The Hypocritic Oath

Hah! Just imagine what the results would have been/said if *doctors* were truly honest in their answers...

Of course it's understandable that doctors aren't totally forthcoming in delivering bad prognoses, in disclosing financial bias, etc. After all it's not like real estate agents, financial advisers, politicians, and the rest are pure by any stretch...

But in my experience, doctors do have an EXTRAORDINARILY LOW OPINION of their patients and the lumpen masses in general.

Why so arrogant and condescending?

Well you have to remember that they have been anointed by Big Education more than just about any other group. Medical school has been, by far, the most competitive and popular destination for *school nerds* over the past 30+ years - if not longer.

I myself haven't been to a doctor in MANY, MANY YEARS. A bunch of them messed me up with horrible advice/surgery after I suffered a car accident some 13 years ago. They actually all told me NOT TO DO precisely what eventually helped!

The idea that a physician can make YOU healthy remains ludicrous. Only individuals that accept their health as a personal responsibility will ever *look like me*.

Google your ailments. Find your own self-help regimens. And emulate the habits of the fittest people on planet Earth....that's all anyone has to do.

Oh yeah....and throw away that poisonous armchair and color TV!

Prime Has Its Privileges!

I've been singing the praises of Amazon Prime ($79 for free 2-day Amazon.com delivery) for several months now...

And the the other day I mentioned that the condo I am renting in Naples at the moment doesn't have color cable TV so I tried out watching NBC's shows on my PC...

Well I just discovered that my $79 also gets me a whole bunch of FREE video content (TV & motion pictures) streamed from Amazon!

The selection is small at the moment but not bad and will surely broaden as time goes on.

Obviously Amazon is taking a run at NetFlix with this new venture.

I'm going to call it quits for the night right now and crawl into bed....Hope Floats is queued up and ready to stream...

February Funnies

It's a slideshow, you sillyheads - not just one pic with an arrow oddly placed in the middle of it!

Some images you'll have to click on and enlarge to *get*.

Dog People = The Worst

So my buddy down here in Naples has a dog poop problem.

His neighbor's mongrels $hit all over the edge of his yard. These aren't small turds either....we're talking Great Danes and there are 5 mutts in total!

He's asked them to clean up....he's complained to the HOA (the neighbor is on *the board*)....he's complained to some Board of Health (they sent out some old lady who loved dogs, apparently)....but nothing has come of it.

Me? Personally I would have been flinging the $hit on their living room window, on their doorstep, all over their cars a long time ago.  Return to sender!

I do think you can probably sue in this case - although the BOH not acting on a complaint will probably be held against my buddy in court.

The only solution now is to Google!

Check this out, it's some animal repeller:

I found one guy online that said that this thing's ultrasonic noises torture the crap(!) out of dogs too. He said that his neighbor's dog instantly kept their distance and duty far from his yard after firing up one of these thingys.

I would say something like this is definitely worth a shot and the money. Unless you are an organic DIY cheapo like me and get your thrills from waging war with jerks.

When I was in 2nd grade one of my classmates told me that his dog went into his neighbor's yard....and the crazy 'old coot' SHOT AND KILLED IT. Poor kid, eh? This was Massachusetts too - not exactly a Wild West sort of Red State.

I wouldn't be surprised if the fossil wasn't fully within his legal rights either. Does anybody know?

One bullet is cheaper than that ultrasonic repeller too...

Another idea I had - on the tip of my tongue too - was to lay out rib-eye steaks laced with poison....what can I say, I'm good at this sort of brainstorming!

All About The Parents

So I just read - Training a Tiger - the book written by Tiger Woods' father, Earl.

Here's my conclusion...

Tiger Woods is nothing more than a creation of his hard-charging father. He wasn't born with any more golfing aptitude or physical prowess than millions of others young brats.

The ONLY reason he became a great golfer is because his father STARTED EARLY. That's it.

The freakin' kid was learning to swing before he was even a year old. And I mean LEARNING, not swinging a Fisher Price club once in a while. Tiger and Earl practiced EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Earl was deliberate, scientific, and UNRELENTING in his tutelage. Rightfully, every trophy Tiger hoists up is a tribute more to his parent(s) than to himself.

So if you want a proven recipe for raising an extraordinary child....there it is.

(It worked for Mozart too.)

My Daughter Won't Be Selling

This is pretty bad:

Last year, the Girl Scouts decided to admit boys who dress as girls. When asked to admit a cross-dressing 7-year-old boy, a Colorado troop leader demurred, explaining to his mother, with tact and irrefutable logic, that her son couldn’t be a Girl Scout because he has “boy parts.”


The troop leader was chastised by the mom as being insensitive and promptly was overruled by the Girl Scout top brass, who, in a statement said, “If a child identifies as a girl and the child’s family presents her as a girl, Girl Scouts of Colorado welcomes her as a Girl Scout.” Perpetuating this cruel charade on the little boy and forcing little girls to participate in it is “inclusiveness” to the Girl Scouts. To others, it’s child abuse.


But it shouldn’t be surprising: The Girl Scouts have a cross-dresser in the front office.


Ten years ago, Girl Scouts media relations officer Joshua Ackley was frontman for the “homopunk” band the Dead Betties. In publicity shots, he’s dressed in women’s clothing, and in music videos, he appears to be naked and feigning masturbation. The video for “Hellevator” portrays a woman being strangled in an elevator shaft while Mr. Ackley flashes a menacing grin.


Today he issues press releases, posts news and views on the Girl Scouts’ blog, and tries to mollify moms who are concerned about Girl Scout ties with Planned Parenthood. In fact, it was Mr. Ackley who facilitated the Girl Scouts’ “no adults allowed” workshop at the United Nations - the workshop in which the Planned Parenthood sex brochure “Healthy, Happy, and Hot” was offered, although part of Mr. Ackley’s job is to deny it.


It wouldn’t be a surprise if someone like Mr. Ackley was behind the Girl Scouts’ recent scandal: a guidebook that tells girls to check with the leftist, George Soros-funded Media Matters before believing what they read in the news.

Now unfortunately most of us earthlings are forced to participate in activities that are run or sponsored by dirtbags...

But in this case, and it's hard to get a straight answer, it looks like over 70% of the money goes to the pinheads, perverts, and inverts that run the Girl Scouts.

I'm normally not much for taking political stands on snack foods but....well, the cookies suck anyway. I'm done with them. And my daughter can sell 4 boxes or so to family - that's it. (Though it looks like the MIL, "Grandma" won't be buying. I don't blame her either.)

Laughing At Those Ubiquitous Little Fascists

I was on the near-empty beach in Bradenton, FL the other day and I turned and asked the couple behind me if they had a bottle opener.

The 'old bag' snapped back, "NO GLASS ON THE BEACH."

Did that mean she had one and just didn't want to *share*???

I shook it off and chatted later on anyway. Turns out she's a retired government school teacher. I was downright SHOCKED.

A couple weeks ago at the library, in the children's section, one of the librarians scolded me for *rocking back in my chair*. Seriously.  I almost knocked the...

We've had some problems in our *secular* homeschool co-op lately - though not with the people who actually DO THINGS. It turns out the phantom hierarchy of our group is about as small-minded as they come. They have all sorts of ridiculous rules, censor discussion unnecessarily, have sham *disclosures*, midnight votes, Nazi moderators who ENFORCE *civility* and inclusiveness,... These people literally have NOTHING else going on in their lives, apparently. I mean most of us have left the school system PRECISELY to get away from all that bureaucracy and political correctness. So these clowns jump at the first chance they get to establish their own little fascist regime?

And unfortunately they have free reign because the rest of us are busy, ya know, doing slightly more meaningful things.

Although my new favorite act of little fascists has just got to be....those people who delete Facebook comments. I've seen and experienced it a few times now.

In almost all these instances the censorship/scolding is far worse/dangerous or more offensive than the offense.

Oftentimes it backfires too. I become emboldened and more persistent...

BTW, there was apparently a sign on the Bradenton beach, "No Glass Bottles, $500 fine"!

A handful of years ago some Moronic lifeguard (a school teacher, in Boston, of course!) told me that I would be surprised at how easily glass bottles can break on sand.

She's right! I'd be blown out of my (bleepin') mind if I saw someone drop a glass bottle ON SAND and saw it shatter! There's probably no safer place for glass bottles on EARTH than the beach.

Plus, it's not like the beach isn't already a veritable mine-field of sharp objects: coral, shells, etc.

Living Up To His Name

Ads For 'Old Coots'

At my aunt's house the other day down here in sunny Florida(!), I noticed her Kindle on the coffee table.

The ads were running on the screen so, having just arrived, I figured that we interrupted her reading.

But many hours later I saw the ads still flashing on the Kindle, in the same spot,...

CaptiousNephew - You know, you can turn that thing off...

Aunt - It IS off.

CaptiousNephew - No it's not.

Aunt - Yes it is.

So I picked it up, slid the power switch to the right and counted out loud slowly, "one two three....six seven" and the Kindle did a miraculous thing - IT TURNED OFF. You should have seen the look of amazement on her face!

CaptiousNephew - Don't you have the directions?

Aunt - Of course. I filed them too.

CaptiousNephew - Well, you should have READ them first!

Later on that night I was talking to my mother - my aunt's sister - via a cordless cellphone...

With my aunt next to me I started to relay this humorous episode to my mother - much to the chagrin of auntie.

Then I caught myself mid-anecdote:

CaptiousSon - Wait Ma, do you have ads running on your Kindle.

Mother - Yes. I can't stand them.

CaptiousSon - Do you know how to turn them off?

Mother - Nope.

And then I walked her through the complicated 7-second-button-hold process.

It turns out she also prudently filed her directions.

Me? I took one quick look and tossed them!

I do wonder how many 'old coots' are out there staring at ads on their Kindles unnecessarily.

And I do wonder if Amazon's engineers did this intentionally!!!

Someone also has to tell these fossils that they can HIT THE MUTE BUTTON when the color TV commercials start blaring too! I mean it's bad enough that they don't have/use DVR technology...

See also - The Jurassic Butterfly Effect.

Newt Gingrich - As Bad As McCain!

Hah!

The New York Times decides to bash and Marginalize Newt Gingrich by saying he was *deeply tied* to a major arm of their OWN socialist machine!!!

Here's what happened with this buffoon...

The Democrats, who own Fannie & Freddie, set a trap. They dangled him that $1 million *consulting relationship* or whatever because, well, it cost them nothing (shareholders, bondholders, taxpayers paid) and because they had to foresight to see that by accepting it they would be putting a huge, indelible black mark on a once prominent Republican/conservative.

Newt was either too stupid to see this obvious trap...

Or he was too greedy to really care.

BTW, I've been saying for over a decade that Newt was a POS buffoon.

Don't be cynical about my cynicism.

Realize the powers-at-be knew darn well that Fannie Mae was a complete fraud and would blow up spectacularly. And they knew darn well that the media would be spinning the news away from the real culprits as the NYT is doing here.

Go ahead....go search the NYT archives for all their investigative news stories into the crap at Fannie Mae. Go find me all their editorials against Big Government's involvement in the housing market. And come back here in a millisecond after you've read them all!

Full Episodes Online?

The cheap 'old coots' that own the condo we are renting down here in Naples have neither an internet connection nor a cable color TV one.

Well they have some *basic cable* that comes for free from the development....but it only has about 7 channels. Now THAT is basic!

On Saturday I did manage to get Comcast to hook up a broadband internet connection for us. Last night, with my wife still here, a raging headache (not related), and while sulking over that horrible American football Superbowl result (also unrelated) we felt like vegetating a bit.

So instead of plugging the TV back in (been replaced by my PC) in the bedroom, I was happy to discover that we could stream NBC's The Firm on the 22 inch monitor of my PC. It came in HD and was crystal clear on a 'full screen' too.

While most of us are not cheap 'old coots' and have cable....I do wonder how many people out there are simply watching their shows (and apparently there are many available) online these days. I mean I no longer endure SportsCenter just to see Celtics highlights (my team) - instead I just watch them instantly on ESPN.com (part of the GO network!).

I would venture to say that most of the networks DO NOT really promote the online viewing option. Probably because of the delicate relationship they THINK they have with advertisers and cable companies.

Whatever. Screw cable and screw commercials! We're trending inexorably towards an online, pay-per-view media landscape.

All this freakin' *bundling* - landlines (who needs one?), cable, and internet is bull$hit. It's just a scam by Verizon, Comcast, and friends to keep consumers paying more than they should, longer than they should have to.

Unsecured Morons

Our rental unit here in Naples won't have its own internet connection until *sometime between 3pm and 5pm tonight*.

Meanwhile I've been squatting on a neighbor's WiFi.

The problem is that they keep turning it off!

Who does that? Who turns off their router to *secure* it? I mean why not just PUT A PASSWORD ON IT. They could even use *password* like the rest of the 'old coots'!

This reminded of me of one of my college jabronis in Philly. Though he was very intelligent in many matters he was a complete Moron with some other stuff.

He thought that the *pitcher* in invert s*x was most vulnerable to HIV; he thought that drinking alcohol before inseminating his wife could give him a retarded baby; AND he also made sure to physically unplug his cable modem each night, you know, so that hackers wouldn't be able to *steal his information*.

Real Estate Insanity Bubbling Again

It's truly astounding how many Morons haven't learned their lessons - despite all the fresh blood.

Real estate remains a complete suckers' bet. Taxes, utility costs, artificially low interest rates, and unrelenting over-supply have conspired to separate all these fools from their money.

I mean I know people, plenty of people, who got their butts kicked and STILL they figured out some way to re-invest, if not physically, then mentally, in a sun-will-come-out-tomorrow real estate fantasy.

My real estate buddy down here in Naples informed me the other day that one of his clients wanted *in* on a new construction development....so he had to have someone stand in line for say 8:30am one morning to get a choice of lots.

And guess what...

At around 7:30pm the night before there were already 7 Morons waiting in line!!!

So we are staying in this very nice 3 BR 2.5 Bath unit in Bridgewater Bay...

It's going for around $220,000 these days which sounds rather cheap.

BUT IT IS NOT.

Doing the math on carrying the mortgage, HOA's, taxes, etc. I come up with about $19,000 per year - or nearly $1,600 per month, EVERY MONTH, for 30 years.

You could argue that it makes sense as a primary residence, which I won't argue.

But as a secondary one it most certainly does not.

It's better off to rent, still, by a long shot.

I mean why would ANYONE camp-out out for a run-of-the-mill new construction home here in Florida, in 2012, when there are 5-7 years of supply of homes owned by the banks and federal government?

Apparently 60+% of new buyers in Florida these days are buying with *all cash*.

That must imply strong healthy demand, that must imply that there's no bubble forming, right?

WRONG.

All it means is that deposit interest rates are ZERO. I'm sure that many people could have paid all cash in prior years (esp. for cheap FL housing) it's just that they were getting more than .25 % on their money in the bank.

Already Tanned!

After 6 days on the road, squatting at friend's, relatives', and Motel 6....we've finally arrived here in Naples for what's now our 3rd snowbird adventure in the past 4 years.

It's funny - the real estate agent remarked to me today that she was surprised how *young* I was. Of course she mostly deals with 'old coots' in these situations.

This year we are a little further from Vanderbilt Beach, but not that bad at all. It's called Bridgewater Bay and we've rented a nice 3 BR, 2.5 Bath unit for the grand total of $3,200 (all in, i.e. taxes, cleaning, fees, etc.).

There were some small communication issues right down to yesterday when I wasn't sure I even had a place to rent. (Note: I was only 2 hours away!)

It's a little risky and annoying to do what I do (wait to the end of the month and then lowball unrented units) but it paid off yet again. Normally something like this would cost $4,000 for February.

There was supposed to be a broadband internet connection here but apparently that's not going to happen until the weekend. Meanwhile I am free-riding one of these nearby fossil's unsecured WiFi.

The journey has certainly worn me out, living out of bags, all the driving, MY KIDS, the insufferable 85 degree weather,....but I think the biggest toll on me was wrought by all the junk food implicit in travel. I just loaded up on groceries at Publix ($240) and hope to be done with eating $hit for a little while.

Aside from all the dinosaurs this really is the life, wintering in South Florida...

My kids excitedly jumped in the pool today and I had to drag them out 2.5 hours later. Seriously, they didn't step out for even a second!

I admit I did doze off a few times while I was on duty. But at least now they can swim.

Dear CaptiousNut,

Well, my bank puts are gone now (this month)....and I'm not planning on buying more (but you should!).

If inflation picks up steam....rates will rise and housing will crash. Actually it's still so astronomically high, and over-supplied and under-demanded to the extent that it will crash EVEN with continued low rates.

Yeah, inflation can theoretically raise the price of homes...but you need *wage inflation* and sinking rates for that to happen which is unfortunately the opposite of current economic reality.

Also, inexorably rising property taxes and energy prices are working and will continue to work strongly against home prices.  Don't underestimate this phenomena like EVERYONE else is.

Inflation and deflation rarely permeate across all segments of the economy at the same time.

For example, from the mid-90s to the mid-00s' we had very low commodity inflation.....BUT we had ridiculous inflation in healthcare and education - two effin' big budgetary nuts for most households.

Yeah you can certainly lock in a very low long-term mortgage rate at the moment.

But I submit it's nothing short of a TRAP. Once rates climb (which they certainly will at some point over the next 30 years!) it will be *game over* for the entire real estate market/stock market/economy. And while you may be locked in at a low monthly rate.....that same piece of property will be on sale for a much lower sticker price but at a similar monthly cost of carry to whatever you are paying. But the guy who buys then will benefit from the massive appreciation of his house if/when rates drop again.  So my advice is to wait, horde your cash until there really is blood in the streets.  Unless of course the house is something you are 1,000% sure you want for the rest of your life and you have the means to think of it as a *sunk cost*.

Believe me....once real estate crashes everyone is simply going to stop paying the bank, squat and/or mail their keys back to the bank/government - a la my old landlord in Massachusetts who's still in his house despite having stopped paying the mortgage  AND property taxes 4.5 years ago (thanks GMAC, er taxpayers)!

Already Sweating...

Bit off a nice chunk on the first day of driving. Did 567 miles to arrive at swanky Motel 6 (Deluxe!) in Fayetteville, NC. $39.99 plus tax.

Temperature was 37 degrees Fahrenheit in NY when we left this morning....but on the road today it hit 68 down in NC!

Another Southern shock to my system was getting charged only $1.87 for a 40 oz bottle of beer just now - at a convenience store no less. Even though I'm in my room consuming it....I opted to leave the paper bag on.

Last year I was somewhat nervous about driving down my two young children all by myself. But it wasn't bad at all.  Although I did start to doze off around Baltimore...

It was a breeze today too. They were good for 8.5 hours until I caved and put a movie on for them (Swiss Family Robinson).

When I tell people that I've driven my kids up and down the coast without movies and video games they think I'm a freak. Most earthling parents can't make it to the grocery store without technologically pacifying the brats.

The key is nothing more complicated than outright, intense DEPRIVATION.

Chrissy did her artwork, read a little, and her math (Kumon Grade 5 Decimals & Fractions).

John read over 500 pages(!) of Lemony Snicket (A Series of Unfortunate Events) and he did some math as well (AMC 8 exams).

Next stop Orlando, then Bradenton, and then....whereverTF we can find a place to rent for February (Naples?).

This was dinner from Smithfield BBQ:

I was about to call it quits on driving tonight but realized we were only another 100 miles from this terrific joint. I had been thinking that we'd stop there for lunch tomorrow but realized that we'd hit it too soon. So in went the DVD...

And 75% of my provincial New England readers HAVE NO FREAKIN' CLUE what's on that plate!

I Myself Would Kick Her!

This reminded me of the pics on an old post.

It Doesn't Work...

So they just need a higher dose!

In fact it ought to be MANDATED - according to this clown/fascist.

Is this another assault on educational freedom or just more empty, deflective rhetoric?

UPDATE - This almost too funny.

Ironically, Obama's State of the Union address registered at only an 8th grade reading level:

President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address again rated at an 8th grade comprehension level on the Flesch-Kincaid readability test — the third lowest score of any State of the Union address since 1934.

The University of Minnesota's Smart Politics conducted an analysis on the last 70 State of the Union addresses and found that President Obama's three addresses have the lowest grade average of any modern president. "Obama's average grade-level score of 8.4 is more than two grades lower than the 10.7 grade average for the other 67 addresses written by his 12 predecessors," they conclude.

"The Flesch-Kincaid test is designed to assess the readability level of written text, with a formula that translates the score to a U.S. grade level. Longer sentences and sentences utilizing words with more syllables produce higher scores. Shorter sentences and sentences incorporating more monosyllabic words yield lower scores," the University of Minnesota's Eric Ostermeier explains.

Reason #1 To Homeschool

Tomorrow morning I will rouse the brood and toss them in the car. We'll be driving down to Florida for the next month+.

Hopefully we will secure a place in a good area of North Naples. But as of yet I can't find anything to rent! (May have to settle for Fort Meyers.)

Regardless, I'm still going to hit the road first thing tomorrow and just figure it out later.

February is a better month for weather AND a better month for my wife - whose lighter work schedule will allow her to spend 2 full weeks with us.

And for the record, I don't understand the appeal of inorganic breakfast places like Waffle House, IHOP, or Cracker Barrel.

I think their *fans* are really just incompetent, obese people who wake up starving but can't cook!

I mean breakfast is the simplest and cheapest meal to prepare at home...

Chess Lessons 1 - Breathing Room

It's pretty hard to win a game of chess when you only have a bishop against an opponent's two rooks, two knights, bishop, and a a three pawn advantage...

But I just did and my opponent was PISSED, to put it mildly.

It's not exactly a smothered mate....but it's the same idea.

Hee hee...

I Will Ace Your Kid's SAT For $4,999

So the smart kid gets caught taking the SAT for dumb kids here on Long Island...

Most of y'all have probably heard this HORRIBLE story by now.

While most everyone I have run into thinks this kid is the nothing short of the devil....I happen to find the whole thing HILARIOUS - particularly his *punishment*:

He has heard the notion that deserving students are being left out of those colleges as a result of his fraud, but Eshaghoff is not buying it. “He really wasn’t displacing somebody … I feel confident defending the fact that [my clients] getting into the schools that they ended up getting into didn’t really affect other people,” he says. Eshaghoff regrets the shame his arrest caused his family and says if he could start over, he “never would have done it.” He will serve no jail time. Instead, under a plea deal, he will tutor low-income students on how to ace the exams he received so much money to take for others.

Hah! He has to tutor the dumb low-income students from the Boroughs!

Why are the parents so mad?

Because they spend boatloads of money on SAT prep - at least here in the NYC Metro area - so that their junior and their princess can maybe score 75 points higher and get into a slightly higher esteemed worthless college. And for that privilege they will end up exhausting all of their home equity just so their kid can major in political science, Spanish, or something equally useless like *environmental science* (like my poor niece).

The parents' anger is really, IMO, just poorly articulated, unconscious anger at the whole stinkin' process.

Meek, Self-Loathing Homeschoolers

The mega-website Pioneer Woman has *homeschooling* blog that's becoming more and more an ANTI-HOMESCHOOLING blog.

The post - 3 Reasons NOT to Homeschool - just teed up all the haters, in the comment section anyway.

So why would a putative homeschooling blog essentially bash homeschooling?

I don't know.

I can only theorize that the Pioneer Woman would rather stay *popular* amongst her mass audience.

With friends/advocates like these out there....who needs enemies?! Really.

Bad Samaritans

Kid is mugged....others act like they are helping him out...

Then they pick his backpack clean!

Book Rec - Pilgrim's Progress

I just finished - The Pilgrim's Progress - the Christian soul-searching classic that was never assigned once in the course of my *liberal arts* education. (free Kindle link .)

And I must say - what a terrific book!

I just can't believe that my Catholic high school didn't REQUIRE studying it.

Of course, after thinking about this omission it dawned on me that this masterpiece might have been deemed *too Protestant* by the Vatican.

Just Googled for an explanation and I came up with this:

As you pointed out, Pilgrim's Progress was and is a very anti-Catholic book. Seeing as its author, John Bunyan, was a Baptist writer serving time in jail for opposing an Anglican church in England at the same time England was living in fear of the even-more hierarchical Roman church, you can understand why he might be anti-Pope.


The basic tenant of the book - that the Christian life is a journey that must be accomplished on one's own, is as about as Baptist / Puritanical as it gets. Like all Puritans, he celebrated rather than suppressed emotion, and wanted to ensure the "personal relationship" with Jesus took center stage. (Yes, Puritans were not the dour people popularly portrayed. Want to read a theology that celebrates sex between man and wife? Look to the Puritans - not the Catholics!)


These two biggies - the unmediated experience and the anti-hierarchical church polity - are probably the biggest bugaboos for a Catholic.


Beyond that, the book presents salvation as an act of free will, and seems to completely discount election or predestination. These issues may also cause some interesting discussions.


That said, this is the second best selling book of all time, just behind the Bible. Even if a good Christian were to disagree, I'd suggest it is edifying to read and think. The praise of Acts 17:11 comes to mind:


Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.


As a Baptist believer in soul competency, Bunyan himself probably wouldn't have wanted you to accept his opinions without considering them against scripture. His genius was to rehabilitate allegory from static symbolism and push the metaphor into dynamic journey and learning that could be used to direct a believer's life.

Just imagine how many Harvard students have never read this landmark book or even the Bible...

Fathers Promoting Their Pawns

So I'm reading one book - The Over-Scheduled Child: Avoiding the Hyper-Parenting Trap - which is stupid by the way...

But in it is a deprecating reference/quote to Fred Waitzkin, the hard-charging father of the chess prodigy featured in that decent motion picture.

Having seen the movie already I suddenly got interested in the book - Searching for Bobby Fischer because it was written by the father. I was curious as to how much time they actually spent studying/practicing at such a young age. (Only 7-15 hours per week!) So I literally dropped the parenting book and went over to the nonfiction section to grab Waitzkin's account.

And I was riveted all night; and finished it in about a single sitting.

I would go so far as to say that *chess* is my son's #1 activity now. Recall we haven't done much math for well over a year.

John's got his second big chess tournament coming up this weekend. We'll see how he does....chess here in the NYC area is pretty darn competitive.

One note about the book/movie...

There was one kid, Josh's arch-rival, who *didn't go to school*.

And of course the parents all grumbled that it wasn't fair that he could play chess all day long in preparation.

Incredibly, their complaint was that the poor child would be *living on the streets* or something if he didn't go to school.

GIVE ME A BREAK.

They were indeed right about one thing, though. It truly is *not fair* to try to compete against kids who are unburdened with school nonsense.

See also - Best Self-Reinvention Ever?

Had To Scratch Himself...I Guess

Are you ODD?

I just came across this one in the comments of a wonderful post by dear friend Laura Weldon- School ADD Isn't Home ADD.  Be sure to read that post!

ODD stands for Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

I think it's going to be my new favorite *disorder* - overtaking the ridiculous SAD - Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Here are the dead-giveaway signs:

• Actively does not follow adults' requests
• Angry and resentful of others
• Argues with adults
• Blames others for own mistakes
• Has few or no friends or has lost friends
• Is in constant trouble in school
• Loses temper
• Spiteful or seeks revenge
• Touchy or easily annoyed

Well I've just about got them all covered - except that I don't blame others for personal mistakes!

Of course the certified experts suggest that if your kid/life-partner/MIL is exhibiting these symptoms....that you should have them see a CERTIFIED EXPERT - for medication, to be monitored, studied, etc.

Ever notice how all of today's ridiculous *disorders* are forms of non-conformity?

It's a little one-sided, don't you think?

The thing is....I know tons of people who genuinely suffer from pathological CONFORMITY - people who buy 700k homes with no money down, people who outsource the raising of their children to government agents, blindly dump money in mutual funds, stare at cellphones all day long, buy cars they can't afford, etc. all because their neighbors, the metaphorical Jones', do so.

I mean recently someone was telling me that they were told by their *financial adviser* that they had to save $1.2 million in order to send their three children to college.  Now there's NO WAY they could save that much before their kids were 18....but that's slightly beside the point, incredibly.

All I did was SUGGEST that there's no way college could possibly be worth that much money. After all, it's a staggering amount of $$$$$!

But they all but exploded on me and my mere suggestion.

TerminalConformist - But how are they going to ever get a job if they don't go to college?


Me - You mean like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell and the rest of the most successful people out there?


Then there was another outbreak/explosion and I dropped the subject, lest the ambulance with men in white jackets have to be summoned.

Libertarian Party - Winning Debates, Losing Elections

When I first learned about small-l libertarianism....I was struck and overwhelmed by its foundation in pure logic AND its support by empirical, i.e. REAL WORLD, economics.

And right away I was left wondering why such a perspicacious political philosophy had no traction.

Of course that's a deeper question with many explanations.

But ONE biggie, IMO, is *poor marketing*.

I mean look at that *platform* by the big-L Libertarian Party above.

The wars, the Fed, domestic spying, and legalizing drugs???

Those are hardly the BIG ISSUES; they hardly address the most pressing needs and most marketable agenda for a nation being strangled by Big Government.

My libertarian platform would be:

END Government Schools
END Organized Political Parties
HALVE Government
HALVE/END Entitlements
HALVE/END The Income Tax

Now I know someone is going to say, "libertarianism isn't appealing for no other reason than because people in America are Morons..."

But I've aggressively addressed that in MY PLATFORM. See the first item!

The big-L Libertarians have to understand that so long as future voters/citizens are having their brains caponized in the school system....that it won't matter if the CIA stops spying on American soil or if you can buy marijuana in at your local bodega. This country would be doomed to implode nonetheless!

How Many Of Them Are There Out There?

This comment just came in on Peter Gray's blog post - Why Children Protest Going To School - More Evolutionary Mismatch:

I am currently 17 years old, have always hated school. I started reading about homeschooling and unschooling some time ago and was absolutely in love with the concept. Unfortunately, it is impossible for me to leave school. Every single day at school is painful and I have to endure a year and a half more of that. It might not seem like much to some, but to me it is. I can't leave school for two reasons - it's not so easy to do in my country and my parents are saying I have to finish school, no matter if it makes me sick. I don't have the strength to. I was recently diagnosed with depression and put on Prozac - it's not entirely school's fault, but I'd say it mostly is.


Yes, some kids don't mind school. But must people like me get their education at the expense of our mental health?

Let's hope this youngster hasn't been so messed up by their *sentence*....that they don't commit suicide (or homicide!)....and that they haven't been irreparably damaged.

Still On A Roll...Enjoying It While It Lasts

Hah!

It's been almost unfair though - how consistently good the Patriots have been over the past 10 years.

If the Pats and Red Sox hadn't been so successful over the past decade....I bet the region's population would have shrunk 5% over that time period. Seriously - think a horrible economy AND skyrocketing energy prices. Those people up there have very, very little going on outside of a pagan obsession with their teams.

(The Patriots just destroyed Tim Tebow's Broncos in a playoff game, 45-10, and are playing the Ravens this week for a berth in the Super Bowl.)