Paul's Perambulations a personal blog

February 1, 2011

Comments on Big Little Wolf’s Daily Plate of Crazy

Filed under: Family,General,Love,Work — admin @ 7:22 pm

I recently came upon this well-written and challenging blog http://dailyplateofcrazy.com/ The author  (BigLittleWolf, or BLF) discusses personal issues of family, relationships, work, etc. from the perspective of a single mother. Here are some of my Comments on her blog and on similar blogs. They can be put in perspective by referencing them to her original postings if you wish. The bold heading is a brief identification of the nature of her original post. These topics are different from my usual ones and present an opportunity for me to write about some issues that I usually don’t cover. But I also see that the author’s situations and concerns are different from mine, and thus my blog and her blogs will naturally go their separate ways, even while we continue to learn from one another. Also, I have transferred much of my attention from my blog to my Facebook posts, where I condense some serious ideas into the allotted 420 spaces.

Her Blog Topics are in BOLD. She identifies as BLW. Her original post would be necessary to set the full context of my comments. My Comments may follow hers and be interspersed, so things may not be clear at times, but this is whatever it is and should not be considered definitive of anything. 

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September 12, 2010

How bad (and potentially dangerous) can public science reporting get?

Filed under: General — admin @ 2:12 pm

Headline in current Time Magazine – HEALTH: BOTTOMS UP. NEW STUDY FINDS THAT HEAVY DRINKERS OUTLIVE TEETOTALERS AND MODERATE DRINKERS LIVE ONGEST OF ALL. First, Time published a retraction (apparently online only) that the study does not include any teetotalers (excluded), but that “abstainers” refers to people who said  they were no longer drinking  (20 years ago). Next, when they control for a number of co-variates, the statistical significance is greatly reduced.  Makes you wonder what if they had identified more co-variates. (more…)

September 9, 2010

Appeasement Reconsidered: Investigating the Mythology of the 1930s

Filed under: General — admin @ 3:54 pm

Appeasement Reconsidered: Investigating the Mythology of the 1930s  by Jeffrey Record, Ph.D., Monograph published by the Strategic Studies Institute, United States Army College. The author is on the faculty of the Air War College in Montgomery, Alabama.

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/pub622.pdf

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June 25, 2010

I am a co-complainant to the U.N. Human Rights Council

Filed under: General,Peace,Politics,Religion — admin @ 4:25 pm

I am a signatory and co-complainant in a formal complaint to the United Nations. We are waiting to receive a full response. (more…)

June 13, 2010

A 50th High School Reunion

Filed under: Education,General — admin @ 12:11 am

Fifty years ago I graduated from Mount Hermon, a preparatory boarding school in the middle of nowhere in northwestern MA. They have since combined with their sister school across the Connecticut River, Northfield School, to form Northfield Mount Hermon. (more…)

May 19, 2010

Blumenthal’s dubious “Vietnam Service” political campaign

Filed under: General — admin @ 11:02 pm

I posted the following Comment in the NYTimes in response to the Senate candidate’s misleading  speeches (“lies” may be too strong a word for it) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/19/nyregion/19veterans.html regarding service in Vietnam:

What bothers me even more than his inferences of having served in Vietnam is that Blumenthal’s Vietnam campaign strategy works directly against the nation’s welfare today, as he tries to generate anger over Vietnam  so as to garner veterans’ votes. (more…)

April 10, 2010

Jury duty – a meaningful four-day experience

Filed under: General,Politics — admin @ 10:57 pm

Although I often get called to report for jury duty, this week was the first time I have been selected to serve. Usually they are not interested in me; search Jury Duty on this site for possible reasons. This time I was selected even though I wore a button that said Wage Peace next to the button that said Juror and had indicated on a questionnaire that I could not promise to follow the judge’s instructions. My thinking on this issue is that I would have to follow my conscience first, if there were a conflict between conscience and the law. I am pleased that I was found suitable for jury duty. Things might have been different in a murder trial, because I cannot support capital punishment. It is appropriate to remove from society people who are a danger to others, but I wish to leave open the possibility of rehabilitation. The trial lasted four days, and to learn about the trial itself, read…  (more…)

April 9, 2010

Why I love/hate Wright’s Fallingwater

Filed under: General — admin @ 7:14 pm

It’s a fascinating structure, folks fawn over it, but there is a dark side.

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April 3, 2010

Easter Anniversary of MLKing’s speech at Riverside Church, NYC.

Filed under: General — admin @ 10:02 pm

On April 4 1967 at Riverside Church, MLKing delivered Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. This was a moment of great moral courage. History now honors the man but not the message (something similar to Christianity going on here?). The speech was not just about Vietnam, but called for changes to insure a world with true peace and justice for all BEYOND Vietnam. Exactly one year later, he was killed. I have no doubt that the majority of Americans, although shocked at his death, were also relieved. At that time many Americans felt the need for a black American hero (to counter all the white ones), a black who was non-violent (to counter societal fears), but did not want to hear what he said would be required for a world with peace and justice.  Denial of his message seems to be as true today as then. Happy Easter.

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/058.html

March 17, 2010

Student suicides in academe (NYTimes 3/17/10))

Filed under: General,Work — admin @ 6:06 pm

My published comment (#253) in response to this article on an apparent spate of suicides at Cornell is attached as a Comment. Many of the other comments related to the rigor of academic programs and the time that faculty spend with students. My response to this is as follows: (more…)

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