What would you do if you were a graduate of Baylor University and you became a Navy JAG officer and you were conned into committing crimes by crazy fanatics?
Maybe you would become a disbarred attorney.
The following blog - Blogs: Watch Out for the Lawyers :: SohoAttorney.com :: Because Why Should You Be A Wage Slave? - utilizes postnuke as blogging software. I like postnuke software. Despite popular belief, the latest releases of software are not always the most stable. Then again, some of the latest releases are the most stable.
The following are results from some testing I've done with various blogging or "content management" software.
The most stable releases:
I'm always testing the latest versions, including the beta versions (hmmmm, maybe this is one reason I'm always reinstalling my operating system) and while I can understand why the developers want everybody to get the latest versions, sometimes the latest versions have too much stuff stuffed into them and this causes bugginess.
There are a lot of others. Some are written in perl and some in python and some in.....on and on. If you want to test some of them then check out hotscripts.com and sourceforge.net.
New gangs just don't have the traditions of the American Mafia.
Today, in order to highlight the fragility of civil rights when faced by a fanatical, homophobic, racist gang, I'm going to tell abou the true story of the Illegal Search at My Place of Employment.
I'm always highlighting injustices suffered by other people and it was suggested to me that I highlight the sleazy, illegal search done to me. So I have.
At the The Hays Report I mention the unsolved murder of Lorenzo Okaruru, a.k.a., Loni Kai. New information I have received indicates a question is in order. Is a dirtball cop somehow involved? It wouldn't be the first time a cop committed a murder or the second time or even the third time.
Since I believe this murder might well be an incident of domestic terror, I think the FBI should investigate it.
Man, right now the game is going into 3 OT. Even though this isn't PAC-10 foorball, this is one exciting game.
Update: Final
- NC State - 38
- OSU - 44
As One Hand Clapping points out there seems to be a discussion going on about whether blogs are journalism, serious journalism, or just one's diary on the web, among other things.
I'm of the opinion that it is exceedingly difficult to define journalism. Some blogs may be journalism and some may not be.
Donald Sensing brings up another point. Do blogs need some sort of ethical guidelines. I say no. The reason I say no is because how can ethics for blogs be legislated or controlled in any manner.
It would seem "caveat emptor" may be in order.
It is ultimately up to blog readers to determine what is journalism, what is not; what is authentic, what is not; and it is ultimately up to blog readers to decide which blogs they want to read on a regular basis.
For example, when I want cold hard news with accompanying facts I visit The Onion, Scrappleface and IMAO.
If you go here and here and here and here you will get info about an amendment introduced by Senator Ron Wyden with the support of Senator Gordon Smith which states in part "to bill H.R. 2754 for $858,000 shall be available for dredging and other operation and maintenance of the Rogue River, Gold Beach, Oregon and $983,000 shall be available for dredging and other operation and maintenance of the Umpqua River, Oregon".
I think dredging is sometimes necessary.
Whatever shall we do? This is terrible. My hero, Instapundit, is allied against himself.
I wonder why I haven't heard more about the following topic. If Iran is having Americans killed (and there's proof to support this), then Iran should pay. I think the leaders of Iran should pay in more ways than one.
Michael Ledeen on 9/11/03 on National Review Online
Don't forget Free Iran.
It doesn't seem that big a deal, but Wizbang brings up something interesting. Why does one become a serial design plagiarist? I don't know, but you can find out more at the following link.
Some years back, while I was living in Beaverton, Oregon trying to raise a family, and while I was the stay-at-home father and the mother was working full time outside the home, unbeknownst to me my psycho ex-mother-in-law, Bonnie Oekerman, and her equally psycho daughter, Faye Oekerman, were keeping the apartment that Wendy, our two daughters, and I were living in under surveillance.
Here is what the psycho ex-mother-in-law would do. She would come to Beaverton from her residence in Oceanside, Oregon, where she and her husband had a business ripping off the locals, and she would stay at the Ambassador Hotel in Tigard, Oregon. The Ambassador Hotel in Tigard is very near Beaverton, Oregon.
Then she would snoop around our apartment complex, make friends with one or more of the residents (usually by telling them lies about me and my family) and then she would spy on us surreptitiously. Her psycho daughter, who lived in Hillsboro, Oregon, also near Beaverton, would also spy on me and my family.
During the school year it was my habit to get up early, make breakfast for the girls (they were in elementary school), walk them to the bus stop, and make sure they got off to school. Then I would clean the apartment and do whatever shopping needed to be done, study, and then meet them at the bus stop when they got off the bus after school.
We lived in an apartment with an indoor swimming pool and so, usually, at least once a day, the girls would go swimming with their friends and I would play lifeguard and watch them. It helped that in my younger days I actually was a lifeguard. Studying and learning and then actually doing lifeguard duty were some of the jobs being on a swim team entailed. That and learning how to clean pools and keep them clean.
Had I known what the sleazy Oekerman family was up to I would have been much more apprehensive. But, can you believe that they would stoop so low as to stalk me and my family after I divorced the psycho Faye Oekerman in 1980. AND GET THIS!!!!!!! My mother and sister were helping them and lying to me about it!!!! Don't the Oekerman's believe in amicable divorce, or does a person have to be continually stalked and hunted when leaving the psycho Oekerman family? What do they think they are...some crime family nobody can get out of?????!!!!!
Click here for the beginning, when I first met the psycho ex-mother-in-law from Hell.
Man, I'm not a government lawyer. I'm not any kind of a lawyer, but I know enough to be a regular reader of How Appealing.
I get various daily updates from various university law schools and Findlaw.com and other sources about about the latest appellate decisions in the various federal courts and the California and Oregon courts, but I just glance at them and instead concentrate on the posts at How Appealing because Howard Bashman is a great law editor.
Well, some people want to know why I think Washington County, Oregon is the cesspool of Oregon. My answer is because Washington County has allowed itself to become a center of activity for some of the most hateful, evil, dishonest, violent bunch of liars, thieves and hypocrites in the world.
Washington County as become a nest of the slimeballs that make up the Roger Weidner/Victor Oekerman gang.
Read the following and you will see why:
Voodoo Christianity Cult Watch News Pg1
Voodoo Christianity Cult Watch News Pg2
The link below will take you to a story of a sleazy woman who used a sleazy court to try to ruin somebody because the sleazy woman was filled with vindictiveness, spite and hate. For more info about women who are sleazy, click here.
The Official Page ONE Literary Newsletter Website -Steven S. Richmond, MSW, MA is a psychotherapist, prize-winning author, and expert on social services delivery systems. His first book, Public Welfare: Notes from Underground, has been required reading for graduate students of social work for more than two decades. He has devoted the last thirty years to developing public and private programs to help families remain intact. He now travels and speaks before groups interested in improving services to vulnerable populations in their communities. Terms of Enforcement: Making Men Pay for What They've Done is the story of failed courts, mental health, and social service systems. Ordinarily such an observation is not remarkable and that in itself is unfortunate. But in the case of the author's story, these failures are deliberate. Worse, as widespread as this problem is, these failures are unreported in the press and the professional literature. Terms of Enforcement: Making Men Pay for What They've Done is the author's unescorted passage through Hell and a story for everyone to consider who cares about justice and the search for responsible ways to protect women who are at genuine risk of domestic violence. Terms of Enforcement: Making Men Pay for What They've Done can be purchased online at www.trafford.com/robots/01-0585.html.
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geography: The National Map
Want to check out an aerial view of your neighborhood? Then check out www.terrafly.com from the High Performance Database Research Center (HPDRC) is associated with the School of Computer Science at Florida International University.
Well, it seems crazy, homophobic, white supremacist, "Christian Identity", "sovereign citizen" Dave Mortimer of the Roger Weidner gang is still sending out mindless homophobic, white supremacist crap. Isn't it amazing how these guys use the internet to network with each other?
Get a load of the following email sent by crazy Dave Mortimer:
CITIZENS TAKE BACK SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY IN THE OREGON SUPREME COURT
To: Fathers_are_Parents_too@yahoogroups.com
From: "dave.mortimer" - dave.mortimer@ntlworld.com
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2003 13:21:57 +0100 (GMT Standard Time)
Subject: Re: [Fathers_are_Parents_too] Senator Larkin and new legislation
From: tips_and_tricks@yahoogroups.com
CITIZENS TAKE BACK SOVEREIGN AUTHORITY
IN THE OREGON SUPREME COURTThis is the really important thing...it is the nexus of the whole scam...statutes are not laws...this is SO important for everyone to see what is in this motion...we have criminally convicted the Oregon Supreme Court and lower courts now, on the Record, in their own courtrooms...we confronted the shadow government openly in the Oregon Supreme Court...we have this on videotape also...this in turn confronts the global agenda as it is being put in place...you should know about what we are doing here in Oregon.
JUDGE SAYS, "I CANNOT ANSWER THAT," WHEN ASKED IF THE OREGON SUPREME COURT IS A COURT OF CONSTITUTIONAL JUDICIAL DUE PROCESS
August 9, 2000 - Salem, Oregon: No one stood when the Bailiff announced, "All rise for the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon," as the en banc judges quietly took their seats. Petitioners Pamela Gaston and Michael Marsh sat at the table, and Attorney General representative Wasserman, there to defend the STATE OF OREGON, sat at the other table. A packed courtroom of Citizens' rights advocates, Constitutional defenders and angry courtwatchers witnessed for the People, ex rel, in the hearing. As the crowd gathered outside of the Supreme Court before the hearing, two imposing State Police officers arrived to monitor the court proceedings. As they came through the crowd, one said, "Mr. Gaston," and shook Will Gaston's hand. Whereas in previous court proceedings the judges and sheriffs create chaos and attack the courtwatchers, the mood for this hearing was nothing but respectful of the People.
Pamela Gaston stepped to the lectern and asked which of the four judges would be the presiding judge for the hearing. Judges Carson, VanHoomison and Gillette previously recused themselves, and Chief Justice Carson was seen scurrying away from the Supreme Court Building as the hearing was soon to begin.
Judge Durham stated that he would be the presiding judge. Gaston asked Judge Durham, "Is this a Constitutional Court of Judicial Due Process?" and Durham replied "You are in the Supreme Court of the State of Oregon." Pamela Gaston asked, "Is that court a Constitutional Court of Judicial Due Process?" and judge Durham responded, "I CANNOT ANSWER THAT." Gaston and Marsh were 'allowed' seven minutes to speak, then the Attorney General had an opportunity to rebut and defend the STATE, then Pamela Gaston rebutted the AG 'defense.' Gaston ran through the high points from the following Motion, which is attached after this article. The Motion fully makes the case, and the exhibits which are referred to are attached in the Motion.
Pamela Gaston made an oral record of the fraud and deception of the Oregon government, the history of this corruption, and the plans outlined for our future to be sold to the global sovereignty and enslaved to a Corporate Global Socialism, which they have entrenched already and are relentlessly moving forward to enact at this time.
Pamela Gaston told the four judges that they were knowingly involved in the corruption, as she knew personally that for more than two years they have knowingly and actively been protecting child pornographers and black market child-selling agents for the state, and numerous corrupt judges in the lower courts.
The Attorney General had been forced to appear by the Supreme Court, having filed a motion that they did not intend to appear. AG Wasserman, red-faced and quiet, to the point that no one could hear him in the audience, was asked by Judge Riggs in as many words, "Why did this initiative not get blocked sooner in the certification process?" It was blatant that the Supreme Court judges were amazed that they were having to face this open confrontation about their whole "secret" government, from which they profit, laid out bare before them.
The Attorney General's office had not one word of defense, nor did he dispute one word from the whole Motion, as follows. The bottom line in a courtroom is that undisputed testimony becomes fact, and that was his time to refute these claims and this evidence. There was no dispute. AG Wasserman weakly argued that the ballot could not be enacted, that it was not clear in its intent, and how the Attorney General office would decide whether it was enforceable, under the amended VII authority.
Gaston made a searing rebuttal stating that the AG pleading was "LUDICROUS," that the AG statements that their office would determine whether an initiative was enforceable or not, according to the Amended VII authority, when Gaston had just destroyed the whole authority that he was attempting to impose. Gaston ended the rebuttal telling the judges that, "If it is not Constitutional it is TREASON. Thank you."
The Attorney General and the Justice Dept. gave no factual dispute and now the evidence as presented is fact in the Record of the Court and in the Public Record of the People.
Another facet of court procedure is "false in part is thrown out" in a court of credible evidence. This Record has now factually discredited the authority on which the whole statutory government has been built and, once discredited, it cannot stand. The People, with one voice, declared that our sovereignty WILL STAND and not these corrupted courts, and now the Amended VII no longer exists. The only place these corrupt Public Servants and their statutory rules have any authority any more is in the MINDS of the People who fear them!!! FEAR NOT from now on, Oregon. We have collectively broken open the LIE to the LIGHT of the PUBLIC EYE. Challenge your abusers every time they violate your Constitutional rights. They do not have a leg to stand on anymore in Oregon--NO WHERE TO HIDE FROM NOW ON.
The commentary is Coquille, Oregon: Small Town Government Set To Self Destruct - by Sheriff Mike Cook - Sierra Times.com.
Sheriff Mike Cook points out that nobody asked questions that needed to be asked and this led to needlessly huge price increases for water and sewage services.
From the Middle East Media Research Institute comes the following excerpt:
MEMRI: Latest NewsAl-Qa'ida's website, which was originally called Al-Nida and then changed its name and URL every few days to avoid being hacked, had disappeared from the Internet following the killing of its site director, Sheikh Yousef Al-Ayyeri, in early June 2003 in Saudi Arabia.
The website has now been reactivated, at http://www.faroq.org/news/. Among the postings on the site is a book called "The Raid of the 11th of Rabi' Al-Awwal – The Eastern Riyadh Operation and Our War on America and Its Agents."The book's foreword states, among other things, that the "raid of the 11th of Rabi' Al-Awwal 1424 [the May 12, 2003 suicide attack on Western residential housing complexes in Riyadh]… was but the opening shot, Allah willing, and the Mujahiddeen had a need for this detailed communiqué to present the reasons for the Jihad activity in the Arabian Peninsula and to remove some of the religious and military problems regarding it." The following are excerpts from each of the book's four chapters: [1]
The followng link will take to you a story about a group of delusional "victims" of the international Satanic Ritual conspiracy, the international Illuminati conspiracy and a bunch of other nonsense.
Cult News.com: Fantastic stories of abuse animate "survivors" conferenceFantastic stories of abuse animate "survivors" conference
Stories about vast unknown conspiracies that involve CIA operatives and criminal underground societies, seem more like tired themes for formula films, rather than a subject for serious discussion.However, as summer ended in New England such subjects became the focus of a conference staged by "abuse survivors" at a hotel in Hartford, Connecticut.
Narratives about secretive Satanists were everywhere at the gathering sponsored by S.M.A.R.T. (Stop Mind-Control and Ritual Torture).
Maybe Scott Peterson's lawyers should have attended to take notes, which might help fuel their speculation concerning the alleged "cult" they say may have taken the life of Laci Peterson and her unborn child.
Anecdotal stories abounded everywhere at the conference with various villains. Besides the usual Satanic suspects there were accusations against Freemasons, secret CIA programs and the so-called "Illuminati."
This event was reported with a dose of much needed skepticism by the Hartford Advocate.
"I was going to be part of their satanic world-domination plan," said one self-proclaimed "survivor."
"My father handed me over to the cult; I was like his gift," explained an attendee.
"We were brainwashed by the cult and made to kill firstborn children," claimed another.
Why were all these victims together in Hartford rather than within a witness protection program?
"Sharing like this is the best way to rid ourselves of…toxic memories," stated the conference organizer. And of course there are always conference fees, not to mention books and tapes for sale at such events.
Being a "survivor" can become a kind of cottage industry for some.
And for those that think this is funny and comparable to a group of UFO believers waiting for their next "abduction," think again.
People have suffered, but not from supposed "satanic ritual abuse." Some stories told by "survivors" have led to false charges and criminal prosecutions that destroyed lives.
This includes witch-hunts like the McMartin pre-school case in California. Taxpayers spent $15 million dollars to find out there was no Satanic abuse at the school, but it ruined the McMartin family.
And there was an alleged "sex ring" in Wenatchee, Washington that was ultimately proven to be bogus after multiple arrests of innocent residents.
Even a police officer was falsely accused in Canada. He was eventually cleared and paid a large settlement for his suffering.
These are the real survivors, falsely accused and damaged by spurious charges and prosecutions.
The FBI once investigated claims of human sacrifice and a network of criminal Satanists. But a report concluded there was no objective physical evidence to substantiate anything.
So why do people want to believe such nonsense and play the role of "survivors"?
According to respected researcher Elizabeth Loftus it's an "explanation for everything wrong in their lives."
The noted psychologist sees conferences like the one SMART recently convened as an opportunity to "get together…reinforce each other…give each other a sense of importance."
And the stories of "survivors" appear to confirm this.
Often their tales put them at the center of some vast and evil conspiracy; its central character, hero or heroine, somehow essential to the plot.
But in the end even those that spin such stories fail to see their own authentic suffering and real situation.
Obviously they are in need of ethical and constructive counseling from objective mental health professionals. But many instead rely upon "repressed" or "recovered" memory therapy and are often estranged from their families.
They "stay unwell and never get help" lamented Loftus.
[Posted by Rick Ross at 08:55 AM]
The links to the original post at Cultnews.com are live and awaiting your perusal.
The idiots in the Roger Weidner/Victor Oekerman gang convinced my sister and mother (Chris Andrea Hays and Neta Hays) that they were victims of Satanic Ritual Abuse and Space Alien Abductions. When a person doubts the veracity of the crazy, delusional stories my sister and mother tell, my sister and mother respond by screaming epithets and insults. Then they call up a bunch of their fellow delusional victims and scream some more at whoever doesn't believe the delusions.
A couple of times when I expressed doubts, my mother and sister screamed that I need to get on psychoactive drugs, expecially Prozac (Fluoxetine), in order to see the truth and be able to believe the delusions.
In fact, they were so adamant about me getting Prozac I thought maybe they and the gang ripped off or bought a bunch of stock in the company that makes Prozac.
The members of the Roger Weidner gang believe they are members of the super-duper, master, true white Aryan race. You'd think the International Satanic Ritual Abusers, the International Mind Control People, and the Intergalactic Space Aliens would know enough not to mess with members of the Roger Weidner gang, wouldn't you? But I guess not.
Even though I disagree with Eric Rasmusen on many things, I believe he still has a right to post his views on a university server and I think it's wrong for people to try to censor him or any professor for expressing their views on their own blog.
There's more at the following link.
Looks like another case of sleaziness in a government bureaucracy.
Mark A. R. Kleiman - The central theme of the "No Child Left Behind Act" is that the public schools can perform if given measurable goals and strong organizational incentives to meet those goals. Part of the evidence offered for that proposition was the "Texas miracle," and in particualr the improvement of the performance of the Houston schools under Superintendent Rod Paige, now Secretary of Education.Now it turns out that the Houston schools were systematically cooking the books, with at least one large inner-city high school reporting zero dropouts.
Mark Kleiman also provides a link to a relevant post at Open Source Politics.
From NASA come the following news:
Black Hole Sound Waves -Sept. 9, 2003: Astronomers using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have found, for the first time, sound waves from a supermassive black hole. The "note" is the deepest ever detected from any object in our Universe. The tremendous amounts of energy carried by these sound waves may solve a longstanding problem in astrophysics.
The black hole resides in the Perseus cluster of galaxies located 250 million light years from Earth. In 2002, astronomers obtained a deep Chandra observation that shows ripples in the gas filling the cluster. These ripples are evidence for sound waves that have traveled hundreds of thousands of light years away from the cluster's central black hole.
I wonder how you hit that note on a guitar.
If you live in the Western part of the U.S, or even if you don't, you might want to learn about the Western Shoshone Defense Project
The following link via www.mensactivism.org.
REFERENCES EXAMINING ASSAULTS BY WOMEN ON THEIR SPOUSES OR MALE PARTNERS: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
More new papers on the net can be found at the link below.
The following is a small excerpt from the post that I find interesting.
This article examines the changing landscape for wiretaps and other electronic surveillance at the state level in the wake of the events of September 11. Based on available statistics, over two-thirds of law enforcement wiretaps in the United States in 2001 were authorized by state rather than federal judges, and there is evidence of significant under-reporting of state wiretaps. Part I of the Article explains the constitutional and statutory framework for government interception of: the content of a communication ("wiretaps"); to/from information (such as phone numbers or e-mail addresses); and stored communications records. Appendix A to the Article provides a survey and analysis of the interception, to/from, and stored records laws for all 50 states. Appendix B provides a survey of proposed and enacted changes to state laws in the initial period from September 11, 2001 to June 1, 2002. This research was performed on behalf of the Liberty and Security Initiative of the Constitution Project.
Samizdata.net, as usual, posts another post that leads to an interesting article - Samizdata.net - Samizdata quote of the day
Detective Constable Charles A. Ennis of the Vancouver Police Department, Youth Services Unit, writing under the name Kerr Cuhulain, writes about some overly religious, delusional cops who believe in a vast international group of Satanic ritualists who control the world. His article is "Police Who Believe".
More background information can be found here.
Here in looney, homophobic, racist Washington County, Oregon we have a paranoid, delusional, homophobic, racist cop who actually believes in the nonsense about the international, homosexual Satanic Ritualist conspiracy that controls the world. This cop is a secret member of the sleazy Roger Weidner/Victor Oekerman gang and has been a member of the church my relatives (John McClelland hays, Chris Andrea Hays, and Neta Hays) have been a member of for many years.
This cop has also broken into my various residences and illegally bugged my various residences. This cop has also illegally videotaped the mother of my two daughters and me in private moments.
This cop believes the laws of our nation, state and county do not apply to him because he is doing God's work. He's not really. What he really is is just a crooked cop with delusions of grandeur.
For about twenty years this dirtball cop and his buddies in the Roger Weidner gang have been slandering me and trying to frame me, among other illegal activities.
Having had a bunch of ugly, loud, stupid, violent female white supremacists from Roger Weidner's mentally incapacitated gang harass me and attack me over the years I've noticed that all the females are ugly and stupid.
Is being ugly and stupid some sort of prerequisite for being in Roger's gang?
Y'know, you would think that since they are members of the pure, white Aryan, master race there would at least be a couple of cute, intelligent women in the gang. But noooooooo.....and the older they get the uglier and stupider they get.
At first I didn't know these women were all in Roger's gang because they pretend to outsiders that they don't know each other. They all say the same programmed nonsense, though.
The older these hags get the more obnoxious they get.
Update: I've been informed that the main job of the ugly, stupid women in the gang is to spew out those Aryan babies for Roger's and Victor Oekerman's and Lenoard Henderson's psycho war against the Illuminati and the inferior races, so, therefore, the women in the gang don't have to be good looking or intelligent.
The gang has at least convinced one stupid cop and a couple of moronic Navy JAG officers to help the gang further its delusional goals.
Only in looney, homophobic, racist Washington County, Oregon.
Sometimes school buses carry kids. Sometimes when a school bus is stopped it means they are either letting kids off the bus or they are letting kids on the bus. Sometimes kids do things that are not in their best interest, like crossing the street to get on the bus at the most inopportune times imaginable.
SO, IF YOU SEE A SCHOOL BUS THAT IS STOPPED IN THE STREET, THERE IS A POSSIBILITY IT IS STOPPED FOR A GOOD REASON. SO......SOO.....AGAIN SOOOOOOOOOOO............DON'T GO AROUND IT!!!!!!!!! WAIT FOR IT TO BEGIN ITS JOURNEY TO WHEREVER IT IS GOING BEFORE YOU STEP ON THE GAS PEDAL!!!!!!!!!
If you live in a reasonably sized city, then check out the database at www.policepay.net.
Dr. Turecki is a psychiatrist and he has written an interesting article - The Behavioral Complaint. In this article he has used the word "etiology".
Here in looney, homophobic, racist Washington County, Oregon we have a psychiatrist who used to be a cop (maybe he still is a cop). His name is Dr. Ron Turco. When he's not diagnosing people, including me, as members of the international homosexual, Satanic ritual gang he's pumping out accolades he's awarded himself. Interestingly, since my sister, Chris Andrea Hays, became a member of a crazy, homophobic, white supremacist gang she has become convinced she's a victim of the international, homosexual Satanic ritual abuse conspiracy. Of course, she's also become convinced she was abducted by space aliens so we know her enchilada is a few ingredients short.
Questions, questions, questions. Who is Instapundit and does he know the nefarious Puppy Blender?
At the National Association of Scholars (NAS) Online there is a cool post...but...the damn permalink doesn't work.
Somebody forgot to republish the archives.
Since the permalink doesn't work I'm going to put the posting below:
Wednesday, September 03, 2003The Tyranny of Diversity
John Staddon, Duke UniversityI am a psychologist, though not a clinician, but I agree with your anonymous clinical-psychologist correspondent. He is correct to criticize the politicization of clinical psychology. The politics are linked to a covert morality. Clinical "interventions" usually have a moral dimension that is neglected by most practitioners and by the official organs of the profession, such as the American Psychological Association. Which is not to say the field has no morality. It does; but it is rarely made explicit and is very often in conflict with other moral systems, particularly religious ones. Its morality is egocentric and egalitarian.
As an example of egocentrism, consider a strange phenomenon that is becoming surprisingly common among contemporary academics: a change in sexual orientation or gender in mid life. John, a married man with young children becomes unhappy with his sexual identity. He consults his psychologist: What should he do? His course of action raises a moral issue, because it will have an impact on his wife and children. A candidate for transgendering, for example, is unlikely to get three cheers from his kids when they are asked to call him not "Daddy" but "Jane." His wife will not be overjoyed either. Against these "bads" must be balanced the "good" of Jack's "mental health," which will (the therapist may be convinced) be much better if he undergoes surgery and reappears as a woman (his/her tenure prospects may improve also, one suspects).
A moral dilemma -- but not for the average clinical psychologist. His client's "authentic self" is his only concern. If he's convinced that Jack really wants to become Jane, that will be his recommendation -- side effects be damned. In other words, the usual "morality" of clinical psychology is totally self-centered. The only reason your average clinician would seriously consider the unhappiness caused to others by his client's actions is if they adversely impact the client.
Mental "health" differs from physical health in many ways, not the least of which is the reaction of others. A loving family will rejoice when daddy's appendicitis is relieved; not so when he is "cured" of his gender or sexual orientation.
But your correspondent's concern is with a different aspect of the ideology of clinical psychology, its devotion to egalitarianism. Egalitarianism is not specific to psychology; it is the dominant belief among academics in the humanities and social sciences. Why that should be is a story for another time. The quiet but fanatical devotion to (racial, ethnic, but not intellectual) "diversity" derives (I suspect) from egalitarianism. A belief in "diversity" is especially appealing to psychologists because it solves something that is a special problem for them, namely the manifest inequality of human beings. Individuals, and races, differ, not only in obviously biological characteristics like physiognomy and skin color, but more sensitive aspects such as IQ. The reasons for the differences in average IQ, and what they mean in terms of individual psychological processes, are far from clear. But their reality is not in doubt. "Diversity" offers an egalitarian solution to this quandary: different races have different "intelligences" and must therefore get different clinical treatments. What's more (whew!) this means IQ rankings are meaningless.
The idea of irreconcilably different intelligences flies in the face of psychology's claim to be a natural science; it denies the reality of a universal "human nature"; it renders forward progress in understanding the mind almost impossible, since all differences in behavior must be treated as irreducible. It is as if Galileo had accepted the unequal motions of the planets as givens, leaving Newton no work to do in unifying them. And of course there is no evidence for it -- no evidence at all that the minds of human beings differ in ineradicable ways. Indeed, it is hard to know what form such evidence could take, since it amounts to proving a negative.
Most importantly, a belief that different groups think in irreconcilably different ways makes real discourse between different groups and different races -- indeed, even between different human beings -- absolutely impossible. You say the sun goes round the earth and I say the opposite. That's it. We can proceed no further. In such a world controversial issues can be resolved only by force and intimidation, just as your correspondent reports.
NAS9:07 AM
XRLQ is on a mission. I think it's a mission about getting a new word, "esnarca", to be snarky, or something like that. Personally, I think he just made up the word "esnarca". You never know.
---------------------------------------------
While we're on the subject, Howard Bashman was on a mission to get the federal judiciary to make their websites user-friendly (this means making the websites easy for the average citizen to navigate and, in my opinion, to make the websites more aesthetic.)
Let's check out some of the latest posts at How Appealing and see if he's accomplished his mission. Personally, I think he succeeded.
Yes, yes. There is an unsolved mystery smack dab in Washington County, OR. Which dirtball cop in Washington County, Oregon ordered persons on probation and parole in Washington County to assault me and harrass me over a period of many years?
Something tells me that somebody knows and I'll bet that somebody secretly belongs to the fanatical, homophobic, racist, "Christian Identity", "sovereign citizen" Roger Wleidner gang. Maybe there's a whole group of people associated with the gang who knows.
I just watched my favorite team for the last twenty five years (the time the team was in LA doesn't count) lose.....on ESPN???!!! I can't believe it!!! My favorite team lost. Oh well, I guess it's back to the drawing board.
Oregon State lost, also. At least the Oregon Ducks and Portland State University won.
Here's the PAC-10 football standings.
For all you hardcore college football fans (I like college football more than pro football - most of the time), you can peruse mass quantities of statistics at ncaafootball.net.
I'm including two paragraphs from Jack Bogdanski's blog to illustrate Jack's points.
Jack Bog's Blog: "How about a little fire, Scarecrow?" -I've already complained in this space that the Oregon legislators have their priorities all wrong when it comes to ethics in government. Not only did they recently gut the state government ethics commission budget, but they also passed a bill relaxing the government ethics rules to the point of laughability. The budget-gutting of the commission was highlighted in today's Oregonian; the shameful ethics bill is still on the governor's desk. He needs to get his veto pen out -- actually, a large, black veto magic marker would be appropriate.
Today comes word that the Legislature also has drastically reduced current funding for consumer protection. Apparently the folks in the Capitol don't think it's worth it to pursue those who rip off senior citizens and others for only a few thousand dollars a pop. The state attorney general will now be limited to only a few large fraud cases a year. Con artists on a smaller scale than that can operate scot-free.
Porphyrogenitus offers some excellent analyzes of the struggle for the birth and life of the EU constitution. There are links to a series of posts at this post by Porphyrogenitus.
It seems like many professionals have thoughts about being published in "prestigious" journals.
DB's Medical Rants: Criticizing the NEJM
Soldiers for the Truth has a post about MoH Recipient: McCandless, Bruce, Cmdr. USN.
The links below will take you to some of the latest news about Iran.
September 07, 2003
New York Post
Amir Taheri
Until just a few weeks ago, Iran and Britain, having completed a diplomatic honeymoon, appeared to be destined for a mutually enjoyable partnership.
On Tuesday, however, the British government, having recalled its ambassador Richard Dalton, announced the "temporary closure" of its embassy in Tehran. The decision came hours after shots had been fired at the embassy building in the center of the Iranian capital.
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Today's word of the day is equipoise.
e·qui·poise n.
1. Equality in distribution, as of weight, relationship, or emotional forces; equilibrium.
2. A counterpoise; a counterbalance.
"Equipoise" is brought to you by Daniel Drezner and yourdictionary.com.
Read the trackbacks for Daniel Drezner's post because the authors add to Daniel Drezner's observations.
INVESTIGATION INTO THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE DEATH OF DR DAVID KELLY by THE RIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HUTTON. Link via cryptome.org.
Want to find out the compensation for state employees in your state? Then check out State-by-State Government Employee Pay.
It's a PDF file so you'll need the Acrobat Reader. It's free and you can download it here.
At the link below Talkleft has a great post about how the "war on drugs" causes corruption to fester in various entities of various governments including local, state, and federal governments.
TalkLeft: How the Drug War Causes Police Corruption
For more news about the futility of the drug war click here.
Portland Copwatch and The One True b!X have info about Portland Police shootings and the seemingly incompetent and deliberately obfuscating investigations conducted by Portland Police into Portland Police shootings.
One of the reports slams the Multnomah County Districts Attorney's Office for the way it handles Portland Police Bureau shootings. It's about time somebody focused on the District Attorney's office.
Michael Schrunk, the Multnomah County District Attorney, has become, and been, a career bureaucrat for twenty years and while his office churns out mass quantities of propaganda about his being the greatest district attorney in the history of the universe, the truth of the matter is he is not. In fact, compared to great DA's or prosecutors like John K. Van de Kamp or Vincent Bugliosi, Michael Schrunk comes up wanting.
The District Attorney's office can indict almost anybody for any reason, but they hardly ever indict a Portland cop for any kind of shooting, including the most egregious shootings. It also seems like whenever anybody in the DA's office comes upon a smell of corruption, the people in the DA's office head the other way. Maybe the real purpose of the DA's office is to further the goals of crazy, racist, America hating feminists. More info can be found here.
We have a Portland Copwatch. Maybe it's time to have a Multnomah County DA's Office watch.
For those interested, you can read the entire report entitled "The Portland Police Bureau: Officer-Involved Shootings and In-Custody Deaths" from the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC) and decide for yourself.
KATU 2 - Portland, Oregon - In the Garden shows some of the most amazing gardens designed by Jeffrey Bale.