Later On

Along with dyslexia and dysgraphia, we have dyscalculia. It occurs to me that the more abstract brain functions like reading, writing, and arithmetic are very much johnnies-come-lately evolutionarily, and the bugs are still being worked out. Evolution produces very ad-hoc, Rube Goldberg, workaround-oriented solutions because of the random-walk aspect of mutations and the chance occurrences that determine the environment and the necessity of always having to work with whatever’s at hand. These newest workarounds still have a high failure rate—as, indeed, does rationality itself, if you take a look about.

And Gov. Cuomo, who pushed for the bill’s passage, will sign.

This is great news. In my opinion, of course, but that opinion is shared by most Americans today—and many more in days to come. The trend is clear.

I’ve commented here and there that I think I’m less sentimental now in my view of food, and I’ve also commented on the meal skeleton. As it happens, The Wife was seeking my thoughts on meals for her—snacks, lunch, and dinner only, since breakfasts are under control. (Interesting how we settle on a breakfast and enjoy it daily.) I thought my response might be of interest and also trigger some discussion. I think you can see that I have taken a more practical and pragmatic approach to meal planning, and you can see how the meal skeleton helps one design a meal. My goal was to provide ideas for foods to have on hand so that when she wanders into the kitchen and starts thinking about a meal, she can just look around at what’s there and find all the components of a sensible and easily prepared meal.

She had a few requirements: She doesn’t like to cook and chop veg and all that. She likes foods that can be easily packaged on the days she commutes, and she likes meals that she can sort of graze on as she works. She reacts adversely to gluten and some foods (cheese among them, unfortunately).

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I was in correspondence with a guy in the UK new to wetshaving. We exchanged various emails, I sent him a copy of my book, and he just received his first order. You guys who are now wetshavers will doubtless remember the excitement of that first batch of real shaving gear.

Take a look:

Looks like a pretty fair set-up to me. It includes:

MR GLO
Geo F. Trumpers Almond Cream
Proraso aftershave balm
Proraso heal gel
SAL Alum-Bar
Omega 643167 brush
Vulfix 404 Grosvenor Brush
Merkur 38c
Dovo leather case
Blade Samples

Ah, the excitement when the package arrives! The sheer terror next morning as the blade approaches your face! The relief when it all goes well…

I now have half a dozen boxes of books destined either for Logos, a secondhand bookstore in Santa Cruz, or for the library. Lots of new shelf space, plus I discovered quite a few books that I own that I want to read (or reread). The apartment is at the in-between stage: a wreck, but with lots of empty shelves that I hope will tonight suck books from the floor and into place.

It seems very much like the Department of Justice is now accepting bribes to look the other way on prosecuting people for white-collar crime. It’s hard to read this report in any other way: the company pays $4 million, and in return the executives responsible for the crimes not only walk, they are not even charged or named. Businesses are going to love the new American system: rule by corporations.

This in the US, mind. Pretty shocking—and, as Brayton points out, this is the new norm in the US, so the police involved will suffer no repercussions.

Sounds like an interesting book.

Good post by Nick Baumann at Kevin Drum’s site. Worth reading in its entirety for the specific examples he cites (and the links), the article concludes:

The rights of all people accused of terrorism have been dramatically rolled back over the past ten years. So don’t expect that American citizenship will protect you when the government decides that you might be a terrorist, too.

Privatization—taking government activities previously done at cost and turning them over to private industry as profit-making activities—is certainly a marked trend. Unfortunately, a government agency might have as its mission various things such as eliminating some disease, or improving food safety, or running prisons as efficiently as possible, whereas a private business has as its mission, first and foremost, growing profits. Is there money in eliminating a given disease? No? Too few people get the disease? Okay, no more medical development there. They can lump it.

And when a government wants to reduce prison populations to the extent possible, a private prison operator wants to grow profits, and that requires increasing the number of prisoners and/or the duration of their sentences. So private prisons lobby madly to make more offenses carry mandatory prison terms and to pass things like the “3 strikes” laws that result in more life sentences.

Profits grow, but of course so does the taxpayer burden—it’s just a device to funnel tax money directly out to private corporations.

Ryan Reilly has an interesting report on the private-prison sector at TPMMuckraker:

Private prison companies have helped fuel government policies which lead to an increase in prison population and boost their profits, according to a recent report.

The private prison population has grown 353.7 percent in the past 15 years, according to astudy by the Justice Policy Institute. Major private prison companies have an incentive to encourage policies which keep that number on the rise.

“Steady increases in the number of people in private prisons, especially those coming from federally contracted beds, translate into increased revenues for private prison companies,” the report says.

“Since private prison companies are in the business to make money, policies that maintain or increase incarceration boost their revenues; from a business perspective, the economic and social costs of mass incarceration are ‘externalities’ that aren’t figured into their corporate bottom line,” it says.

Some of the biggest names in the private prison industry have given $835,514 to federal candidates since 2000 and a stunning $6,092,331 to state politicians in the last five elections cycles, according to data in the report.

“A lot of it is focused on the state level because a lot of the people in prison are in state facilities,” Paul Ashton, an author of the report, told TPM. . .

Continue reading.

I know it is verboten (if I may) to talk about Nazi Germany in political discussions, but still it is important to realize how a formerly free and democratic nation gradually moved to a more and more extreme form of authoritarian government. If we know and understand the process, we can detect its signs in other contexts—as in the US, in which the 4th Amendment is being more or less negated in practice, and where a major political party has moved to extreme positions (and an authoritarian mindset).

Via Ed Brayton, I found this disturbing report on the the background and activities of Bryan Fischer, whose endorsement is currently being sought by the GOP candidates for president. It’s a long and thorough report, but it documents the positions that the current GOP finds not only acceptable but (apparently) desirable, since they treat this guy with such deference and respect. The report begins:

Responsible politicians wouldn’t fawn over an unhinged activist who opposes civil rights and religious freedom for minorities, wants to make being gay a crime and decries his personal rivals as enemies of God, right? But that is exactly what is taking place today in the Republican Party, as likely and declared GOP presidential candidates line up to win the approval of Bryan Fischer, a radio talk show host and spokesman for the American Family Association.

Fischer’s unabashed bigotry is on full display throughout his writings and on-air rants. His entire career is based on leveling venomous attacks against gays and lesbians, American Muslims, Native Americans, progressives and other individuals and groups he detests. He wants to redefine the Constitution to protect only Christians, persecute and deport all American Muslims, prohibit gays and non-Christians from holding public office and impose a system of biblical law.

While Fischer’s views are undeniably shocking, what is most disturbing is his growing influence within not only the Religious Right but also the Republican Party. . .

Read the whole thing—it’s long, but it also shows where this country is headed, at least for one large segment of the population. This next election could put the country on a new course, especially since the Democratic Party—and in particular President Obama—have in large measure abandoned support for civil and human rights and do not consider the Bill of Rights—and in particular the 4th amendment—as being so important as they once did.

One of my shaving projects, as you have observed, is the pursuit of Creamy Lather with various soaps and brushes. Today I wanted to see whether I could get a Creamy Lather from Otoko Organics—a somewhat unusual soap, quite different from the traditional tallow-based cake—and do it with a horsehair+badger brush. The Vie-Long above is one of two horse+badger chimeras that I own. (I believe that “Otoko Organics” means more or less the same as would “Hombre Organics”.)

I did indeed get a creamy lather, though the color was a shade of gray—I imagine this is from the botanicals used in the soap. Withal, I proceeded to get three very nice passes, though the Shark Chrome may be entering the sunset of its days.

Continuing with another project—running through my collection of aftershave balms—this morning I returned to Mr. Taylor’s Luxury Aftershave Balm by Taylor of Old Bond Street. Although it comes in a tube, it’s a (thick) liquid rather than a gel. Nice fragrance, good feel, quickly absorbed. In fact, I quite liked it and will return for me.