Mgoweqp's List: A

• When a disaster strikes, the answer to "why?" is usually of the form, "endocytosis of the virus into the cell" or "plate tectonics and subduction zones" which is as satisfying as an imaginary bottle of rum.  So we convert it to a narrative, a story, yes like a movie and yes like 9/11, to which the answer is always 100% the same: punishment for guilt.  The only question is whose.
• "this is a story about individual guilt." 
• So this is a story about collective guilt, about how we are all responsible.
• Oh, you're not religious?  Then you are superstitious (-- "No I'm not at all, I'm just kind of OCD."  Is that what the kids are calling it now?--)   which means you don't deal in judgments but in root causes.
• But maybe taking  responsibility for our collective sins is a noble, selfless act?  No. 
• The single reason to offer official information (and the movie distinguishes between  "official"=valid=useless  information disseminated via TV and unofficial=false=dangerous information traveling via internet) is that it sedates people; it is never to benefit them.
• All media is state run media, especially when it's not.
• A case study of individual vs. collective guilt.
• This is a metaphor for the popular refrain that global capitalists actually improve their own position when they help the poor because the poor will buy the goods that make them rich.
• Now this is no longer an ethical question, "what is the moral thing to do?" but a cost/benefit one: "how can you maximize the benefit?"
• Implied in every disaster movie is "starting over," but starting over isn't the consequence, but the premise: "in order to start over and do it right this time, we need a catastrophe."
• what is destroyed in a disaster: the unrepentant sinners and those who share in the collective guilt.
• That's true, and that's what makes it  precisely so terrifying: Gwyneth had the physical freedom to cheat, and the emotional  freedom to cheat and simultaneously still love her husband.
• This is especially important for narcissists who, not able to feel individual guilt, lack a redemptive path towards immortality after earth.
• Fixing "you", including the sins-- is nigh impossible, because those sins are you, the only way to stop doing them isn't to stop doing them but to change who you are.
• The trick to understanding disaster movies, and life, is to realize that the reason bad things happen is that we partly guilty and partly wronged, fully at the mercy of other people who use us and manipulate us; but that we still retain almost infinite power to alter reality and prevent bad things from happening.   And the reason that that is the reason is that the alternative is there is no reason.

• Easier to say "give me a clean slate" then to accept responsibility that your consequences suck and you need to work hard to fix this.

    

  Like throwing the chess board up in the air when you are losing..

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• The underlying issue in all forms of abuse is control.
• This article argues that the geographic region of the Bible Belt intersects with religious-based homophobia. Informants explained that negative social attitudes about homosexuality caused a range of harmful consequences in their lives including the fear of going to hell, depression, low self-esteem, and feelings of worthlessness.
• So why not teach providers to screen for spiritual abuse?
• After all, if a religious, closeted gay patient is convinced he’s worthless and headed for hell because of his sexuality, that belief is overwhelmingly likely to harm that patient’s mental health

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• A Revealing documentary about the most promising treatment modality for drug dependance available. It is the only substance we know, which is capable of blocking acute withdrawal in opioid addicts as well as cocaine and alcohol. Although the FDA decided in 1993 that Ibogaine showed enough signs of being an effective tool in the treatment of addiction, money is the problem; this natural occuring molecule cannot be patented and is not a maintenance drug with addictive properties; reason for the pharmaceutical industry not to invest in its development... Educate yourself about this unique tool!

• And, of course, we all know about Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID) who sought sex in a Minneapolis airport men’s room by tapping his foot.
• They represent full-fledged pathology that has devastating consequences for the LGBT community.
• part of a pervasive pattern that strongly suggests that the most rabid homophobes are usually gay.

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• as allowing some other kind of activity that allows the government to obtain private information about people who have no link to a terrorism or espionage case.

• [T]here are secret legal opinions controlling how Patriot Act is being interpreted — it’s just that they were issued by the national security court.

    

  “In our judgment, when the legal interpretations of public statutes that are kept secret from the American public, the government is effectively relying on secret law,” they wrote.

• Most economists, it seems, believe strongly in their own superior intelligence and take themselves far too seriously. In his open letter of 22 July 2001 to Joseph Stiglitz, Kenneth Rogoff identified this problem: “One of my favourite stories from that era is a lunch with you and our former colleague, Carl Shapiro, at which the two of you started discussing whether Paul Volcker merited your vote for a tenured appointment at Princeton. At one point, you turned to me and said, “Ken, you used to work for Volcker at the Fed. Tell me, is he really smart?” I responded something to the effect of “Well, he was arguably the greatest Federal Reserve Chairman of the twentieth century” To which you replied, “But is he smart like us?” Economists have delusions of adequacy and a related assured self-confidence that they bring to any problem.
• nurture the illusion of its institutional infallibility
• The other part of him was in awe, in unconscious awe, of something the old boy had and he didn't: namely, the power to charm men and the manic drive to bend their wills into saying yes to projects they didn't want, didn't need, and never thought about before... And that thing was manhood. It was as simple as that."
• "relentlessly resourceful."

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• And the one thing you wouldn’t be doing is negotiating because negotiating presumes compromise.

   

  And you don’t compromise with Satan.

• The Court referred Ingham to The Florida Bar for a psychological and competency evaluation because his conduct evidenced a fundamental incompetence and questionable connection with reality that can best be addressed through the pending discipline process.

• As an idealistic law student and editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal, Kyle McAvoy has the promise of a highly successful career, although after graduation, he intends to devote three years to public service before applying for employment with a prestigious firm.
• Trylon
• Constantly under surveillance while outdoors and living in an apartment in which he knows bugs and cameras have been hidden, Kyle slowly learns how to trick those who are trailing him into believing he is unaware of their presence.
• Trylon
• Janet Maslin of the New York Times
• Richard Rayner of the Los Angeles Times
• Patrick Anderson of the Washington Post
• It's important to Grisham not only that Kyle be seen as noble, but also that his tormentor be a rat.
• Charles Taylor of Newsday
• Lev Grossman of Time
• Joshua Rozenberg of The Observer
• ^ Taylor, Charles (February 7, 2009). "Review: 'The Associate' by John Grisham". Newsday. Terry Jimenez. http://www.newsday.com/features/booksmags/ny-c6025220feb08,0,2307526.story. Retrieved March 22, 2010.

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• The Confession is about the murder of a high school cheerleader and how an innocent man is arrested for it.

• A little practice tip:  go for the Mad Hatter matching stamp and envelope collection -- it really sends opposing counsel a message (that one of you is a crazy loon).
   
    Keep 'em guessing, I always say!

• It's a deadly game of blackmail. And they're making him play.

• The question is whether an employment contract can include a requirement that the employee be enhanced with cybernetic implants should they be necessary to perform the functions of one’s job.
• I. Employment and Employment Contracts
• But the fact remains that employers and employees can and sometimes do enter into employment contracts, and like in almost all other cases, there is very little limit to what terms can go in there (non-compete agreements are a notable exception).

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• However, had I complained, what would have happened if the judge had then converted the guilty verdict to drunk driving, and left my client with an appeal as the only option (with the risks of a worse sentence if convicted on appeal)?