Studying human nature at the border

 An Israeli soldier describes running a West Bank checkpoint.

Excerpt:
The true nature of the soldier’s mission usually dawns upon him shortly after he arrives on the scene. He might be told, as I was in one of my first shifts, to close a checkpoint for some reason or other. A Palestinian child comes by and asks to pass on his way home from school. When the child discovers the checkpoint is closed and he cannot get home, he begins to cry. Recalling the freedom and responsibility to exercise his clear-headed judgment, the soldier decides to let the child through. A while later, ten crying children come by. They all heard about a new way to pass through the checkpoint even when it is officially closed.

At this point, facing the crying children, the soldier realizes he made a mistake—not because these children are dangerous, but because he cannot afford to be fooled by ten-year-olds, or by anyone, for that matter. There cannot be an efficient way to pass through his checkpoint. Any such way may be used against him, against his mission. He cannot tell harmless ten-year-olds from ten-year-olds who were sent to trick him. Everyone should know that at his checkpoint it is up to him and him alone to decide what will be their fate. 

 

He's still a murdering dictator

Foreign Policy warns against seeing North Korea's  leader Kim Jung Un through gauze-clouded glasses, now that the mainstream media are buying more into his government's propaganda.

Jung Un imprisons anyone who disagrees with him and allows his countrymen to starve and stay cut off from the modern world.

He's a monster, no matter how far Entertainment Tonight goes to gloss over that fact.

Loretta Lynn state of mind

Watch this for the pantsuits. And Loretta's pronunciation of "hurricane" at 1:04.

Less bass, more kitteh

The Aurora shooter

A studied read on Holmes as well as on the other infamous Colorado mass murderers of late, the Columbine duo.

Excerpt: These researchers find that aside from terrorism, most of these mass murders are committed by criminals who fall into three groups: psychopaths, the delusionally insane, and the suicidally depressed. 

Today's job market

Unless you work in a medical field (in which case you can almost be a violent felon and not worry about being fired), hunting for work these days is a bitch. This blogger does non-scientific but telling research.

Excerpt: I know that when I apply for jobs, I like to imagine my résumé near the top of the pile; this helps me sleep at night (in addition to scotch). Because of this experiment, I’ve decided to not bother submitting to Craigslist positions that are more than one day old.

 Here's you some Johnny Paycheck. Remember, I'm in Nashville, y'all, and there's not a life dilemma that country music hasn't addressed.

Attention to detail

This blogger says people who use grammar correctly are better employees, whether they are writers, mathematicians or janitors. Knowing the difference between "it's" and "its" means you pay attention to detail.

Excerpt: Yes, language is constantly changing, but that doesn't make grammar unimportant. Good grammar is credibility, especially on the internet. In blog posts, on Facebook statuses, in e-mails, and on company websites, your words are all you have. They are a projection of you in your physical absence. And, for better or worse, people judge you if you can't tell the difference between their, there, and they're.

In the pic below, the misplaced comma in the description of a panda's diet changes the whole meaning of the phrase, turning "shoots" and "leaves" from the nouns they should be into verbs).

More kitteh for a Sunday afternoon

From the LOLcat archives.

Hitting on all 8

1990 was a heady year. I got into a prestigious graduate school, was diagnosed with a life-altering disease, and went off men.

I had fallen thud-hard for my roommate Judy. We didn’t act on the mutual attraction until June of that year. Before that, I was dating Hershel, a Vietnam veteran raising two kids on his own.  A townie, he was a regular at a tavern near campus.  Judy too was dating men, but sometimes went as a third on my dates with Hershel. We threw back beers at Bud’s and I noticed.

That Judy and Hershel  shot pool like they were born to it (Judy’s break was finessed and bone-jarring. Hershel occasionally shot with the butt end of his cue to beat college rubes who bet against him).  That they both loved Fords. That I was gay. Judy turned my handles—mental, emotional and sexual. Hershel, a handsome man and thoughtful lover, did not.

But my coming out and living who I am is a whole ‘nother story. Today I focus on that short  sentence about Fords.

In the parts of our country considered “fly-over,” your automobile affiliation is a birthright. You drive Fords or GMs or Dodges because your daddy did.

Oh, occasionally someone differed with their father because a family member had “gone off up north”—Detroit, Dayton, Gary—to work at an auto plant. If your uncle could get you a deal on a Pontiac GTO, you might overlook the fact that your pa preferred Dodges.

My stepfather Kenneth was a Chevy man. I followed suit when it came to the occasional truck I owned. One day I rolled up in my stepfather’s yard in a Chevrolet  pickup I’d just traded a Toyota for. The Chevy had that little 283 that would squall off the line.

Kenneth, skinflint farmer and man of little chit-chat, nodded approvingly and muttered to himself, and to me, maybe just a little: “There ain’t nothin’ like a Chevy truck.”

Judy  followed her father on what to park in the driveway. On the day I met her, Judy--two months past her 18th birthday--was driving a 1976 Ford F-100 (with the maker's famous straight six-cylinder engine).

Hershel owned a Thunderbird, and drove to work a Ford Courier pick-up he had fashioned from cast-off parts at the auto-body shop and junkyard where he worked.

I never asked Hershel whether his daddy was a Ford man. I just assumed.

Obamacare means worsening doc shortage

So says the New York Times.

Well, at least the working poor will have some coverage; they have zero now.

Troublesome still. Excerpt: The pool of doctors has not kept pace, and will not, health experts said. Medical school enrollment is increasing, but not as fast as the population. The number of training positions for medical school graduates is lagging. Younger doctors are on average working fewer hours than their predecessors.

Business kitteh

More office felines here.

Ride, Sally, ride

America's first woman in space was preceded by would-be pioneers who didn't get their shot.

Ride was a hero to many little girls. And a dyke. Rest in peace.

'22 things you probably shouldn't buy at a yard sale'

I confess. With the exception of #22, I would totally buy everything on this list.

Amelia, tomboi from our past

How and where Amelia Earhart died remains a mystery.

Meanwhile, here are pics that show her panache and style.

'How not to die of rabies'

A couple pens a cultural history of rabies, which kills thousands still in Asia and Africa.

Researchers theorize it may have been what killed Edgar Allan Poe.

Sick with worry?

Warnings about a drug's side effects may make us sick, a new study finds.

A report finds in the journal of the German Medical Association "suggests that the side effects of some drugs, and the discomfort of certain medical procedures, may be inadvertently intensified by doctors and nurses trying to keep patients fully informed of the consequences of their medical care. The culprit behind this phenomenon is the nocebo effect."

You need kittens, people

Four sleeping in a drawer.

Bonus LOLcat

JoePa's legacy

The NCAA sanctions come down against Penn State football.

It's hard-nosed but not enough. But what would ever be enough for the Sandusky survivors?

Text from the dog

He's kinda like Bryan from "Family Guy."

Psychopathic but not psychotic

A clinical psychiatrist says that could be with case with the Colorado murderer.

Harper's take on gun control

This comes as close to my own position as anything I've read.

Excerpt: Many liberal critics understand this when it comes to drug policy. The modern, sophisticated position is that demonizing chemicals is a reductive and ineffective way to address complicated social pathologies. When it comes to gun violence, though, the conversation often stops at the tool, because it is more comfortable to blame it than to examine ourselves.

 

The most wonderful time of the year

The Nashville Scene's annual "You are so Nashville if" awards are announced.

My favorites were among the also-rans in the contest:

You think the Muslims' 30-year plan to take over Rutherford County is right on schedule. —Ken Lass

You got stabbed during "Statesboro Blues" at the Gregg Allman show. —Jason and Heath Hinson

You say, "Do what now?" —April

It just came to me

Good writers decide what not to say as much as anything else.

Thoughts and prayers for Colorado

'OMFG THAT COULD HAVE BEEN ANYBODY'

Your afternoon text from the dog.

Chick-Fil-A says no gay

i guess my money isn't good there anymore. Pity. They have the best in-season peach milkshakes.

'Obama's pot problem'

As someone who smoked a lot of ganja in his day, the president sure is a hypocritical narc lately.

Walters cans Zimmerman interview

After the accused asks to be put up in a hotel for a month by Barbara and company.

The justice system hasn't yet deemed whether he's a murderer, but we can say with certainty from this latest dust-up that George Zimmerman is a grifter.

Baby Alpaca using a MacBook

It's true. Ruminants love Macintosh. Have you ever seen a cow using a Hewlett Packard? Thought not.

'The 50 Cutest Things That Have Ever Happened'

Buzzfeed lists them.

21. The serious cat who got photobombed by his idiot friend. 

 

26. Then there was the time we all learned what happens when you burn someone's feelings. 

  The story behind this note is that the long-suffering father who received it had postponed a beach trip with his 8-year-old daughter until he could finish watching the football game.

 

Roger, Rover

Another text from the dog.

Go deep

A movie quote a friend referenced last night that echoes in my head hourly now.


"There are shallow rollers, and there are deep rollers. You can't breed two deep rollers... or their young, their offspring, will roll all the way down... hit and die. Agent Starling is a deep roller. Let us hope one of her parents was not."
Hannibal

Live and let live

The truth sometimes dwells in triteness.

Consider “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”  And the idea that follows that mostly everything is small stuff. I know, Hallmark-card psychobabble. But my disease has driven home the occasional profoundness of cornball cliché.

Small stuff. Don’t sweat it. MS teaches me such daily.  You yourself live with something akin to my MS. It drives home some similar truism, whether or not you hear it yet.

I include this photo (I'm the blonde) because it gives me joy, and because I love that look of awe and WTF-edness on my sweet face.

Oh, my

Garth Brooks wants to tour again.

At least bring your wife.

Here she is with the most fabulous hairdo in the history of debut albums. And here she is on the wrong side of Memphis.

Every cat I've ever known

'Night, y'all. See you tomorrow.

Boy Scouts uphold ban on the gay

Well. I guess good ole boys' clubs of all ages gotta fear somebody.

The Boy Scouts do much good for many youngsters. But jeez louise, BSA leaders. Catch up with the rest of the country.

Sarah

There are moments when Ms. Silverman is the funniest human on the globe. Link NSFW.

Texts from his dog

This guy imagines how they'd go.

An example:

I know. I belong to a cult

Jesus God. Apple knows better than anyone in business today how to push the I-love-this-and-MUST-have-it button in the human consumer. They always have, in fact.

Hell, they've been manipulating me for 20-plus years. Here's the Macintosh LC II. Bought one in 1991 and have been brainwashed since.

Afternoon pick-me-up

Well, duh

Older Jerry Sandusky survivors come forward.

Heartbreaking.

Will be getting this on my Kindle

A book review on the return of real feminists, in the form of British journalist Caitlin Moran.

Excerpt: "How To Be a Woman  follows its anti-heroine from her 13^th birthday (182 pounds, friendless, fleeing from gravel-flinging yobs) onward, with stops along the way to praise masturbation, argue both for and against motherhood, celebrate her abortion,  and more. Each self-deprecating chapter (“I Start Bleeding!” “I Become Furry!” “I Don’t Know What To Call My Breasts!”) is an occasion to explore how, from puberty through senescence, the modern female body has become a series of  problems to be solved— usually at great expense to its inhabitant. There is, for instance, the upkeep of that new presumed depilation (“I can’t believe we’ve got to a point where it’s basically costing us money to have a vagina”); the tyranny of stratospheric heels (“The minimum I ask for my footwear: to be able to dance in it and that it not get me murdered”); ever-teenier underpants (“How can 52 percent of the population expect to win the war on terror if they can't even sit down without wincing?”).

'The 23 Absolute Sweetest Things'

Says buzzfeed.

Caption for the pic below:

Your Mom Not Finding Your "Secret Stash" When She Washed Your Pants

LBGT dispatch from abroad

"He winked at me" is still a legal murder defense in Australia.

Excerpt: "There are places in the world where the mere perception that someone of your own gender might be into you gives you the right to kill him or her."

Words to live by

This inspires me today.

If you give in to the disapproval of others, you’ll simply encourage them to disapprove even more. If you fight against their disapproval, that will also cause their disapproval to grow stronger.

Your most effective response is to gently accept the disapproval, then let it go and move forward. That strategy will dilute and dispense with the resistance you encounter faster than anything else.

Stop needing the approval of others, and you’ll receive more approval and support than ever. Live each moment from your own inspiration, not from your desire to look good in the eyes of others.

You can be exceptionally kind, loving, giving and respectful without being a slave to the opinions of others. Accept that other people will disapprove of some things you do, and you’ll free yourself to do truly magnificent things.

Your great value does not derive from the approval of others. You are entirely worthy and able to give much to life, regardless of what anyone else may think.

Graciously and enthusiastically accept that others will disapprove, no matter what you do. And delight in the freedom of doing whatever you know is right for you.

— Ralph Marston

Your weekend LOLcat and dog

Make 'em last, folks.

Hot enough for you?

Forbes (pinko commies!) says it's time to concede that climate change is real.

Burn the fucker to the ground

An AP reporter details the NCAA's options as the fate of Penn State football is decided. The writer doubts the entire program will be dismantled even for a season. After all, that's only happened once, at Southern Methodist U, he notes.

Yes, you read right. The NCAA dealt its harshest penalty on a program that used a slush fund to pay players under the table (reprehensible, for sure), but probably won't pull that trigger on Penn State, where top university and football officials actively covered up for a raping pedophile in their midst for more than a decade.

If nobody at the NCAA has the balls to do it, I'll push the TNT plunger and blow away all of Happy Valley football. Better yet, give that honor to one of the survivors of the horror that was Jerry Sandusky.