Born This Way

Every few years, I see yet another attempt, either from the community itself, or from academics trying to move us past bigotry and narrow-mindedness, to redefine pedophilia as a "sexual orientation."  Here is this month's example, from September 7, 2012 Gawker:

Born This Way: Sympathy and Science for Those Who Want to Have Sex with Children

The article itself starts off with a bit too graphic of an account by one of these unfortunate ones--no, not the victim, but the poor misunderstood child molester.  Unsurprisingly, academics in Canada are working hard to make us sympathize with pedophiles, and the "born this way" and "can't really change" themes appear.  Of course, there is no discussion of whether this is a learned behavior, which much of the existing literature on child abuse recognizes.

Van Gjiseghem says what he and his colleagues mean by sexual orientation is a person's inborn and unalterable sexual preference, irrespective of whether that preference is harmful to others or not. Currently, there is no significant longitudinal evidence that pedophiles can be made to not be attracted to children, and thus it can be defined as their orientation. And if pedophilia is a sexual orientation, that also means it's futile to send pedophiles to prison in an effort to alter their attractions. Doing so is akin to sending a homosexual child off to a religious-based institution that claims it can "pray the gay away."

A society built around greed, lust, and selfishness, has no future. 

Step Back From the Time Machine

On Craigslist:

Sep 6 - 984 Corvette - $3995 (Meridian) owner pic 

A perfect car for a Viking, I suppose, except for the problem of finding gasoline in the Dark Ages.

I Hate To Sound Like A Hippie

Fast Company has an interview with the CEO of 37signals, a software company in Chicago:

We’re about being in business for the long haul and keeping the team together over the long haul. I would never trade a short-term burst for a long-term decline in morale. That happens a lot in the tech business: They burn people out and get someone else. I like the people who work here too much. I don’t want them to burn out. Lots of startups burn people out with 60, 70, 80 hours of work per week. They know that both the people or the company will flame out or be bought or whatever, and they don’t care, they just burn their resources. It’s like drilling for as much oil as you possibly can. You can look at people the same way....

 So you think there’s a slash-and-burn mentality in the tech world?

For sure. I think there’s a lot of lottery-playing going on right now. Companies staffing up, raising a bunch of money, hiring a bunch of people, and burning them out in the hopes that they’ll hit the lottery. 

I'm glad to see someone discussing this openly.  When I went to work for my first startup in 1987, they cared more about ability than specific skill set: would you be able to learn a particular application or language (although usually not both) well enough to be useful in a few months?  Now employers are so focused on next week or next month that if you can't be fully productive in the first week (preferably the second or third day), they aren't interested.  And then they get upset because they can't find anyone to hire.

Another ugly change is the emphasis on "show us how brilliant you are with an unrealistic code test during a 20 minute interview."  I can see the logic behind this if you are hiring a fresh college graduate who does not yet have a list of professional references.  But if you are hiring someone with decades of experience, wouldn't it be more valuable to see how effective this guy or gal is by asking previous supervisors?  Nope!  And so you get employers arrogantly assuming that anyone who seems smart in this artificial, high-pressure setting must be the best choice, while someone who works better in a more realistic setting just isn't smart enough to do anything valuable.

Employers are increasingly refusing to consider applicants who are past 40.  I have even seen ads that said, directly, "This position is open to recent college graduates and those with less than 15 years of experience."  Is it really true that those of us who have been doing Java for five years are worthless (or at least, worth less) because we did C and assembly language for 25 years before that? 

Another part of the problem is that lots of engineers have housing-bubble era mortgages, so they can't easily move.  Yes, if you live somewhere where demand is high for rentals, such as Silicon Valley, you can rent your existing house out.  But in much of America, demand just isn't that high, especially if you live somewhere with views like these:

The industry has been taken over by short-term greedheads.  I don't like sounding like a hippie, but this short-term focus isn't healthy.  

Endoscopy: No Ulcer, No Stomach Problems

The endoscopy came back: no ulcer; a couple of polyps that they biopsied just because they were there, but an otherwise perfectly healthy stomach.

It appears that the problems that have caused my wife two weeks of misery, forced her to give up her classes for the semester, and resulted in a few sleepless nights for me spent in too many emergency rooms, were a cascade of problems:

1. Stress brought on by our evacuation from the fire some months ago caused peristalsis shutdown and increased stomach acid.

2. Ugly side effects from the medicines prescribed for the stomach ulcer (which has similar symptoms to #1) caused increased nausea.

3. Inability to get the nausea to go away--except in the emergency room--provoked panic attacks.

4. Panic attacks increased problem #1.

5. Inability to sleep for almost two weeks because of #3 (and too many nights spent in emergency rooms) greatly aggravated stress from #1.

Unfortunately, because we identify PTSD with combat operations, where it was first recognized, when the symptoms of it appear in a civilian, no one knows what it is, even though natural disasters can bring it on also.  In the aftermath of 9/11, thousands of New Yorkers began to suffer from PTSD--and no one recognized it at first.  I wonder how many people who lost their houses in wildfires (we were lucky) are now fighting with PTSD, and don't recognize it.  Nor do their doctors.

You Don't Have To Read Too Many Of These...

to start getting skeptical that this is just an "alternative lifestyle."  From August 31, 2012 NBC Miami:

A South Florida woman who is accused of injecting people with Fix-a-Flat and other substances in a black market buttock-enhancing business was released on bond Friday.

Oneal Morris, 31, posted $25,000 bond and walked out of the Broward County Main Jail....

Morris, who police said was born a man and identifies as awoman, was arrested in late July on charges of practicing medicine without a license and manslaughter in the death of Shatarka Nuby, 32. She died in March in Tallahassee from what an assistant medical examiner called "massive systemic silicone migration" as a result of the cosmetic silicone injections, according to authorities.

Someone Who Beats Biden At Historical Ignorance

From September 5, 2012 The Hill:

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) appeared to botch American and Brooklyn political history during an appearance on "The Colbert Report" that aired Tuesday night, saying that slavery in the United States persisted under the Dutch as late as 1898.

This makes Biden's explanation of FDR going on television to reassure Americans after Black Tuesday look downright knowledgeable.  Remember when Democrats used to make fun of George W. Bush's ignorance?

Are There Lawyers This Stupid?

Two recent scams:

Dear counsel

I need your legal assistance. I provided a friend of mine Mr Brian
Caldwell a business loan in the amount of $350,000. He needed this loan to complete an ongoing project he was handling in 2009. Mr Brian is well based in your city and the loan was for 24 months and interest rate of
7.85%. The capital and interest were supposed to be paid on April 15th,
2011 but Mr Brian has only paid $50,000.

Please let me know if this falls within the scope of your practice so that
I can provide you with the loan documents and any further information you
need to know.
Contact me at (fords_taylor@rediffmail.com)
Thanks,
Taylor Fords.

and:

Dear Counsel,
Pardon my mode of communication, I have gone through your profile and am
pleased with your reputation. I would want you to help me file a contempt
petition against my ex-spouse for failure to make court ordered payments
of Child Support and Medical support.

Please advise ASAP.
Michelle Seung

I am sure that in both cases, there will be some sort, "I'll send you a check to cover initial expenses" that is orders of magnitude too large ($500,000 for something that can't possibly exceed $20,000 in fees), and the "client" will request the lawyer send them a refund of the difference.  The $500,000 check drawn on the Left Bank of the Volga or the Right Bank of the Yangtze will, after several weeks, bounce, while the $480,000 refund check from the lawyer will by then have cleared.  My questions are these:

1. Are there that many lawyers gullible enough to be taken in by this?

2. If there are not, why do the scamsters try to run frauds like this?  You have to have occasional successes to justify the effort.  Or are these fools that paid for instructions on how to defraud rich and stupid Americans?

Note that Taylor Fords clearly doesn't know English all that well; "Mr Brian Caldwell", but later referenced as "Mr. Brian."  This is a logical mistake to make if you are used to the family name coming first, as is the case in China.