam
It's all about some kind of fish
But Trump will build a dam!
"There can't be no climate change"
His beer is always cold
And all his lies are really great
The finest ever told.
The bear it's said, goes to the woods
When he needs to take a dump.
America goes to the polls
To vote for Donald Trump
Greed
Greed: everyone's talking about it, but as with much of what remains of our uncommon language, everyone has his own definition and of course that's necessary, because everyone in his way, or more comfortably: everyone else in my way is greedy. In fact, one could say that life itself is greedy by nature and without that lust for more, that innate, inescapable drive to eat and reproduce, thrive and survive this would be a barren planet. Greed is a force of nature, the breath of life.
But greed is bad, and every election cycle gives us reminders that the rich are greedy, the poor are greedy, the "corporations" and "Wall Street;" the bankers, the welfare queens, "Big Pharma" and all the "takers" are greedy. That's another way we have of expressing our greedy grudge, our greedy jealousy of everyone we don't think deserves what they have when we deserve it more.
As I said, everyone has his own dictionary and many words in it are of a double entry book keeping sort. If you support Bernie Sanders for instance, you have to discount his mad lust for the White House as something other than greed. You have to use the other definition. Greed is altruism. That greed is good. The greed that produces a Bill Gates or a Larry Ellison or an Andrew Carnegie? Well I'll leave that to you because all our dictionaries are edited by our own greed and self-importance and narcissism and the words are just things to throw at straw men anyway. It's all about winners and losers and how each hates the other.
I could mention that a fundamental drive for more is the force behind Capitalism, amongst other things, and although in some circumstances, altruism, compassion and a feeling for justice can control that force, at times and in places, we need more in the way of control, just as we need to control, in our greed, the other forces of nature to benefit from them.
But we can't say that out loud, because the greedy Libertarians would say your car would be more efficient without brakes or a throttle or a steering wheel. Regulation and the law itself is the enemy of freedom as every libertarian knows. I would suggest it, but that would make me a greedy taker, a Commie, a bleeding heart eager to hand out "free stuff" at the taxpayer's expense -- or something entirely different depending on the greedy eyes of the observer It would put me in the pocket of greedy Wall Street too and Big Bad Pharma, unless you use some other dictionary or some other way of disguising your greed for power and control and dressing it up as a "vision" and selling your prejudice and jealousy as principle.
Are you a Gump for Trump? Do you wan't to pillory Hillary or are you a bully for Bernie? Does it matter. We're all a bunch of greedy bastards anyway.
But greed is bad, and every election cycle gives us reminders that the rich are greedy, the poor are greedy, the "corporations" and "Wall Street;" the bankers, the welfare queens, "Big Pharma" and all the "takers" are greedy. That's another way we have of expressing our greedy grudge, our greedy jealousy of everyone we don't think deserves what they have when we deserve it more.
As I said, everyone has his own dictionary and many words in it are of a double entry book keeping sort. If you support Bernie Sanders for instance, you have to discount his mad lust for the White House as something other than greed. You have to use the other definition. Greed is altruism. That greed is good. The greed that produces a Bill Gates or a Larry Ellison or an Andrew Carnegie? Well I'll leave that to you because all our dictionaries are edited by our own greed and self-importance and narcissism and the words are just things to throw at straw men anyway. It's all about winners and losers and how each hates the other.
I could mention that a fundamental drive for more is the force behind Capitalism, amongst other things, and although in some circumstances, altruism, compassion and a feeling for justice can control that force, at times and in places, we need more in the way of control, just as we need to control, in our greed, the other forces of nature to benefit from them.
But we can't say that out loud, because the greedy Libertarians would say your car would be more efficient without brakes or a throttle or a steering wheel. Regulation and the law itself is the enemy of freedom as every libertarian knows. I would suggest it, but that would make me a greedy taker, a Commie, a bleeding heart eager to hand out "free stuff" at the taxpayer's expense -- or something entirely different depending on the greedy eyes of the observer It would put me in the pocket of greedy Wall Street too and Big Bad Pharma, unless you use some other dictionary or some other way of disguising your greed for power and control and dressing it up as a "vision" and selling your prejudice and jealousy as principle.
Are you a Gump for Trump? Do you wan't to pillory Hillary or are you a bully for Bernie? Does it matter. We're all a bunch of greedy bastards anyway.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
OVER THE TOP
Earlier today, Associated Press announced: Trump reaches the magic number to clinch nomination (link here):
“Trump, a political neophyte who for years delivered caustic commentary on the state of the nation from the sidelines but had never run for office, fought off 16 other Republican contenders in an often ugly primary race.”
The words ‘caustic’ and ‘ugly’ are understatements; the word ‘sick’ may be far more accurate. For a clinical perspective on 'sick,' please read this definition of narcissism as defined by the American Psychiatric Association. Or better yet, go to this essay by psychologist Elizabeth Mika.
Note these signature traits of narcissism: Grandiosity, a fixation on power, a need for constant admiration, a ruthless and often malicious disregard for others, and a tendency to defame, devalue, derogate, insult, and blame others. Sound familiar?
These are the same character flaws shared by some of the most ruthless despots in history, such as: Benito Mussolini, Francisco Franco, Augusto Pinochet, and Saddam Hussein, as examples.
And please note the prevalence of narcissism in the general population: 7.7% of men and 4.8% of women, a rate that has more than doubled within the past 10 years (Twenge and Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic, 2009). Why is the prevalence of narcissism significant? Donald Trump would be NOTHING without the popular support of fellow narcissists and other disturbed persons.
In a room full of random people, the most seriously disturbed among them will naturally gravitate towards other like-minded people as if drawn by an invisible force. This attraction not only explains his cult following, it predicts the kind of cabinet officials, advisors, and judges he will appoint. As president, Trump will chose people with like-minded pathologies and put them into positions of power over us. Caveat emptor!
Imagine a future dominated by bigots, cranks, hotheads, misogynists, and xenophobic extremists — all adulators and henchmen of Il Duce II. If this demagogue wins, the next president may also be our last president.
Sunday, May 22, 2016
I Grow Old
What does it feel like to be old? Of course that's far too complex a question to have a simple answer, but one of the reminders of that thing you try to forget is that so many people around you seem to know so little. I'm reading a story set in the 1950's, generally realistic until you read about how the driver of the 1955 Chevy pulls over and turns on his emergency flashers. You may be puzzled at my amusement, but they were not furnished in those days, not for another ten years.
I'm watching one of those programs where "experts" poke around in attics looking for treasures. a mid 60's table radio is discovered and the hunters marvel that it has tubes.
Go ask some thirty something what "Ethyl" is or how you dial a phone, or if he remembers the Sylvania "Halo Light TV." He won't know. Chips and transmitters indeed, it brings tears to my aging eyes.
Ever notice all those period dramas where someone turns on the 1930 Motorola "tombstone" radio ind the sound comes on instantly? Yep, it sometimes seems like everyone was born yesterday. It's because you're old jack and that's a fact.
I'm watching one of those programs where "experts" poke around in attics looking for treasures. a mid 60's table radio is discovered and the hunters marvel that it has tubes.
"Look - tooobs! That's what they had then before the chips and transmitters came in. This could be valuable"It wasn't worth more than a few bucks at most, even if it worked. Obviously he has no idea about the history of radio or what a transistor is.
Ever notice all those period dramas where someone turns on the 1930 Motorola "tombstone" radio ind the sound comes on instantly? Yep, it sometimes seems like everyone was born yesterday. It's because you're old jack and that's a fact.
Saturday, May 21, 2016
Donald Trump, Gunslinger
Or Bullslinger: take your pick
He's a long time member and so are his "boys" Donald Trump told the NRA. I have no idea if that's true or whether his girls are duck hunters. I do know whether I think that's a reprehensible organization -- and I do.
Before you put the "liberaliberaliberal" disc on your Victrola, I'll continue on and say that since 1993 when The NRA began to use the the Oklahoma City bombing and the holocaust in Waco, Texas as fund raising fodder and began to justify terrorism in the name of the second amendment, it lost any credibility as an advocacy for anything but arms manufacturers and insurrectionists.
As you may recall George H.W. Bush resigned his membership because of statements about "jack booted thugs" deserving to be blown up along with their children and I'm sure you know that Quick Draw LaPierre is still at the helm of that organization. Of course the tired trope about the license to kill is also a battle flag of some allegedly left-leaning organizations, but we do live in a time of the war of all against all and war justifies all lies, or so it's said.
Picturing the young Donald at high noon on Main Street in Queens, reaching for his matched pair of Colts is worthy of a giggle, but pudgy old Don, the comb-over king isn't so cute at all and I'm not laughing. He's attempting to rally the well-regulated militia by lying about Hillary Clinton - our new national pastime.
If she's elected, he says, she'll somehow make the second amendment go away and he's "not going to let that happen," as though any president any anything like the power to amend the constitution, particularly an amendment with a huge following.
In fact she's never suggested that and has publicly supported it as fundamental, although the notion that a manufacturer of a legal product that is not defective can be sued if that product is used illegally seems like nothing less than an attempt to kick the legs out from under the concept of law itself, but I digress.
Hillary Clinton has a lot of haters on all sides and if she is to have some hope of defeating the Flushing Kid she's got to sound more moderate about guns. The Democrats, as the public sees that party, have pandered too long to the anti-gun phobics, spent too much time fudging figures and hyping up the danger despite two decades of declining gun violence. It's the main issue today in the minds of a huge number of Americans including many Democrats, and their votes hinge entirely on a candidate sharing that magic thinking that is the hallmark. She needs a big image change and she needs it now and the Trump-happy media need to cooperate.
Of course I don't want to see her duck hunting in a camo pants suit, We remember Kerry with a shotgun and Dukakis riding in a tank and it would backfire, but make no mistake this is a gun-loving country and people will vote for a megalomaniac liar with no morals or manners before it will consider Hillary the gun-grabber.
Before you put the "liberaliberaliberal" disc on your Victrola, I'll continue on and say that since 1993 when The NRA began to use the the Oklahoma City bombing and the holocaust in Waco, Texas as fund raising fodder and began to justify terrorism in the name of the second amendment, it lost any credibility as an advocacy for anything but arms manufacturers and insurrectionists.
"In Clinton's administration, if you have a badge, you have the government's go-ahead to harass, intimidate, even murder law-abiding citizens." — Wayne LaPierre, 1993 NRA fundraising letter. —
As you may recall George H.W. Bush resigned his membership because of statements about "jack booted thugs" deserving to be blown up along with their children and I'm sure you know that Quick Draw LaPierre is still at the helm of that organization. Of course the tired trope about the license to kill is also a battle flag of some allegedly left-leaning organizations, but we do live in a time of the war of all against all and war justifies all lies, or so it's said.
Picturing the young Donald at high noon on Main Street in Queens, reaching for his matched pair of Colts is worthy of a giggle, but pudgy old Don, the comb-over king isn't so cute at all and I'm not laughing. He's attempting to rally the well-regulated militia by lying about Hillary Clinton - our new national pastime.
If she's elected, he says, she'll somehow make the second amendment go away and he's "not going to let that happen," as though any president any anything like the power to amend the constitution, particularly an amendment with a huge following.
In fact she's never suggested that and has publicly supported it as fundamental, although the notion that a manufacturer of a legal product that is not defective can be sued if that product is used illegally seems like nothing less than an attempt to kick the legs out from under the concept of law itself, but I digress.
Hillary Clinton has a lot of haters on all sides and if she is to have some hope of defeating the Flushing Kid she's got to sound more moderate about guns. The Democrats, as the public sees that party, have pandered too long to the anti-gun phobics, spent too much time fudging figures and hyping up the danger despite two decades of declining gun violence. It's the main issue today in the minds of a huge number of Americans including many Democrats, and their votes hinge entirely on a candidate sharing that magic thinking that is the hallmark. She needs a big image change and she needs it now and the Trump-happy media need to cooperate.
Of course I don't want to see her duck hunting in a camo pants suit, We remember Kerry with a shotgun and Dukakis riding in a tank and it would backfire, but make no mistake this is a gun-loving country and people will vote for a megalomaniac liar with no morals or manners before it will consider Hillary the gun-grabber.
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