Ingrained?

According to a report in the New York Times, “Americans and Europeans stand out from the rest of the world for our sense of ourselves as individuals. We like to think of ourselves as unique, autonomous, self-motivated, self-made. As the anthropologist Clifford Geertz observed, this is a peculiar idea.” This in itself isn’t particularly shocking news. We know- or should- that the United States was founded largely on the belief in individual rights…granted by the creator.

The article, written for the Times by a professor of anthropology at Stanford University, goes on to state that “people in the rest of the world are more likely to understand themselves as interwoven with other people- as interdependent, not independent. In such social worlds your goal is to fit in and adjust yourself to others, not to stand out.”

The crux of the article, however, was a study published this past May in the  journal ‘Science’ that “ascribed these different orientations to the social worlds created by wheat farming and rice farming.”  Really. You see, rice farming is complex, requiring complex irrigation systems that affect one’s neighbors and have to be built and drained each year. “A community of rice farmers needs to work together in tightly integrated ways.

“Not wheat farmers. Wheat needs only rainfall, not irrigation. To plant and harvest it takes  half as much work as rice does, and substantially less coordination and cooperation.” The authors of the study in Science argue that over thousands of years, rice-and-wheat-growing societies developed distinctive cultures: “You do not need to farm rice yourself to inherit rice culture.”

You can see where this is going, the subtle bias towards those lovable dependent types who just want to fit in with everybody else.

In fact the article closes by noting that, “Wheat doesn’t grow everywhere. Start-ups won’t solve all our problems. A lone cowboy isn’t much good in the aftermath of a Hurricane Katrina. As we enter a season in which the values of do-it-yourself individualism are likely to dominate our Congress, it is worth remembering that this way of thinking might just be a product of the way our forefathers grew their food and not a fundamental truth about the way all humans flourish.” Wow.

If we don’t have a sense of ourselves as individuals we  possess no self-awareness and if we possess no self-awareness we can’t ponder our place in the universe, one of the defining- and endearing- traits of homo- sapiens. We get told by breathless schoolteachers that each and every snowflake is unique. Not us, though…in a perfect world. Wouldn’t want to ‘stand out’! This “peculiar idea” (why are all “peculiar ideas” nowadays the long-held, traditional Western ones?) has led to the freest, most successful society the world has ever known.

As for working hard and being able to coordinate with others in complex ways, we are the first and only country to land on the moon…and bring our astronauts safely back to Earth. Oh yeah, we did invent the assembly line and lots of other inconsequential stuff like that.

“Wheat doesn’t grow everywhere” is a moot point and almost as meaningless as “start-ups won’t solve all our problems” or “a lone cowboy isn’t much good in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.” Start-ups provide many people with jobs and are a font of creativity, a lifeblood for the economy as a whole, in addition to providing a passionate outlet for those that bring them to life. Progressivism will not solve all of our problems either, and in fact will, as always, make most of them worse.

Then there is the closing shot at the soon to be ensconced Republican Congress. I don’t see much, if any, belief in rugged individualism among any of those who will comprise the new majority. (The country has, unfortunately, moved way too far past that quaint notion, and members of Congress like to be re-elected).

Finally, those who believe in the primacy of the individual- by definition- do not typically try to tell others what to believe or how to think.

Those of us unfortunate enough to have inherited the “wheat culture” values are not supposed to want to stand out, apparently. “Stand-out performer” or ”stand-out athlete” are terms that should go the way of the word “Redskins.”

Oh, well. I often like to go against the grain.

A Rolling Stone Gathers No... Evidence?

                Rolling Stone magazine ran a story recently in which it reported that a female student was gang-raped at a University of Virginia fraternity. Then it apologized to its readers this past Friday, when it said of ‘Jackie’, the woman who claimed to have been gang-raped at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity on campus, “Our trust in her was misplaced.”

                Remarkably, and in near ‘ Monty Pythonesque’ fashion, Rolling Stone  apologized again yesterday for the way it worded its Friday apology. Apparently the “Our trust in her was misplaced” line struck certain critics as blaming the victim. Therefore the updated apology removes that line. In an attempted act of magnanimity, the magazine is now blaming itself for any mistakes made. And well it should. To wit, the magazine said it should not have agreed to Jackie’s request not to contact the alleged assailants to get their side of the story.

                The magazine’s managing editor, who, judging  by previous quotes,  thinks that Rolling Stone should be afforded the same journalistic credibility as  the Wall Street Journal wrote, “These mistakes are on Rolling Stone, not on Jackie.” He continued, “We apologize to anyone who was affected by the story and we will continue to investigate the events of that evening.” Continue?

                Perhaps you should have investigated the events of that evening before publishing the story? Remember the Duke men's LaCrosse team ‘scandal’ of a few years back? Apparently, any female can go to a ‘news source’ and claim the vilest of assaults and be taken with complete credibility. Face value.

                We have had Presidents in recent years who have lied- under oath- about certain unfortunate ‘events’.

                When the sensational story broke, it rocked the campus, elevated the issue of sexual assault and led to protests, suspension of fraternity activities, and an emergency ‘Board of Visitors’ meeting.

                If Jackie’s allegations are true, the assailants should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. If they are not, perhaps Rolling Stone will apologize for apologizing for their apology. If the allegations prove false, the victims will be the accused and their broken reputations and lives.

                Would that potential miscarriage of justice cause similar protests or even an emergency Board of Visitors meeting?

                Maybe Rolling Stone magazine would apologize to them?

_________________________________________________________________________________

Monty Python announcement #1: “The BBC wishes to apologize for the last sketch. Everyone involved has been sacked.”

Monty Python announcement #2: “The BBC wishes to apologize for the previous apology. Everyone responsible for sacking those who have been sacked…have been sacked.”

Dirty Coal, Dirty Politics

                The dirtiest U.S. coal is becoming the most popular, according to a report from the Bloomberg News. It is, ironically, thanks to tightening emission standards forcing power plants to reduce pollutants. ‘Dirty’ coal has a greater sulfur content and  is found in great quantities in the Illinois Basin. Coal of this type costs less and/or has a higher heat ‘content’.

                Illinois sports the second largest coal reserves in the United States- 104 billion tons- enough to power the country for 163 years at 2014 consumption levels. (Remember ‘the Energy Crisis’? It was a crisis of confidence, creativity and diligence).

                Dirtier coal such as the Illinois Basin’s was left mostly unused after the expansion of the Clean Air Act and limits placed on sulfur dioxide emissions. Utilities then began to install scrubbers to remove the contaminants…or just closed down, as many did. Yet another rule, the ‘Mercury and Air Toxics Standards’, will take effect next year, again forcing coal-fired power plants to comply or go out of business. According to some energy consultants, by the end of this decade 67 gigawatts of coal fired electricity will have been closed down in compliance with the mercury rule. One gigawatt is enough to power 708,400 U.S. households, according to Energy Department data. Do the math. Staggering.

                It is estimated that 100% of U.S. coal plants will have sulfur dioxide removing scrubbers by 2025.

                Under the Obama administration’s new rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions, coal’s share of the country’s power generation will fall to 33% in 2020 and 30% in 2030, compared with what would have been an increase to 41% under existing rules, per EPA figures. Imagine the energy we could produce- and the resultant economic expansion and job creation that would ensue because of lower energy prices- if we didn’t place such an incredible burden on all aspects of our extraction and energy industry!

                Yet, with all the requisite scrubbers installed, any remaining U.S. coal-fired plants will be keen to utilize the cheaper, hotter, dirtier coal.

                Illinois. Renowned for dirty coal and dirty politicians. It seems they both come out on top in the end.

               

                

An Ode To Google

                I write about some serious (and some not so serious!) topics in this blog. This blog sits on a Google-based platform. My views are, I know, not always in harmony with Google’s or likely many/most of its employees. I suspect that in many cases they are, in fact, opposed to ‘theirs’.

                That is why I am taking the time and space to thank them. Believe me, it is not a               sycophantic or ‘kissing-up’ gesture. I, with my tiny new  blog, have not been asked to write anything nor would bring any discernible benefit to them.

                We live in a hyper-sensitive, politically-correct country and world. Some of my views don’t resonate with everyone. That’s okay. I  do try to tell ‘the truth’ as I am given the ability to see it. And I also wish to entertain with obvious parodies, ala’ “the Onion”. (I do not possess quite the talent of some of the writer’s in that now nearly Iconic publication, but I have fun doing it).

                That said, this is still, apparently, America and the truly important things are overriding and hopefully everlasting. First and foremost freedom of speech, without which all other freedoms go away. Please know no matter my views, I do not advocate violence against any group or individual and will not unless, as do terrorists and  world wars, they present an existential danger to the United States and its citizens. Some might be shocked to know that I wouldn’t care if all my best friends were African-American, or that I had a gay friend and that I don’t believe all Muslims  have terrorist tendencies. But that doesn’t obscure the fact that I don’t believe in the full-on recognition of gay marriage as equal to heterosexual marriage, for example. And I will keep writing what I believe, as passionately as I can.

                Hopefully I write with enough competence and cleverness, at least on occasion, to keep you all interested. Thank you all for visiting this blog.

                Thank you Google for this (free) platform. And for reaffirming that this is still America, after all.

                Seriously.

Translogic

                  The Minnesota State High School League overwhelmingly voted to open up girls sports to transgender (those kids who were born male but “identify” as female) student-athletes yesterday, December 4^th. In fact, 18 of the 20 board members voted yes, with one courageously abstaining. One voted no.

                “ALL kids deserve respect,” read some printed signs held by supporters of the measure and provided by  the group ‘Transforming Families.’”

                Estimates by the Transgender Law Center itself, based in California, put 0.3% of the population as transgender. In truth, the other 99.7% were ‘disrespected’ (to use a newly-minted verb I dislike and rarely acknowledge).

                To wit, the Minnesota Family Council, a Christian-based advocacy group that promotes and defends biblical principles in public policy matters, proposed a bylaw change stipulating that a student’s sex at birth be used to determine eligibility.

                It wasn’t even considered.

                That proposal was backed by a petition of over 5,500 people and a mix of 28 public and private high schools. Those numbers equate to percentages that are many times greater than the percentage of transgender kids in our schools. Whose voice is being ignored?

                The board’s vote also added “transgender language”  to its 'fair hearing' procedure.

                League Executive Director Dave Stead said, “There was nothing that was done today that would prevent a school from being a member of the High School League. Not one scintilla.”

                Poor use of the language aside, that is technically true.

                And utterly meaningless in the larger sense.

                There is nothing keeping Protestants or Catholics from joining the Muslim Brotherhood, either. Or joining a Paganism group. Except of course for deeply held beliefs, and some of the more fanatical Muslim’s desire to convert or enslave  those who disagree with them.

                “Translogic” has won the day.

Kim Jong (the Only) Un

                The given name of North Korea’s  leader has now been reserved only for him, according to reports. All North Koreans who had the same name when Kim came to power in 2011 have been forced to give them up, a South Korean government official confirmed. He stated, “It’s true that in North Korea, they now allow only one Jong Un.”

                There was mild hope in some quarters when Kim first came into power that he would prove to be a more modern, open and less brutal ruler than his dad and grandfather were.

                Then he had his uncle executed by firing squad when he started accruing too much power.

                That tended to curtail the optimism.

                Moreover, all North Korean homes and offices must sport portraits of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the current dictator’s  grandfather and father, respectively. There are statues of these two men in all major cities. Their birthdays are national holidays. North Koreans wear lapel pins bearing their images, many while nearly starving.

                No one, at least outside North Korea, knows how many people were forced to give up their name, but Jong Un was a common name- for  men and women-  in both Koreas.

                Yet in North Korea, there will now be only one Jong Un. Unfortunately for North Koreans, it’s the wrong Jong Un.

A Fruitful Occurrence

             The Los Angeles Times reports a new study found that the “guts of our primate ancestors” evolved the ability to metabolize alcohol. It had been thought that our alcohol consumption started with our capability to ferment fruit about 9,000 years ago. Instead, according to the Times, the study purports to show our primate ancestors “have been enjoying the effects of fermentation” for nearly 10 million years! This means humankind has had a great deal of evolutionary time to adapt itself to the presence of alcohol, which will likely change how the presence and prevalence of alcoholism is understood.

A team led by biologist Matthew Carrigan of Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida, discovered that the digestive enzyme ADH4 was first found plentifully in the gorilla. ADH4 breaks down alcohol beginning on the tongue and continuing through the throat and stomach. Without the ability to produce this enzyme, our distant ancestors would not have consumed fermented foods because of resultant stomach pain, nausea and other physical discomforts.

The article states “In that period, our hominid ancestors- consumers of tree fruits all- increasingly came down from the trees” where they would encounter fallen fruit, colonized by yeast and in various stages of fermentation/decomposition. Naturally, those that could eat that fruit would be at a competitive advantage over those that could not. They would have been more likely to come down from the trees…and stay down, as well as survive lean growing seasons by utilizing this resource that was past its “best when used by” date.

Who knew? If it were not for alcohol we might still be living in trees. The “family tree” might be literal.

The article goes on to say “Our 10 million-year-old relationship with alcohol should come as no surprise, the authors of the latest research suggest. It coincides with the middle Miocene climatic transition, a period of rapid environmental change in which the fragmented forest ecosystems of East Africa were giving way to grassland ecosystems.”

Okay, a couple points here. One, how was the climate changing so fast and ‘climatically’? There were no factories or cows to emit greenhouse gases. There was no coal-burning, no United States, no China. Nary a Koch brother could be found.

Two, how did the planet survive…indeed thrive after this calamity? Humans evolved long after the Miocene transition, traumatic as it was. There was a relative few of us even then. Now there are seven billion plus.

Recent global warming after the last ice age give us our beautiful northern lakes region. Now it appears far earlier climate change eventually gave us beer, ale, Chardonnay and Tanqueray!

I’ll drink to that.

Cheers!

                

Eminent Disdain

                                                        

                There are times when I wonder if this is still America.

A nearby city, a suburb in a major metropolitan area, has announced that it is considering forcing 18 families to leave their homes in order for a road to be rebuilt. According to city officials, the newly re-done road would be wider, “prettier and friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists.”

                It certainly isn’t going to be friendlier to existing homeowners.

                “Prettier, too?”  And I was worried  these families might be evicted from their land for frivolous reasons! I’m always the skeptic.

                Some of these folks have lived in their houses since the 1950’s. Back then it was considered by many city folk to be on the edge of nowhere. Cornfields were visible. Now it’s an ‘inner ring’ suburb, more urban than suburban in many respects.

                Of course, the displaced families would get ‘replacement value’ for their properties. But how do you ‘replace’ the sweat equity, or put a value on  memories of  family gatherings, romantic nights, and playing ball with your kids in the back yard? According to several residents, “none of us want to move.”

                They may have to. In a matter of days the city council will vote on the plan to demolish those 18 homes. The road project is the culmination of years-long collaboration between the city, county and federal government. Nice to know the feds are involved in a plan to rebuild a 1-mile stretch of road in a small city in Anywhere, U.S.A. A road that I lived near or on for 13 years.

                Oh, well. Hit the bricks folks, and don’t let the door hit you on your behind on the way out.

            ________________________________________________________________________

                (The concept, and practice, of ‘eminent domain’ has been with us for many decades. Originally a limited power given only to the federal government, it has been expanded to include state and local governments, as well. The bar was set quite a bit higher for its usage in the past.

                Abuses abound in the modern era. This would be one of them).

                

               

                

Gender Blender- Part II

                The Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) is considering a ‘transgender’ athletic policy that would force almost 500 Minnesota schools, including private and religious ones, to allow transgender students to choose their gender team, and also possibly the locker room, showers, bathroom facilities and hotel accommodations they prefer/sexually ‘identify’ with, regardless of actual sex/anatomy.

                What could possibly go wrong? I can tell you what I would have chosen when I was in high school. “Yes, well, I have to tell you administrators in deepest seriousness, I ‘self-identify’ as a female. I mean a really feminine female at that. Therefore I feel I must play on their teams, be in the girls locker room, shower with them (preferably for very long times), and room with a girl named ‘Heather’, ‘Beth’, or ‘Tasha’ in hotels  while on road trips”.

                Talk about caving to the (tiny) minority whilst sticking it to the majority! The desire to be sympathetic to the GLBTG community is nothing short of overwhelming to educators, blinding them to any other issues or consequences.

_________________________________________________________________________________

*”The Minnesota State Hypothetically- Sexed League (MSHSL), where your gender is purely academic!”

*Homosexuals were first not much publicly spoken of, then the terms ‘gay’ and then ‘gay and lesbian’ came into prominence; then  ‘bisexual’ was added…and then ‘transgender’. Do we see a pattern? What are we going to add next to our all-inclusive, big-tent approach to sex and physical anatomy? GLBTG…IBN? (incest, bestiality, necrophilia)? And how will we combine them? Transgendered bestial incest?!!? (TGBI).

We need new rules for these enlightened modern times!

The National Endowment for Abortion

January 22, 2016-    

        

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Announces Abortion As ‘Performance Art’ With the New Broadway Play, “It’s Just a Fetus, Cletus.”

                The play will probe new ground and push the envelope of what’s ‘acceptable’ to the American public by having actual abortions performed live on a set that resembles a Catholic church.

                An NEA spokeswoman stated for the record that, “For hundreds of years the vast majority of people around the world haven’t accepted homosexual unions as a substitute for a man and wife because they are incapable of producing children on their own, which, they claim, is the very reason that two different sexes exist. With this play we clearly show that even a significant number of heterosexual people don’t want to reproduce, and that they do want to show everyone how inclusive their non-reproduction strategies are.”

                Some more aggressive pro-choice organizations are handing out “Have You Killed Your Kid Today?” or “No pants, no panties, no problem! Let’s get ‘em out! Minors welcome.”  bumper stickers.

                A few abortion ‘clinics’ around the country have even started handing out game cards to their clients. “Get them punched for every abortion you have and start accruing points towards winning such great gifts as a lifetime (yours, fortunately, not your babies) subscription to ‘NARAL Monthly’ magazine…you’ll love the centerfolds.”

The 'Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice' (RCRC) members are proudly pro-choice.  An offshoot of this group is the 'Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom' (SYRF) comprised of kids as young as 16. According to the RCRC website, they are part of the ‘reproductive justice community’ (which does not include, it should be noted, any babies that have ever been aborted). They are against the ‘pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act’ which would prohibit abortions after the five month mark of pregnancy or more, except under certain conditions.

   “When you want a holy abortion, let the Spirit move you to RCRC. We’ll do our best to make you feel special…on our sacred honor!”