Quote

All politics is local.

Tip O'Neal

Quote

We need our radicals.

Eleanor Roosevelt

The electoral college

Some people think the electoral college is good, and some think it's not so good.  I actually don't much care, although I probably should.  Instead of thinking about the pros and cons of it, I instead got to thinking about why it's called the electoral college.  I couldn't find the answer, so I chose my own explanation: it's supposed to make the election results look as if an educated electorate did the voting!  Unfortunately, it's failing, and that's why so many people want to do away with it.  Doubly unfortunately, doing away with it won't likely make the election results look any more as if the electorate is educated, because, you know, the electorate is basically uneducated.  Good thing we're practically giving away college degrees, so that there's at least some semblance of education going on.  I'd feel a whole lot better about things if we gave up trying to look smart, and actually started being smart.

Quote

Cheat me in price, but not in the goods I purchase.

Spanish Proverb

Quote

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

T. S. Eliot

Is consumption really becoming a political choice?

It seems like people are beginning to think that every consumption choice should be a political choice.  If you don't agree with a particular company's politics, then you don't buy from that company.  That all sounds fine, except that I don't actually know the politics of everyone that I might ever do business with, and I really have no interest in their politics.  Make me a good chicken sandwich, and I don't care if you support gay marriage or not.  I want a good sandwich, not a political discussion.

So, the new consumption based on political beliefs  story involves a gun dealer who says Intuit cancelled a his merchant account because he sells guns.  Forget about whether there are any missing facts in the story.  We are being asked to boycott Intuit products because of the apparent political stance that Intuit has taken.  But it doesn't matter to me whether Intuit does other things that I don't agree with or not.  When I'm buying a product, such as TurboTax or QuickBooks, I actually don't care what the politics of the people behind those products are.  I only care about the utility that I get from those products.  I guarantee I won't be spending even a few minutes worrying about Intuit's gun seller policy, or whether they are pro-life, or whether they support gay marriage.  In the end, it doesn't affect me, so I don't care.  Even if it did affect me, I would make the decision to use or not use Intel products based on the value I got from the products.

I understand how the gun dealers in question might not want to continue using other Intuit products given that Intel has taken what appears to be a stance against them.  And in doing a few internet searches, it certainly does appear that the policy in question is misguided since the gun dealers are FFL dealers, and only transact online with other FFL dealers.  What I wasn't able to actually discern from my research is whether these dealers have actually tried to work with Intel to arrive at any kind of understanding.  So, perhaps Intel's policy is misguided.  Or maybe there is some other sort of misunderstanding between the dealers and Intel.  Or, maybe it really is that Intel has some kind of political agenda.  In the end, it makes no difference to me... I'll use Intel products as long as they serve my purpose, just like I'm sure any one of these gun dealers won't ask about the political beliefs of the owners of their favorite restaurant.

I guess what bothers me most about all of this is that the trend seems to be toward making decisions about others based on whether they have the same political beliefs that I do.  So, it should be okay if an interviewer asks me about gun control, or abortion rights, or any other viewpoint and make the determination of my employability based on my responses.  And I just think it's really none of their business, has nothing to do with my ability to do the job, and even has nothing to do with whether I'll make a good fit with the company.  But, according to the logic of choosing what I'm going to consume based on political beliefs of the supplier, it would make perfect sense for every employer to ask those questions, since they are, in fact, deciding whether to be consumers of my labor.  But, I can safely say that if that is the way a prospective employer is going to make the decision, I don't want to work there.  Maybe Intel has the same outlook.

One thing is for sure, though: there are at least a few gun dealers that have gotten some great press coverage for free, which is potentially worth far more than if they had just tried to work with Intel.  I could be wrong on this... maybe they did try.  Or maybe they just saw the chance for some free publicity.

Quote

I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.

Pablo Picasso

The rich are not job creators

I'm so glad somebody rich said this for me, because if I had said it, I would have just been a jealous poor person whining.  I think this fits right in with my belief that if companies like Wal-Mart would pay their employees more, the world, including Wal-Mart's owners, would be better off.

Quote

Achievement, n.  The death of endeavor and the birth of disgust.

Ambrose Bierce

Quote

Grammar, n.  A system of pitfalls thoughtfully prepared for the feet of the self-made man, along the path by which he advances to distinction.

Ambrose Bierce

It's Tax Time!

Yeah, I know.  Nobody likes doing taxes, which is why those tax prep places charge so much.  That's why you should check out the deals on everything you need to do your own taxes at Amazon!  Here's a link to help you get started.
Shop Amazon Software - Tax Central - One-stop-shop for All Things Tax

I've got it!

If you look around the internet, you can find a whole lot of charts that show how real GDP has been pretty consistently lagging behind potential GDP, to the tune of about $1 trillion per year.  So, now we're sitting on a cumulative loss of production of about $4 trillion.  For some reason, I was always thinking that the government was trying to get the lower line on those charts, the real GDP line, to rise up to the potential GDP line.  Turns out, I've come up with the logical and perhaps the real method the government is using to close the gap between potential and real GDP.

Instead of bringing real GDP up to potential, we're going to lower potential GDP.  Problem solved!

I know what you're thinking: How is the government going to lower potential GDP?  Good question, but it's really simpler than it seems.  We can reduce the amount of human capital.

We're already doing a pretty good job of that.  Some people, notably older more experienced workers, are giving up looking for jobs.  That's a good start, but clearly isn't enough.  We need to do more.  And this is where the plan gets truly devious: we reduce the value of education, while leading people to believe that we're actually increasing it.

So, the government creates a situation where everybody believes they need to go to college, and can afford to go to college.  Further, we encourage and pay for people to go to college to learn useless skills.  Finally, we make sure that everyone passes, even if their work is not even on par with what we used to expect from high school students.

The result will be an entire generation of people with no really useful abilities.  Productivity will fall, and along with it potential GDP.  It won't take long and we'll see the convergence between potential and real GDP.  And it's unlikely that anyone will be smart enough to even question why the top line went down instead of the bottom line going up.

I could be a teacher

Yeah, I've got the education method down to 8 easy steps:

1. At the start of the unit, hand out "note taking aids" that pretty much cover what's going to be on the test, so all the kids have to do is fill in the blanks when they hear me saying something that's on their paper.
2. Make sure to only talk about what's on the "note taking aid" unless the kids want to talk about football or movies or something.  Just in case they don't notice that what I'm saying is on their note sheet, I can tell them "This is in your notes."
3. Give a review right before the test with exactly the same material that's going to be on the test, so the kids don't waste any time learning something that may not be on the test.
4. Give the test.  If possible, make it multiple choice, with at least one choice that is obviously not the answer.
5. Grade the test.
6. Hand the test back and allow anyone who wants to retake the test.  Make sure the second test is exactly the same as the first test.
7. At the end of the term, throw in some extra credit points for attending a softball game or the school play, or even just "for being you."
8. Make sure to point out that I've never had a class that scored so highly.  "You guys are the smartest class EVER!"

It may not be the same everywhere, but I just had a discussion with a high school kid here in Utah... and that is exactly how at least one class goes.

Irony

'Gun Appreciation Day' marred by accidental shootings

I have to admit, I laughed at the irony in the above linked story.  I appreciate my right to own guns, but I think I'd avoid demonstrating how much I appreciate that right by shooting myself or anyone else accidentally.

Quote

The cruellest lies are often told in silence.

Robert Louis Stevenson

School, play, and depression

The Dramatic Rise of Anxiety and Depression in Children and Adolescents: Is It Connected to the Decline in Play and Rise in Schooling?

The above article is actually from 2010, but I think it's still relevant today.  However, I don't really agree that it is so much a decline in play and a rise in schooling that is cause for the rise of anxiety and depression in children and adolescents.

I was in elementary school in the 60s, and I don't really remember that we went to school all that much less than kids do now.  In fact, I went to school more than most, because I was enrolled in an after school school.  It also seems like we had more homework then, although that could just be how it seemed at the time.  I do know, though, that expectations were much higher in school than they are now.  Some people actually did fail; some people were actually held back a grade.

I think the difference is that now kids don't really learn the stuff that we used to be required to learn.  We had to do math longhand because there weren't calculators.  Now, teachers require the use of calculators so that students don't fall behind in using technology.  I ask, how long does it really take to use a calculator?  It takes a long time to learn how to do arithmetic.  And I think the process of learning to do arithmetic longhand teaches a thought process.  It enables people to think mathematically, whereas using a calculator just teaches kids to push buttons.

I also think the increasing emphasis on group projects is another source of anxiety or depression.  It seems to me that often kids will just rely on the rest of the group, or even on just one person, to do the bulk of the work.  Consequently, there really is no sense of accomplishment for many of the group members.  It could also be that the few who are doing the work feel like they're working for the benefit of everybody else, rather than for their own benefit.

Another thing that I've written about in the past is grade inflation; it results in a lessening of the perceived difference between those who excel and those who merely aim to get by.

Finally, when someone actually doesn't do well, they should be told that there really isn't a good reason for failure, because usually, there isn't.  Instead, it seems like educators want to avoid hurting kids' feelings... like they think that the pain of failure might cause permanent damage to the kids' psyche or something.  But, maybe it works more like this: my teacher tells me that I suck, which hurts.  To avoid that pain in the future, I work harder so I don't suck next time.  Instead, educators seem to spend a lot of time and energy trying to make kids feel okay about their failures, even thinking of excuses for why the kid might have failed.  In the end, I think this approach may actually result in worse outcomes because now the kid has a "reason" for their failure, and one that they can do little if anything about.

As far as play goes, I do agree with what the author of the linked article says.  Play is important.  But kids these days spend more of their play time just talking on the phone, or watching television, or playing video games.  Talking on the phone was strictly limited when I was a kid.  So was watching television.  And there were no video games back then.  So, we spent a lot of time playing sports, or interacting directly with our friends.  I think there is a huge fundamental difference between face-to-face interaction with your friends and texting.  I think physical activity is of primary importance to a healthy outlook.  I think the prevalence today of kids not playing away from adults is not a problem with adults; I actually don't think kids would participate as much in physical play if there weren't adults organizing and supervising it.

And finally, there are video games.  I actually don't mind if the kids want to play video games because playing those games can help kids learn to problem solve as well as speeding reaction times, that sort of thing.  But, kids don't want to try to solve the problems presented in video games themselves; they go on the internet in search of web sites that tell them exactly what buttons to push and when to push them.  They watch other kids play games to see how to beat the next level with minimal effort.  In short, the kids themselves are destroying the only good things that can come out of playing video games and turning them into a massive waste of time.

With basically no reason to feel any sense of accomplishment left, I think it's not really surprising that depression appears to be a growing problem among children and adolescents, and I think we owe it to them to try to change things for them.  That doesn't mean, though, to just hand over whatever it is that will give them the instant gratification they think they want; instead we need to instill the greater, long-term sense of self-worth that is being denied them.

Quote

What men value in this world is not rights but privileges.

H. L. Mencken

Word choice

Whole Foods CEO: Obamacare-Fascism Comparison Won't Hurt Profits 

Unfortunately, Obamacare DOES bear some resemblance to fascism.  From the article:

“I cannot conceive how a CEO of a health food grocery chain that promotes wellness would suggest that any person should be denied access to health care,” she said.

Some people quoted in this article don't seem to get that they are doing the same thing that they are so righteously indignant about the CEO doing.  The CEO used, perhaps, the wrong term to describe Obamacare, but now these same whiners are also claiming that people are either pro-Obamacare, or they are against access to healthcare for everyone.  Grow up, people.  If you're going to complain about someone else's language, then choose your own words more carefully.

Mileage tax

Gas tax revenue down, officials eye mileage levy

This just sounds like a way to make higher mileage vehicles even less economical to individuals, not to mention the loss of privacy concerns. If I had to choose between the mileage tax and increased tax on gasoline, I would choose the latter.  It would continue to provide an incentive to use less fuel, and to use it more efficiently.  And privacy concerns wouldn't be any more of an issue than they are now.  But, it seems that wherever personal data accumulates, the government decides it needs to use that data.

Quote

Reputation is often got without merit and lost without fault.
English Proverb

Quote

"Begin at the beginning," the King said gravely, "and go till you come to the end; then stop."

Lewis Carroll

Fail

For years I've been of the opinion that the education system has been in a state of steady decline.  I was wrong.  It isn't steady decline at all.  It's accelerating.

Today, I'm just going to post a few examples.

1. A college student I know took and English Composition course.  80% of the final grade came from 2 argumentative papers.  Under the description for these papers was the following statement: "There will be no redoes for a better grade.  Learn from your mistakes and do better."  The first paper was a mess: too short, spelling and grammar issues, and not enough references.  I would have expected more from a sixth grader.  I would have given it an "F," but then, I am tough.  The grade? R=Redo!  Worse, I don't think he redid the paper, but he did pass the class.
2. The same college student is currently enrolled in a Physics class for general education.  Grades are based on 3 or 4 multiple choice test scores.  The passing grade is 40%.  Sometime I'll figure out what the odds are of passing if I don't even read the questions.
3. Another college class, I think it's History, has 4 exams, but, of course, the teacher drops the lowest score and then also offers an extra credit assignment, just in case I guess.
4. A ninth grade girl was getting 100% on every homework assignment, but got "Fs" on every exam.  Come to find out the teacher had said they could "work in groups" on the homework.  So, she sat right in class, copying someone else's homework, and it was okay with the teacher.  It wasn't rocket science figuring out what she was doing, even not being there.  Her final grade? B.

You get the point.  Everybody passes.  And, worse, nobody excels.  As a parent, I can't make my kids even want to excel.  Why would they?  B+ is average... If a student just maintains a 2.0 GPA they get a grant that will pay all school expenses (at least at some state universities), and in the meantime, all they have to do is show up.  Forget about learning anything.  What's the point?  You'll just end up like me... frustrated by the lack of any rational thought in the world, unemployable because you actually can think (which makes at least some employers feel threatened), and powerless to change anything.

Quote

Committees are to get everybody together and homogenize their thinking.

Art Linkletter

Control

I don’t really see myself as any kind of expert on gun control, or the cause of mass killings. However, in light of the foolishness I’ve been seeing around the internet, I figure I may as well demonstrate some of my own foolishness here.

I got to thinking about gun control because it’s news today (Obama seeks assault weapons ban, background checks on all gun sales). Now, the only thing I am sure of is that gun control is probably not the answer to ending mass killings. But arming all teachers or having armed guards is probably not a solution either. Anyway, I decided to have a look around to see what other people think, and I happened on this blog post (Nice White Boys Next Door and Mass Murder).

So, the article starts out with an anecdote about a group of students wondering aloud about the race of the shooter at Sandy Hook, as if there is nothing wrong with this.  Here's an excerpt:

“More than likely he was white,” they agreed. As the only people of color waiting to be admitted to the exhibit, their open question about race elicited visible unease from a group of elderly white women across the line from us.

This hardly sounds like wondering at all. This kind of talk, the assumption and subsequent group agreement that the crime was committed by a specific race, any race, is clearly racist, and even though it was a group of students of color, it is still racist, even though they were right. Then again, since white people make up approximately 78% of the U.S. population (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html), odds are you’d be right if you guessed a white person did it. As far as guessing the shooter was a “he” goes, that may not have been an explicit guess. People often use the pronouns “he” and “she” without knowing the actual gender of the person being referenced. Still, just based on the news that I’ve read, I would also be inclined to guess male.

The next paragraph hardly deserves comment; it appears to be the author gloating over the shock felt in white suburban neighborhoods, while attempting to draw some kind of parallel between school shootings and inner-city violent crime. I don’t see it; all violent crime is not due to some common cause. But that’s a subject beyond the scope of this post.

The next paragraph does deserve more comment. First, the author states that these mass shootings are “committed by young white males with mini arsenals aping video game assassins.” To my knowledge, there is no real evidence linking mass murder to video games. In fact, I’ve seen studies that could be interpreted as quite the opposite. I’m not stating a fact either way, just pointing out that there is nothing factual in the “violent video games contribute to violent crime” theory.

Then: “So no doubt the elderly white women’s unease came from a sense of deep existential displacement.” Or maybe it came from all the racist talk that they knew they couldn’t respond to without being deemed racist themselves. Or, maybe there was no unease at all, but merely the imagination of someone that wanted to see unease. It’s a good thing this blogger is such an expert on other people’s feeling, and why they feel that way.

The rest of the article seems to launch into an analysis that is insistent on the idea that all violent crime somehow relates. It doesn’t. There is a significant difference between a liquor store owner being shot during a robbery and a classroom full of children. It has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with motivation, though. It’s easy to see what might motivate a person to hold up a convenience store. It isn’t so easy to see why someone would walk into an elementary school and start shooting.

To make things even worse, peppered throughout the analysis are inflammatory blanket statements. For example: “As the unraced universal subject, white people are simply unaccustomed to being explicitly identified as white.” Every time I fill out a job application, I am asked to self-identify. Granted, I don’t have to, but what would be the point? As soon as I walk in to the interview, I will, in fact be identified as white. Beyond that, it shoves it right in my face… the fact that I’m white will likely decrease the odds that I’ll be hired, because the other groups are considered to contribute to diversity, simply because of race. Oh yeah, and they don’t ask my age because that would be illegal, and yet, hiring an older person would probably increase workplace diversity far more than hiring someone because we don’t have very many of that color here.

The final paragraph gets to the point of the article.

The senseless slaughter of children from the “perfect” town may finally prompt serious bipartisan legislation to curb the barbaric gun lobby. But it will not prompt analysis of the violent masculinity at the heart of whiteness. And if any of these nice white boy shooters had been black the national sentiment would have echoed the biting comment made by my student Jamion: “Send those niggers back to Africa.”

Further regulation of people is hardly the answer; in my opinion, regulation of individuals is at the heart of the problem. Perhaps there is some sort of “violent masculinity at the heart of whiteness.” But why? Is it this author’s opinion that violence is simply inherent in white males because they are white?

In the end, it doesn’t appear to really matter what my opinion is; Obama is going to push gun control regardless of what some people think. I just wonder where the regulation of individuals by the federal government will end. Perhaps when we are all taking some sort of psychoactive drug so we can all think alike, or, maybe a better thing, we don’t think at all. All I know is, it appears that some people won’t stop until we white men accept responsibility for the actions of other white men, and submit to the control of, well, anybody but us.

Trivia

The U.S. bought Alaska for $7.2 million in 1867.

Quote for the day

Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.

Aristotle

Bugaboo

bug·a·boo  

/ˈbəgəˌbo͞o/

Noun

An object of fear or alarm


Bugaboo Recall: More Than 50,000 Cameleon And Donkey Strollers Recalled

So, why is a company by the name of Bugaboo International making strollers to begin with?

Distraction

Woman drives 900 miles out of her way after GPS error

She was distracted.  For only two days.

Ideologies

I believe that rational thought is what differentiates humans from other animals; it is our competitive advantage, the thing that ensures our survival as a species.  Unfortunately, despite many people believing themselves quite capable of rational thought, these same people typically latch onto some sort of ideology.  Why?  Because it removes the necessity to engage in actual, rational thought.  Rather than contemplate what the best course of action in any particular situation is, an ideology allows us to just decide the best course of action under any circumstances.  I'll have more on this later, but I wanted to get this down before I forgot.

Quote for the day

A father is a banker provided by nature.

French Proverb

It's all good

Antidepressant Use Up 400 Percent in US


It sure is.

Trivia question

Who wrote God Bless America?

Quote for the day

Money, it turns out, was exactly like sex; you thought of nothing else if you didn't have it and thought of other things if you did.


James Baldwin

Did she really say MBA?

So, maybe Villanova has overdone the sensitivity training for their MBA candidates.  Here's to the future management of America!

Leave a comment

Facebook: Want to Message Zuckerberg? That'll Be $100

Or, just leave me a comment.  It's free, I won't charge a penny, and it's easy to do.  Plus, I'll actually read it, and leave a meaningful response. Something I doubt you'll get for your $100 on Facebook.

How the government is devaluing higher education

College Tuition: More Campuses Freeze Or Cut Tuition As Backlash Continues

It never ceases to amaze me the stupidity of government when it comes to education. Well, other things too, but here I’m going to talk about education a little bit.


My area of expertise is finance, so I decided to take a look at education from a strictly financial point of view. Without going into details here, what I found (this really shouldn’t be surprising) is that on average, the cost of getting a 4 year degree is approximately equal to the present value of the future incremental earnings a college graduate can expect to receive over their working life. In finance terms, this means that the net present value of going to college is approximately zero.

Apparently, the government thinks that the net present value to society of a college education is still greater than the cost, since they are spending increasing amounts of taxpayer dollars to fund higher education.

But, let’s get realistic about this. If the government manages to keep tuition costs where they are, but insists on increasing taxpayer funding so that more people can afford to go to college, then the value to the individual of getting an education will decrease, since we’ll have an increasing supply of graduates where there is no corresponding increasing demand. Meaning, the future differential pay a degree holder can expect will be lower, so, the present value of getting that education is less, and prospective college students should then opt against going to college. Or… tuition will need to drop further.

The demand for higher education is already out of line with the demand for college graduates. Too many people want to go to college; indeed, they feel entitled to a college education, and then, on graduation, they feel entitled to a bigger paycheck.

The fact is, there are already a lot of people in college that really don’t belong in college at all. But the government wants everyone to go, even though there will be nowhere for those graduates to go when they graduate. Well, they could emigrate, I guess, but then, do we, as taxpayers, really want to fund students’ educations when the benefits of that education are going to be exported?

The point is, the government insists that we need more graduates. The answer, though, isn’t in quantity; it’s in quality. A degree used to mean something, but it’s really getting pointless, and likely to get worse.

Trivia question

What was the name of Tonto's horse?

Quote for the day

I think, therefore I am.

Descartes

The wisdom of youth

Surfing the internet, and I happened on this gem of youthful wisdom (in the comments):

Btw, let's don't forget that today's victims of age discrimination were beneficiaries of it when they were young and pushing their way into the work force...and displacing older workers.

So, this meathead thinks it’s okay to discriminate on the basis of age because he thinks that probably the older person benefitted from age discrimination in the past. Must be an HR manager.

I don’t know that I ever did benefit from age discrimination. I might have.  But, I’m pretty darn sure I’ve been the victim of age discrimination. Further, I know I’ve been discriminated against because I’m a white male from a middle-class background. Ever heard of Affirmative Action?

My first job, in 1974, I worked in a machine shop. I asked about moving to the tool room. I thought being a tool and die maker would probably be a good career move. They needed someone; but the HR manager wouldn’t let me go there because they needed a black person in there. Yes, that’s exactly what I was told.

I had another job, again in a machine shop, where we were offered the opportunity to choose what area we wanted to work in. The harder, dirtier jobs were paid more to entice people to take those jobs. I took one, only to watch as the women (not all, but a lot) proceeded to sue the company on the basis of pay discrimination. Even though these women had chosen lower paying jobs for themselves, the company lost, and as a result, I ended up making the same pay for harder, dirtier work. Silly me.

Then, as luck would have it, in 1996, as I turned 40 and finally would have found myself in one of the protected classes under Affirmative Action, the judiciary, and public, began to come to their senses. Of course, it’s doubtful that Affirmative Action would have benefitted me since age discrimination in hiring is difficult to prove. I think many employers don’t want to hire older workers mostly because they’ll never be able to get rid of them; it might look too much like they fired an older worker to avoid paying a pension.

And now, some punk wants to shoot his mouth off about how I benefitted from age discrimination. Yeah, I can feel it coming… that time when my mood gets so foul that someone decides I need a pill to make me happy.

Dad

My dad died from dementia. At least, that’s what his death certificate says. They said he had Alzheimer’s disease. We believed them.


It seemed… well, it seemed credible at the time, even though there really is no way to diagnose Alzheimer’s without an autopsy. Besides, the doctors say that they can diagnose Alzheimer’s with 90 percent accuracy. I wonder if Dad was one of the 90 percent. They didn’t do an autopsy.


I read on one of those medical websites that one of the first signs of Alzheimer’s is a change in personality, and I’m pretty sure that’s what clued the doctor’s in that something was wrong with Dad. He was getting grouchy… losing his temper for no apparent reason. At least, none that anyone was aware of. When they asked him why, he said he didn’t know.


Maybe he did know but just said he didn’t. Sometimes it’s easier to just say, “I don’t know.” Particularly when the answer may make you sound, well, demented. If someone thinks something differently than the consensus, it’s easy to just discount it as crazy. And a lifetime of other people not understanding, believing themselves smarter because of their education, explaining to you using management school mumbo jumbo how you’re wrong, and constantly biting back the response that you know is right but that other more educated people will only ignore… well, it seems to me that sooner or later it will get the better of you. Sooner or later, you just can’t bite your tongue any more.


At first, the doctors just called it depression, and prescribed some sort of antidepressant. Now, I’m no expert, but I do have some experience with antidepressants. I was diagnosed with depression once, years ago. I took the pills, which made me feel lousy. I couldn’t think; it was as if my brain was filled with cotton; everything was fuzzy. My previously good health took a turn for the worse, and a friend told me that what I was experiencing was typical for this particular drug. He told me to get off the stuff.


One of the things doctors tell you when you start taking antidepressants is that you should never just stop taking them; instead, you need a doctor to help you wean yourself off. So, I went to the doctor and told him I thought these pills were making me sick, and that I couldn’t think any more. The response was, in retrospect, was crazy: “You need to take more.” The doctor doubled my dose.


I tried the new dosage for about a week, until I couldn’t stand it anymore, and I quit taking the stuff. It took maybe a month for me to feel normal again, but to this day, I actually think that I have some lingering health issues related to that drug.


So, lately I’ve been thinking about my dad, and how it is that he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s once he had gotten on the antidepressant freight train. I call it a freight train because it seems like once you get started on antidepressants, it’s nearly impossible to stop, at least if you put that much trust in the “experts.”


It might have been a year or so after starting to take antidepressants that my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately, some of the side effects of some antidepressants are also symptoms of Alzheimer’s. Then, to make things worse, some of the side effects of Alzheimer’s medication could appear to be symptoms of Alzheimer’s, like incontinence. Again, I’m no expert. Somebody crapping their pants may not have anything to do with the prescribed medications; it could be due to dementia. I wouldn’t know the difference between drug-induced incontinence and dementia induced incontinence, but I guess a doctor can tell.


The really troubling thing is that even the experts don’t know anything. They believe depression is caused by a chemical imbalance. And now, this “knowledge” has gained widespread acceptance, so much so that even lay people believe this is a fact. Only, it isn’t a fact. It’s a theory.


I’m going to end here with what is perhaps one of the most troubling statements I’ve seen on the subject of antidepressants: “the truth is that researchers know very little about how antidepressants work.”

Trivia question

How thick is a hockey puck?

Quote for the day

I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it.

Mae West, in My Little Chickadee (1940)

Daily trivia

Who said: "When I'm good, I'm very good, but when I'm bad I'm even better"?

Quote for the day

Let me say this: bein a idiot is no box of chocolates.

Winston Groom, Forrest Gump (1986)

Daily trivia

What is a group of bears called?

I don't care if this is true or not

Because the fact is, whether what Jon Stewart says in this video is true or not, it accurately portrays our politicians.

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
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Quote for the day

Everyone must row with the oars he has.

English Proverb

It’s the Peter Principle!

Last night I was reflecting on my working life, when I had this epiphany; my working life was a near-perfect example of the Peter Principle in action.  I fully expect that I will soon, once again, be invited to interview for a job that I have no hope of actually getting.  Sure, I’ll dress nice, and put on a good or even great show for the interviewers, but in the end, I know I won’t get hired.  Sounds defeatist, I know, and there are probably plenty of people that will say that is the reason I won’t get hired.  It’s a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.  But, I think it’s more like the Peter Principle.

The Peter Principle: Why Things Always Go Wrong 

Simply put, the Peter Principle says that in a hierarchical organization people tend to rise to their level of incompetence.  So… when interviewing, there is a strong possibility that those conducting the interview are actually incompetent at interviewing.  As if that’s not bad enough, then there is the problem of “super-competence,” that is, a person working in an inappropriately low level job based on his abilities.

Now, I usually don’t like to go on and on about how good I am at what I do.  But, I’ve worked hard over my lifetime to truly understand things, regardless of the subject matter involved.  In college, I went beyond trying to memorize what I had learned in order to get a good grade on a test.  I didn’t party… I didn’t watch television… I didn’t play games.  I spent my time applying all that theory to the real world.  I tested theories against what was really happening in the markets.  And when things didn’t appear to work according to all the theories that I had learned, I worked to understand why.  And yes, I think in terms of competence it has paid off.  Not so much in terms of my ability to actually have a rewarding career though.

It used to be that I could at least get hired because I didn’t have proof of my competence.  I applied for jobs that required no experience in areas that I didn’t have experience.  I was hirable because there was nothing to indicate that I might be a threat to management’s incompetence.  But all that work I did in school has changed all that.  I won awards… graduated with honors… and now the record shows that I am, in fact, highly competent.  Nobody wants that.

So now, I suppose the trick will be to learn how to convince people that I am, in fact, not at all competent in what I do.  Once I learn that, I’m pretty sure my career will be right back on track.