POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

From the Wardrobe of Dahlhalla

Via Twitter.

Speaking of non sequiturs, Egyptian soccer team defeats Algerian soccer team, Muslims riot in Marseilles. The global tantrum continues, and I'm sure that this isn't in any way associated.

Funeral for a moth: politicians move to protect themselves

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Estrogen by the Numbers

Howdy y'all, I'm meep, another chick joining POWIP's bevy, as Dan says the chicks are a draw. I live to help my fellow blogger.

And I'll be a draw by bringing my awesome power of ACTUARY!

What's an actuary, you ask? Well, here's an example:

Meet the Actuary, The Penguin's new henchman

This bright guy used the awesome power of ACTUARY to detect Batman's nefarious pattern... that the Batman has foiled various criminals only at night, and thus begins one of the funniest 2-issue episode in Batman comic history.

Alas, too often we actuaries do tell the public the most obvious stuff, such as: we're all going to die!.... eventually.

In any case, you can check out some of my other writing on these series of tubes we call the intarsphere here: meep.livejournal.com, my livejournal that goes back to 2000, and then my online journal which goes back to 1996. I didn't start actuarying til 2003, and didn't get my full credentials til 2007, but I've always been a numbers person.

To tide you over til I make a post with real content, and to give you the sort of value I can add to POWIP, an explanation of how to use Bayesian analysis to determine what sex I am.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.

Beyond the Pleasure Principle at Ft. Hood

In Beyond the Pleasure Principle, Freud set out to understand why traumatic events could lead to nightmares and "flashbacks." This was in the wake of WWI, and partly in response to the diagnosis of "shell shock." The Pleasure Principle could explain dreams that reconciled negative emotions, but couldn't explain those that revisited the event of a trauma repeatedly on those who survived it.

The analogy that Freud used was similar to that of the body defending itself against a perceived foreign threat by summoning antibodies (and Islamism is nothing if not xenophobic). A traumatic breach of psychic defenses caused a "hypercathexis" of psychic energies against the psychic "location" (in memory) of the breach, in this analogy. Energies were poured into the gaping hole left in the normative sense of security that people require to function properly, and the subconscious mind's repeated unsuccessful attempts to neutralize the threat led to its replaying. It's become a motif of war and action movies that the hero who has experienced a traumatic event will relive it in his dreams, waking in a cold sweat with his adamantium claws fully extended.

Today, Ann Coulter and others recapitulate the MSM spin on the Ft. Hood massacre which describes Hasan as having suffered from second-hand PTSD, an explanation that is meant both to explain and mitigate his behavior. It is undeniable that Hasan was a deeply troubled individual, and we've discussed on this site some of the ways in which that was so, and the Army and intelligence services seem to share a good deal of blame for having conveniently minimized their assessments of the threat he posed in obeisance to political correctness. Still, there is, at least in Freudian thought, such a thing as a "Reality Principle" that is arrogantly elided by the narratives offered by the MSM in general: Hasan is an Islamist who sought out contacts with enemies of the United States and voiced radical opinions that dehumanized those not of his sect, before leaping on a desk, shouting "Allahu akbar!" and emptying multiple clips into a crowd of unarmed soldiers and civilians in an attempt to take as many of them as possible to his martyrdom.

PTSD is a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis, and whatever one may think of Freud's theory---we'll skip the idea of "thanatos" for now, though it could be used to lend a patina of intelligent motive to the MSM's response---it does seek to grapple with the issue of the psychic damage that is visited on trauma victims and to explain the behaviors that arise as a result of the trauma. What it does not and cannot do is illuminate the media hypercathexis to the "threat" of blaming radical Islamism for atrocities visited on individuals and societies by its adherents. For that, one needs to consider the narcissism and psychotic delusion that is required to project his hatred onto those who judge him in the proper light.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Thanks, Douchebags!

The other night on Twitter, "The Girls" were--surprise!--bitching about men. (I use the term "bitching" out of love, btw.) I made the comment that crappy boyfriends taught me some of the most important lessons of my life. Though no one really seemed to want me to elaborate, I thought it would make for a great post, or a post, at least, and would give me a chance to flex my estrogen around here.

We're always told to treat others the way we want to be treated. However, you also have to treat yourself the way you want others to treat you.  At the age of 17 I felt fat, unlovable, and insecure. So I ended up with a boyfriend who treated me like I was fat, unlovable, and insecure. Now, even if I'd started with a boyfriend who wasn't an asshole, I would have turned him into one because he could have given me all the compliments in the world and I wouldn't have believed him. And few things are as obnoxious as complimenting someone who argues with you about it. My moment of clarity came on my birthday after we'd been dating for almost three years. He'd been an ass all day and on top of it, didn't get me anything for my birthday because I "didn't deserve it." That's when I realized he didn't deserve me because I wasn't that insecure fat girl anymore, I was awesome and I was awesomely getting rid of him.

While I was in massage school, one of my best friends was cheating on her husband. I told her I didn't understand why she didn't just get a divorce; she told me, aghast, "I couldn't do that. I've never been on my own." I said, "What do you mean you've never been on your own?" She said, "I went from living with my parents to getting married. I've never been on my own. I wouldn't know how to do it." I didn't even know what to say-I couldn't comprehend living that way.

I bought my house when I was 19 and boyfriend #2 moved in shortly after I turned 21. He worked out of town a lot so it was pretty much like living alone. About the time I was wondering why I bothered keeping him around, an incident happened that changed everything. I got out of the shower one morning and the back door to the house was wide open; he always left through the front door in the mornings so I freaked, got dressed, and went to work. I asked him if he'd noticed anything when he left for work and of course, he hadn't. When he got home that night I was already home; I'd forgotten about the whole thing but he reminded me and I told him to go down in the basement and check. The basement at that time was old and gross and rarely used and had great hiding spots for people who wanted to rob, rape, or kill me. Instead he tells me to grab my gun; I didn't have my .45 and certainly hadn't taken my handgun course yet so all I had at the time was my little .380.  I said, "Okay, here you go!" He grabbed his paintball gun and told me to "cover him." I was so mad at the stupidity of it all I was tempted for a second to just shoot him in the back of the head as I was walking down the stairs behind him.

So I learned one of the most important things to do is to be able to take care of yourself. I've never really expected a man to "take care" of me in a traditional sense, but I did expect him to at least shoot a guy for me if necessary. But maybe my expectations are a little skewed.

The point is, thanks to crappy boyfriends, I was forced to realize how awesome I am and that if I don't believe it, no one will...and that I can shoot my own bad guys when necessary. ;)

Falahime

Falahime Blah blah blah, Wyoming, blah blah, massage therapist, details cars, used to sell beer, blah blah, hunts big game. That’s about all there is to me; I’m pretty simple.

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Obama in 2006, Regarding KSM [UPDATE]

From Naked Emperor News via Breitbart.tv:

One big, long photo op. Not-so-accidentally like a martyr.

UPDATE: Oh, looky! While second-guessing Truman and politicizing the KSM trial, Obama doesn't want Congress investigating the Ft. Hood Massacre.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Those to whom I Raise a Glass

The passing of my closest buddy has given me ample time to think about friends specifically - and people in general. And ultimately about those I prefer to spend my time with (at work or otherwise) and share my thoughts with, exchange words and tidings with, and simply be with.

I will go ahead and list those qualities I love about the people I love most:

1) rugged individualism - this is a chief requirement. And with it comes...

2) contempt for authority - in particular a complete distrust of The Man

3) unwavering honesty - towards others and in particular regarding the self.

4) self-knowledge - of own blind-spots / shortcomings

5) awareness - that there is more to this than meets the eye

6) humility about self - resolve to become a better spirit

6) consistency / predictability

7) calmness & resilience - in the face of adversity

8) humor - especially of the sardonic variety

9) mercy - being able to stand in someone else's shoes

10) love - and the ability to express it

11) demonstrable expertise in line of work

12) not afraid to make enemies

13) willing to die - literally - for what is right

14) opinionated - everyone has an asshole for a reason - those without assholes can be said to be full of shit

15) loyal & dependable

16) non-partisan - I don't care from where on the spectrum they see the world, as long as they can step away from party-ism and discuss/debate/teach/learn - and step away from the game within The Game

17) interesting - not quite right in the head

I am truly blessed to have some very wonderful friends - both off-line and online - who each day reinforce my belief that Christ Himself is present in many people to some degree or another - if only we take the time to recognize and greet Him when we find reflections of Him in others.

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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Saturday Links

The ever-enlightening Blogess talks about secret codes and dog whistles.

Put a stake in it.

Union workers in NY replaced by non-union workers in FL.

America on trial, more than KSM.

Douchy ManBearPig gets his snark on. Considering nobody's allowed to ask questions at his events unless the question's been fully vetted and approved, that's rich, fatboy.

Mixology contest: Invent a cocktail called a Flaming Douchebag (AZT may not be one of the ingredients, though--all stuff one is likely to have in his liquor cabinet).

En fuego

The word incomprehensible does not do justice to the FBI’s conclusion that jihadist saboteur Nidal Hasan’s numerous communications with jihadist imam Anwar al-Awlaki were either (a) not significant enough to warrant further investigation or (b) significant but immune from further investigation on First Amendment grounds.

She's got a 36D brain, man.

AP fact checks Palin's book. Sister Toldjah has more.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Bang, Bang, My Baby Shot Me Down

I woke up this morning in a pretty foul mood and made the statement on Twitter that I just wanted to shoot some shit today. Not "shoot the shit" but literally shoot something. The number of immediate sympathetic responses made me think of this:

Shooting ranges in office buildings. I think this would cut the number of people "going postal" to virtually zero. Who is going to take a gun into a building to try to do some damage when everyone there has guns?

Besides, I think it would increase employee productivity and morale. You have a bad evaluation--take your break and go fire off a few magazines. Exhausted and frustrated from with a completely moronic client? Time for a time-out in the shooting range! A promotion is on the line between two candidates and the boss can't decide? Settle it with some target shooting!

Yes, I'm being facetious. (Kind of.) I just know if I had started my day shooting through two magazines of .45 ammo or even just popping some targets with a .22 I could have shot this mood out rather than having it potentially settle in for the day. So this silly little post is for everyone who wanted to indulge a fantasy of harmlessly shooting their cares away today.

Falahime

Falahime Blah blah blah, Wyoming, blah blah, massage therapist, details cars, used to sell beer, blah blah, hunts big game. That’s about all there is to me; I’m pretty simple.

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