women like me

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Are so hard to come by....

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love, 99
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ho ho ho

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Poor Santa... but look on the bright side:

Thinking negatively can boost your memory, study finds

Bad moods can actually be good for you, with an Australian study finding that being sad makes people less gullible, improves their ability to judge others and also boosts memory.

The study, authored by psychology professor Joseph Forgas at the University of New South Wales, showed that people in a negative mood were more critical of, and paid more attention to, their surroundings than happier people, who were more likely to believe anything they were told.

"Whereas positive mood seems to promote creativity, flexibility, cooperation, and reliance on mental shortcuts, negative moods trigger more attentive, careful thinking paying greater attention to the external world," Forgas wrote.

"Our research suggests that sadness ... promotes information processing strategies best suited to dealing with more demanding situations."

For the study, Forgas and his team conducted several experiments that started with inducing happy or sad moods in their subjects through watching films and recalling positive or negative events.

In one of the experiments, happy and sad participants were asked to judge the truth of urban myths and rumors and found that people in a negative mood were less likely to believe these statements.

People in a bad mood were also less likely to make snap decisions based on racial or religious prejudices, and they were less likely to make mistakes when asked to recall an event that they witnessed.

The study also found that sad people were better at stating their case through written arguments, which Forgas said showed that a "mildly negative mood may actually promote a more concrete, accommodative and ultimately more successful communication style."

"Positive mood is not universally desirable: people in negative mood are less prone to judgmental errors, are more resistant to eyewitness distortions and are better at producing high-quality, effective persuasive messages," Forgas wrote.

The study was published in the November/December edition of the Australian Science journal.

If we can't make the world wonderful by thinking it into being, we can at least wise up within our gloom.

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love, 99
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not unless you can bring back the real thing, george

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Sheesh. No class. Hasn't he got enough money?

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love, 99
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justin found

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Justin time.

Missing child found after 3 days
Written by Megan Hansen, The Triplicate | November 26, 2010 | 12:27 pm

A 12-year-old boy was found Friday at his mother’s house after disappearing from Crescent Elk Middle School on Tuesday, according to the Crescent City Police Department.

Justin Jessee went missing for three days after having a disagreement with his father, James Jessee, and a misunderstanding at school.

Crescent City Police Lt. Garrett Scott said Justin showed up at his mother’s house Friday morning.

“(The) mom called in and reported that he was safe and at her home,” Scott said.

Police are still investigating where Justin was between Tuesday and Friday.

Police Chief Doug Plack said Justin disappeared from school after being told by the principal that he was not supposed to be there because of a suspension.

He said Principal Bill Hartwick attempted to make contact with the boy’s father, but the phone number had changed.

According to Plack, Justin told his father he was suspended and not supposed to be at school.

“The dad thought he wasn’t being accurate with his statement,” Plack said.

James Jessee said he called the school around 8 a.m. Tuesday to verify whether his son was suspended or not.

“They said he wasn’t suspended,” Jessee said. “I said (to Justin) ‘you lied to me,’ and I was mad.”

After James Jessee dropped off his son at school, he said Principal Bill Hartwick called and said Justin was indeed suspended.

Jessee said he told the principal that school officials had said Justin wasn’t suspended and asked that Jan Moorehouse, Del Norte Unified School District superintendent, give him a call.

According to Jessee, Moorehouse did call and said Justin was in school and that they’d keep him in detention for the rest of the day. Jessee said she called back 10 minutes later, around 10 a.m., to say Justin wasn’t in school and never had been.

“I told them ‘you guys need to use your resources to find him, and I’ll use mine,’” Jessee said he told school officials.

Plack said the Police Department was informed about Justin’s disappearance around 6 p.m. Tuesday when the father attempted to pick up his son from school and discovered he wasn’t there.

Now everyone can party.

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love, 99
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the ignominy of old age

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Relentless.

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reason 85,672 to hate nixon

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I was, and still am, an avid Dick Cavett fan. Nixon should have been impeached for this alone.

However it happened, Cavett enjoyed listening to the tape. "It was a thrill having the great unindicted co-conspirator mad at me," he said at a press conference for Pioneers Of Television. "I'm glad the son of a bitch is still dead."

Me too.

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poetic justice?

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Sign of the end time? Both? R.I.P. Touchdown Jesus. I cannot say you've been any help to me at all.

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ordinarily i wouldn't dream of doing this to you

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But this is just too out there to pass up:

From The Sunday Times
June 6, 2010
The wisdom of Oz

He has survived plane and quad-bike crashes, drug and alcohol addiction, mental breakdowns and dysfunctional family life to become a world authority on pharmacology, neurology, psychology and hypochondria. Meet our new under-the-counter health columnist, Dr Ozzy

feel like spittin' in the wind?

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Pfeh....
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join the activism industry

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Marching or signing a petition is a surefire way to find happiness, researchers say.

To say nothing of donations....
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friends, compatriots, countrymen

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I believe it's time to graduate to Faraday cages. These tinfoil helmets just aren't cutting it anymore.
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it always meant a new dress and mary janes

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And then, for a while, when I had a best friend whose mother was very seriously Catholic, it meant incredibly magnificent feasts, and completely relaxed rules about drinking, but mostly... I just don't get it, and never did.
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oh, it's april fools' day

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Dumb observance... and everyone born on the first of April is ridiculously loath to offer up this stat... to the point of it being the immediately obvious reason you can't get them to tell you their birthdate. In fact, they steer away from the subject of birthdays altogether. Same thing applies in morticians. They never mention anything about what they do for a living....
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Not fooling links:

Brown's Bottom and Climate Bubble... that plutocrats are capitalizing on carbon trading does NOT mean one must deny climate change. Think of a better approach or we're finished. Kaiser Report, video, half hour....

Bond vigilantes, silver market catastrophe, perfidies of the New York Fed... Keiser Report, video, half hour....

I guess we can try hitchhiking....

Shit continues to pound the fan in Mexico....

Fuck Obama... and don't, baby, don't....

Norman at Harvard Law... video or audio, hour and forty-five minutes....

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blogger image servers are[n't] kittywompus right now

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[Possibly all clear at 1:15pm... possibly.]
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So my blog is pretty apt to look darn weird and take forever to load until they fix this....

Also, I'm having to bit.ly most of my links to get them to show up on the page, and that isn't even working all of the time, so, hell, I guess you could just hunt for them with your cursor, or you could scream to the cybergods....

Not to be paranoid or nuthin, but Wordpress blogs are being darn stubborn this morning, too. I think maybe China is having a full-blown cow about all this free-wheeling blog blather and messing with us....

Or a crucial tube is leaking pixels...?
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Here's some links while we wait for the tubes to regain their fitness:

Obama Packs Debt Commission with Social Security Looters... and we're shocked, shocked....

Statement on Obama Administration's Housing Initiative... it's damn weak, and... we're shocked....

Handy-dandy list of "bubble barons" we can definitely use for reference....

Smoking something....

My darling Gilad....

TREASON....

I'm New Here....

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okay okay

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Just DON'T pinch me....
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March 17th, 2010 | 5:42 AM
The Green They Steal, The Greed They Wear
...a St. Patrick's Day lament by Michael Moore

Friends,

It was amazing. Every story on the front page of Monday's New York Times told the story of the Age of Greed during which a system known as capitalism is slowly, but surely, killing us:

Insurance company greed: "Millions Spent to Sway Democrats on Health Care"

War profiteers: "Contractors Tied to Effort to Track and Kill Militants"

There's no profit in repairing our infrastructure: "Repair Costs Daunting as Water Lines Crumble"

China, the bank: "China Uses Rules on Global Trade to Its Advantage"

You mean NAFTA didn't improve life in Mexico: "Two Drug Slayings in Mexico Rock US Consulate"

What happens when Big Food profits from hurting kids: "Forget Goofing Around: Recess Has New Boss"

There's now a daily parade of news like this -- well, not really "news," more like the media division of large corporations shoving your face into the dirt that is your life. You already know the schools are a disaster and the war is a boon for the Halliburtons and a bust for you. You don't need a newspaper to tell you the roads and electrical lines and the local sewage plant is in miserable disrepair.

And by now you've figured out that you don't really have any say in this, that what we call the "democratic process" is mostly a sham, pretty words that get repeated in the hopes we will all still fall for it. But the fix is in and we don't fall for it anymore. Admit it: Wall Street owns "our" Congress lock, stock and big barrel o' campaign cash. You want a say in this? Well, I don't see you on the Forbes 400, so shut the f@*& up and go fetch me another bottle of bubbly.

Within days, the House of Representatives will vote to pass the Senate health care "reform" bill. This bill is a joke. It has NOTHING to do with "health care reform." It has EVERYTHING to do with lining the pockets of the health insurance industry. It forces, by law, every American who isn't old or destitute to buy health insurance if their boss doesn't provide it. What company wouldn't love the government forcing the public to buy that company's product?! Imagine a bill that ordered every citizen to buy the extended warranty on all their appliances? Imagine a law that made it illegal not to own an iPhone? Or how 'bout I get a law passed that makes it compulsory for every American to go see my next movie? Woo-hoo! Who wouldn't love a sweet set-up like this windfall?

Well, the insurance companies -- get this -- don't like the Democrats' bill! That alone should be reason enough to vote for it.

Now, you would think these thieves would love this bill -- but they are actually fighting it. Why? Because it doesn't give them ONE HUNDRED PERCENT of the what they want. It only gives them... 90%! YOU SEE, pure greed demands all or nothing.

The insurance industry hates this bill because it puts a few minor restrictions on them. Six months after its passage they won't be able to deny children coverage if they have a pre-existing condition. How awful! Government interference! SOCIALISM!

But, hey, they'll still be able to deny these children's parents coverage until 2014! So if a parent gets sick and dies in the next four years, I'm sure someone will step in and raise these already-insured orphans.

And how big will the fines be if the insurance companies do deny someone coverage for having a pre-existing condition? Are you sitting down? A hundred dollars a day! That's it! So if you're the insurance company, and Judy is a customer of yours, and Judy needs an operation that will cost $100,000, what do you do? You take the fine! Let's say Judy lives another year after you've sentenced her to death, your $100-a-day fine will only cost you $36,500! That's a savings of $63,500! And trust me, my friends, that's EXACTLY what's going to happen.

There are some good things in this bill. Parents will be able to keep their children on their policy until the kids turn 26. A few things like that. So, yes, pass that.

But don't insult me and 300 million Americans by calling this "health care reform." At least you've stopped calling it "universal health care." We will not have universal health care or anything close to it. I wish the president and the Democratic leadership would just stand up and say, "We're sorry, America. We didn't get the job done you sent us here to do. We're weak and scared and unable to communicate the simplest of messages to the American people. Therefore, our bill will guarantee that 12 million of you will still have NO health insurance. And that's because we have decided to leave the greedy, private insurance industry in charge of our system. Forgive us for this and for continuing to allow profit to be the determining factor as to whether a patient gets the help she or he needs."

Please, Democrats -- just say that -- then pass this poor excuse of a bill. Pass it because, if President Obama takes a fall on this one, I don't know if he'll be able to get back up. And then NOTHING will get done. We can't have that. (And thank you Dennis Kucinich for hanging in there right up to the end and being the only one out of the 435 members to speak the awful truth.)

On the front page of yesterday's New York Times, the dateline was, sadly, once again, "Flint, Michigan." The story was about how doctors are no longer accepting Medicaid patients. Which means tens of thousands of poor can no longer go to the doctor. Last year, the State of Michigan also prohibited doctors from accepting Medicaid patients who had anything wrong with their vision, their hearing, their feet or their teeth. In a 16-county area northwest of Flint, there will soon be not one single hospital that will allow you to give birth there if you're on Medicaid. The official unemployment rate in Flint is 27% (unofficially, closer to 40%).

This is an American tragedy. And, as I've warned you for years, this tsunami is heading your way -- if it's not there already.

I've just turned on my new iPhone and it informs me that it has "apps" it would like to suggest I buy. One is called "Scanner." It will allow me to listen in on police scanners anywhere across the country. I buy the app. I see that the Flint police scanner is part of this. I turn it on out of curiosity. And this is what I hear, at one in the morning: A woman is being beaten by her husband... A home invasion is taking place ("16-year-old black male, wearing a white skull cap")... A child has been missing since noon today... Another woman is being beaten by her boyfriend... A diabetic, obese man is having trouble breathing and needs to be rushed to the hospital (there will be three more of these obese diabetics in the hours to come; the entire town is ill)... One more woman calling, screaming for help, "officers urged to use caution..."

...And on and on and on. This is what I have listened to before going to bed. I am filled with despair and helplessness as I hear my former neighbors crying out for help. I hate it. I have to turn it off. I start to cry. Thank you, iPhone. Thank you, Democrats. I'll sleep better knowing that you're looking out for all of us.

Bastards.
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didn't we just fall back last week?

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Yer telling me I gotta Spring Forward tonight or be all worse discombobulated tomorrow? Could we consider returning me to my home planet instead? Am I getting old? Whut?

I've got stuff going on here that, believe it or not, for once, I don't much feel like discussing, but in the midst of my thinkings and doings and explorations I find this Chinese lay Zen master, teacher, old dude, and notwithstanding his having been damned with faint praise by Thomas Cleary—There is no question that Master Nan’s work is a cut above anything else available from modern authors, either academic or sectarian, and I would like to see his work gain its rightful place in the English speaking world.—I'm not getting the right feeling from this encounter with evidence of his existence. I even think I've read one of his books and not been grabbed.... There could be a couple thousand reasons for this and I may see them or just forget any significance to coming across him again at this moment of vexation and deal with it some other how. I don't know.

I'm going to practice NOT getting into a sweat over it one way or another....

Have I mentioned lately that if you are interested in Zen and reading anything by anyone beside Thomas or J.C. Cleary, yer taking way too big a chance with your whole life? I know I must've before, but, well, it bears repeating ad infinitum....

There are others I could sort of recommend, would recommend if I had you right in front of me to insert the proper amount of qualifiers and list pitfalls for you, but I can't have you right in front of me, and, truly, there's enough stuff by and translated by the Cleary brothers to keep you busy for the rest of time anyway. In fact, I'd like to be powerful enough to call them both up out of the soup this very now to come smack me around a little, put me back into shape.... I know I oughta be grateful enough for their spectacular work that is piled up all around me, but, well, most of the time I am. Just this very now it seems not enough somehow.

I have been learning in my time on the tubes that HEARING is what gets it in here. This may be because I damn well need a guide dog to drive me to town, but I never noticed it before. I have noticed that I am STUPIDLY sensitive to annoying sounds, and have—DEAF—friends who think I'm a damn maniac for flipping so hard over stuff they don't even notice, but there you have it. It seems to work the best if I hear it while I'm doodling or mindlessly playing computer solitaire or darning or embroidering or SMOKING AND SIPPING DEPRESSO.* I'm thinking that it's about keeping the other senses and my yammering ideas at bay while soaking in the good stuff.

I have a PROBLEM. Something has popped up in the last day or two that has been trying to pop up for quite some time and it is egregiously not kosher.... I'm not flipping. But I am vexed by it big time and don't know which trick to use on it.... So I'm building psychic rooms in which to return to my hermitage, see if I can't be here and a hermit at the same time... or keep me busy until my hand falls on the right volume to help me with this. It's a BIG problem. It seems on its face like a monstrous regression, but it feels more like a new clarity... only not in any way as happy as I've ever found clarity to be, and I have always loved clarity to bits, even when I have to be clear on stuff I outright hate. This one may be big.

Oh, sorry to be thinking obliquely out loud on you here. I'll shut up now. Sorry.
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* Long ago and far away I had a Venetian lover who cooked like God, did marvelous things for and to and with me, and made sure I never lacked for cups of "depresso". If his Martian roots had not finally started showing, I might have married him and never been swept off my feet by 86... and then... how very, very much else would be how many googolplexes of kalpas different around here? OMG
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the oscar for the best gown

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Armani Privé Couture took home the Oscar for Amanda Seyfried's gown. Cameron Diaz in an Oscar de la Renta took the gold—warmly dazzling and dropdead gorgeous—but just purely from the dress point of view, I think Seyfried took it away from her. Of course, Jennifer Lopez also went Privé, but came off, er, bumptious... except when the camera angle was better. Hilary Swank would have landed in the worst-dressed again if she had been invited, I'm sure, but evidently went Privé for an after party anyway. "Something for everybody" must be Armani's motto.
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oscar night

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I would much rather just see the movies. I would not mind watching the whole Oscar night shtick if I had a huge screen tv and could turn off the sound on the yammerers. Then I could point and gasp and be catty and dribble champagne on my new sweater... properly take it in....
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acting out

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Dense metaphor...and appropriate response to public officials....
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luck

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Amazing luck....
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