"A Bleak and Hostile Landscape of Diminishing Opportunities"

Melissa McEwan deftly points out the turd floating in the punchbowl:

I would just like to take a moment to note the irony that members of Congress, who are at the best times reluctant to do something wise but unpopular for fear of losing their jobs, are now avoiding like it's radioactive any legislation that would legitimately stand to create actual jobs or help unemployed people, because they don't want to lose THEIR jobs and have to try to make it out there beyond the Beltway where their own craven self-interest has created a bleak and hostile landscape of diminishing opportunities.

There are only so many openings at the lobbying firm of McGuire, Dickstein, & Thanks for Your Help Deregulating Those Pesky Consumer Protections.

Once upon a time, back in elementary school or junior high, I learned that the ancient Greeks, I think, had a system of representative government in which every citizen had to take a turn at serving as a delegate or member.  Such a system today would neatly remove the incumbency/re-election motive that seems to drive 75% 95% of all Congressional efforts.

Cat Blogging

Once a stray, Tizzy has embraced the good life and been assimilated into human society. 

Here she celebrates being part of the Borg and enjoys occupying Mister Tristan's (the human being, not the blog) changing table.  You know a cat is really relaxed when they lay sprawled out on their back.

 

Cats in Art: "Twelfth Night" (Teniers)

From my continuing weekly Sunday series of cats in art. I'm using some ideas from the coffee table book, The Cat in Art, by Stefano Zuffi.

 Image credit here.   Click on image to enlarge.

Twelfth Night, David Teniers the Younger, 1634-40, oil on canvas, 27" x 23", held by Museo Del Prado, Madrid, Spain.

Zuffi's words:

Teniers liked merry crowds of people and often set his scenes in inns that were far from refined...Amid the general descent into chaos, the cat [see lower right center] does not lose its customary calm.  Positioned under the very chair of the evening's mock king, it knows perfectly well that this is an opportunity to grab a juicy morsel, even at the cost of the odd inadvertent kick.

One could draw several parallels with ultrarunning...our scenes, too, are often far from refined, and while aid stations often offer tasty morsels, one may suffer an inadvertent kick from a disgruntled volunteer or competitor.

 

Are Humans Liberal or Conservative by Nature?

I recently read a fascinating post by Gareth Cook of the Boston Globe.  In it he delves into the moral precepts that seem to divide liberals and conservatives:

Scientists have started to provide provocative answers by looking at the roots of morality. The influential psychologist Jonathan Haidt has surveyed the world's cultures and suggested that virtually everyone is born with an innate propensity for five broad moral instincts: fairness, not harming others, loyalty to one's group, respecting authority, and purity.

And in psychological experiments, conservatives value all five of the instincts, yet liberals tend to put far more weight on the first two - fairness and not doing harm - while discounting the other three.

It is easy to see how these play out in our political life. For conservatives, loyalty to a group easily translates into a suspicion of outsiders and, therefore, say, a discomfort with immigration. If respecting authority is a central moral value, then burning a flag is deeply offensive. Liberals want to talk about what is fair, and whether anyone is being hurt, while conservatives respond that liberals are missing the point.

There's more, a lot more.  In fact, the entire post is well worth clicking over to read.

I've previously posted on the differences between liberals and conservatives, here and here.  Now it seems that the discipline of psychology may provide empirical evidence to confirm our gut feelings.

 

Ultrarunning Replaced by Ferret Legging

I'm done with running, period. I'm throwing my total allegiance to the sport of Ferret Legging.

Courtesy of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferret_legging):

In the sport of ferret legging, competitors tie their trousers at the ankles before placing two ferrets inside and securely fastening their belts to prevent the ferrets from escaping. Each competitor then stands in front of the judges for as long as he can.

The sport is said to involve very little "native skill", simply an ability to "have your tool bitten and not care". The current world champion, Reg Mellor, is credited with instituting the practice of wearing white trousers in ferret legging matches, to better display the blood from the wounds caused by the animals. Competitors can attempt, from outside their trousers, to dislodge the ferrets, but as the animals can maintain a strong hold for long periods, their removal can be difficult.

The ferrets are occasionally put inside the contestants' shirts in addition to their trousers. An attempt to introduce a female version of the sport--ferret busting, in which female contestants introduced ferrets down their blouses--proved unsuccessful.

Nothing else for me to add.  I just need me a couple ferrets to get started.  I should have the free time now that all those hours formerly spent on the trail are available for me to use for other things.

 

The Rude Pundit, the Debt Deal, and Ultrarunning

I've previously posted (here and here) about my love affair with The Rude Pundit, a secret vice, actually, where via using profanity and vulgarity and crude sexual imagery he makes political points that are right on the money.

His post for Monday about the debt limit deal was another great example.  At the bottom he gets more serious and asks the question about the linkage--or lack thereof--between the debt deal and the fact that our two three wars are kinda accepted as a budgetary given, some sacred off-limits nondiscretionary spending:

One thing the Rude Pundit can't get his mind around is that the wars continue. Aren't they the vestiges of a fallen empire, attempting to remain relevant in a world that wants to move on? That we prefer war to roads and health care and education here is unfathomably depressing.

Oh, and the connection to Ultrarunning?  Just this: even though I rail about how the U.S. is coming off the rails, we still have it good (at least if you are safely employed).  By that I mean that if I want to go trail running, I go.  It's safe, and there are no bands of armed partisans or rebels waiting to butcher me for trespassing on their turf.   That's not true everywhere on the planet.  for example, ultrarunning is a pure luxury in the Sudan or Somalia.

 

Tuesdays

Tuesday is my recurring telework day, so it has a special place in my heart.  Why, you may ask, did you select Tuesdays?  Well, Mondays and Fridays were largely taken by other telecommuters in my office, so I had to avoid those days so that we had sufficient personnel coverage.  That left Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.  Well, at the time our daughter was a commuting college student and was in class all day on Tuesdays.  So I figured it'd be a very quiet day and chose it for teleworking.

Since then I've really come to embrace Tuesdays.  Monday is special because, well, everyone dislikes it.  Wednesday is "hump day," meaning that midweek has been reached, so it has its claim to fame.  Don't need to comment on Friday, everyone's favorite.  So that leaves the two "T" days, and I just like Tuesdays.  Seems like classic rockers do too.

So...here are 3 Tuesday classics.  Enjoy!

Tuesday's Gone (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

Tuesday Afternoon (Moody Blues)

Ruby Tuesday (Rolling Stones)

Raising Taxes and Cutting Social Security/Medicare

Late posting today.

Via Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast, a picture is worth 1000 words.  Too bad the politicians can neither read nor interpret a picture.

Look closely at the numbers.

So why did the deficit deal ignore this data?

Wait, I know.  Our leaders are beholden NOT to you and I, but to the moneyed interests that installed and keep them in office.