The serotonin levels of the members of a community profoundly affect the degree of harmony and prosperity (shalom) in that community. Continue reading Serotonin and society
Category Archives: Justice
A case for the death penalty
Death penalty sought for alleged Boston bomber Tsarnaev
A friend of mine, a Lutheran pastor, opposes capital punishment. But to my mind, her story, which she told me circa 1985, poses the premiere case for the death penalty.
She had a son, a lively pre-teen, who died suddenly under suspicious circumstances. At first, police found a person of interest in Arthur Goode, a known pedophile who was known to have been in the area at the time. It was soon enough established that Goode had been nowhere near the time and place of the death, and the death was ruled accidental.
That did not prevent Goode from harassing the family for years with phone calls and letters in which he spewed forth lurid details of what he now alleged he had done with the boy.
Continue reading A case for the death penalty
Eggsactly right; and other news
Bookmarks:
The flap over eggs • Amanda Knox • Another child star meltdown
Child porn is not so simple • Promise for Parkinson’s • Bail is for the birds
Birth injury fund sought
Missouri AG challenges California egg law
This came up in Yahoo!’s “Trending Now,” and the search results included pages at newsmax.com and examiner.com. I had to search a bit to find an article at a REPUTABLE site. For everyone’s information, in general henceforth I will avoid clicking anything leading to newsmax OR examiner: the former is disreputable, and the latter generates too many ads … too many for me to cause y’all to have to deal with.
The new law, in short, seems to me to be good for everyone (read: humanity), and IMO though it’ll cost ’em money, Missouri has no reason to cluck.
Two Jews, three opinions
Ethnic differences don’t all need to be A Problem.
A certain woman has struggled for some years with alcoholism. I have followed her case because she’s close to me and because I am, after all, an alcoholic myself.
Why do roses have thorns?
Are thorns happy?
Friday, December 1, Bounce showed Steven Seagal’s Above the Law.
He always plays opposite some eye candy, a term I learned from a Doonesbury strip about Uncle Duke’s presidential campaign. In Above the Law, it was Sharon Stone. In On Deadly Ground, it was Joan Chen, a Chinese actress cast as a Native American, with no real function but to look nice and follow him around.
“Eye candy” isn’t a mere phrase. I saw again that when I see a pretty woman, such as Stone in that scene, I get a sweet taste in my mouth. This is a physiological reaction, and potentially raises lots of questions about how we respond to beauty — or ugliness.
Related: For us.
I have much the same reaction whenever I see a rose.
Which recalls my interactions with that rose bush in the garden. Continue reading Why do roses have thorns?
Polar bears aren’t teddy bears; etc.
(Originally posted 02/10/14.)
Bookmarks:
To get bail, money talks
Polar bears aren’t all warm fuzzies.
Private planes are nice, but won’t make you happy
A Jewish view of charity
To get bail, money talks
Bottom line: all across the country, tens of thousands of men and women are behind bars who are not guilty of any crime.
They’re there because they couldn’t post bail.
Continue reading Polar bears aren’t teddy bears; etc.
The dark side of EQ
(Originally posted 02/08/14.)
Adam Grant, The Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence
Daniel Goleman, An Antidote to the Dark Side of Emotional Intelligence
Dilemma: a hammer can be used either to build a house or to destroy priceless heirlooms. Possessing the tool of emotional intelligence does not mean one will use it favorably. What makes the difference?
In anticipating this post, I searched for a traditional term for “emotional intelligence.” I decided that the traditional term for it is wisdom. The Old Testament consistently refers to people who have emotional intelligence as “wise.” Those who lack it, it calls “fools.”
In the previous post, we saw that emotional intelligence, or wisdom, is a major determinant of personal effectiveness and success in life; in short, of prosperity. To the extent one wishes all people to prosper, it seems desirable that all people be wise.
In short, the wise prosper.
But the wise aren’t necessarily good, and the good aren’t necessarily wise.
Continue reading The dark side of EQ
Older sibling tries to harass baby gorilla, gets a taste of his own medicine
Appeals to authority, parental intervention, and a sense of justice exist across species — at least, among mammals.
My homeless self: White “resentment” and black power
“Generations of slavery and discrimination make it difficult for blacks to work their way out of the lower classes.”
Do you agree with that statement? If not, you harbor resentment toward blacks.
That is the premise, not the conclusion, of a recent study by three political scientists. As reported by James Goodman in the October 6, 2013 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the study’s conclusions seem indisputable. I question its premise. I ask whether “resentment” was the best or right thing to measure; whether this criterion statement was the best or right way to measure it; whether the criterion statement is factual, and if so, whether it matters.
Continue reading My homeless self: White “resentment” and black power
Oh, what a tangled web we weave …
… when first we practice to deceive.
Closing arguments in Julius Henson election fraud trial
I have had direct contact with trials involving Edward Smith, Jr. in the past, such that his antics here come to me as no surprise.
The question I ask is whether it’s worth it to tell the truth, and what happens when we don’t.
[To be continued …]
(Originally posted 05/09/12 at Trojan Horse Productions.)
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A new page has appeared at The Homeless Blogger: “Choose your name.”
One can also take a sneak peek at the related post scheduled for release 2014-03-12, “What’s in a name?”
(Originally posted 01/01/14.)
The Homeless Blogger 