"Let's see if I've got this correct."

PCP Hallucinations in Ferguson - Reason.com: "Koon still thought his mistaken belief about the content of King's blood should count as a mitigating factor, since everyone knows that PCP turns people into irrationally violent monsters with superhuman strength. Wikipedia As is often the case with illegal drugs, what everyone knows turns out to be wrong. In a1988 review of 350 journal articles on PCP in humans, the psychiatrist Martin Brecher and his colleagues concluded that "PCP does not live up to its reputation as a violence-inducing drug." Brecher et al. noted that high doses of PCP can produce "severe agitation and hyperactivity," along with "cognitive disorganization, disorientation, hallucinations, and paranoia." Combined with the drug's anesthetic effect, which makes users less sensitive to pain and therefore harder to restrain, such acute reactions have contributed to PCP's fearsome image. Yet in their search of the literature, Brecher and his co-authors found only three documented cases in which people under the influence of PCP alone had committed acts of violence. They also noted that between 1959 and 1965, when PCP was tested as a human anesthetic, it was given to hundreds of patients, but "not a single case of violence was reported..

This does not mean PCP users are never violent. But when they are, their behavior cannot be understood as a straightforward effect of the drug. "Research on the nexus between substance use and aggression," notes the criminologist Jeffrey Fagan, "consistently has found a complex relation, mediated by the type of substance and its psychoactive effects, personality factors and the expected effects of substances, situational factors in the immediate settings where substances are used, and sociocultural factors that channel the arousal effects of substances into behaviors that may include aggression." The pharmacologist John P. Morgan and the sociologist Lynn Zimmer put it this way: "No drug directly causes violence simply through its pharmacological action."

This point is obvious when we consider alcohol, the drug that is most strongly associated with violence. The fact that some people get into fights after drinking does not mean alcohol makes them behave that way. Variations in responses to alcohol across individuals, cultures, and situations show that drinking does not necessarily lead to bloodshed. "

Romantic comedies have a lot to answer for. 

Glad I am not single these days.  Why Are Educated Women More Likely To Be Single?: "In a recent piece at EliteDaily.com, Lauren “LMoney” Martin offers her own take on the subject and, in the process, brings us much closer to the clarification that prior discourse has sought. 

But why is this? Why don’t men want women with whom they can converse and who challenge them? When did the aversion to strong and intelligent women become a code orange? When did everyone just want to go to the Bahamas and lie around? 

This quote from LMoney puts a spotlight on one of the primary sources of the romantic malaise plaguing so many highly educated women: arrogance...

The reality, of course, is quite contrary to this. Not every woman who went to a great school and graduated with a high GPA is particularly skilled in conversation with the opposite sex. Just as a significant number of extremely intelligent men find their interpersonal communication skills wanting (especially when applied to the opposite sex), so do intelligent women sometimes struggle to connect with men they find interesting. Many of the women most skilled at conversing with the opposite sex do not have the greatest academic credentials...

In an article by “The Wire,” financial reporter, John Carney, gives one explanation for this phenomenon, deducing, “successful men date less successful women not because they want ‘women to be dumb’ but rather because they want ‘someone who prioritizes their life in a way that’s compatible with how you prioritize yours.’” Basically, they want someone... who is dumb enough to make them a priority and, unfortunately, for all those sane, rational and intelligent women out there, there’s a hefty number of these women out there...

The implications above are as follows: 1. Women who make their men (and families) a priority are dumb. 2. Women like LMoney who prioritize their careers and do not make men and families a priority are the only women who are “sane, rational and intelligent.”

In short, LMoney is making the following argument: “Those who do not hold the same perspective on the intersection of romantic and professional life that I hold are insane, unreasonable, and unintelligent.” 

...the fundamental problem with too many women like LMoney: they think they bring far more to the table than they actually do, and are so confident in this belief that they base a tremendous portion of their self-worth and identity on it. Since this belief implies that they are already in possession of everything a member of the opposite sex could want, they don’t spend much time actually examining what the opposite sex wants and correcting any potential deficiencies they may have. As they age and begin to perceive a disconnect between their belief in their own superiority and the reality they live in, they end up in a difficult position. Because they’ve been so convinced of their superiority for so long, they’re entirely unprepared to deal with a reality in which they are not ideal and may actually have to make some personal improvements in order to get what they want or (GASP) settle for something else.

They also spend so much energy embodying the ideal of the independent woman (loudly, proudly, and consistently proclaiming that they do not prioritize men and don’t really need them for anything) that they compromise their ability to find the romantic gratification they subconsciously crave. Good relationships involve a degree of mutual dependence, with each partner recognizing the value of the other and treating them accordingly. In a good relationship, it is typical for both partners to develop an actual need for one another — their presence becomes crucial to the wellbeing of the other. They become a priority to one another because of how much they matter to one another...

One can imagine it being substantially more difficult to begin and maintain such a relationship when you have spent so much energy investing in the idea that individuals of the opposite sex are totally unnecessary and fundamentally unworthy of the serious effort needed to bring and keep them in your life. How difficult must it be to maintain a serious relationship when you’ve spent the bulk of your life marking the individual you seek to enter a relationship with as a disposable and unessential accessory (at best) and an unnecessary nuisance (at worst)?"

JCVD FTW.

Seems Legit. 

Movies used to be awesome. 

Sometimes I miss America so much it hurts. The $10 “Meat Mountain” from Arby’s: It’s exactly what it sounds like. - The Washington Post: "The “Meat Mountain,” as it’s called, will not be listed on the menu, but store associates will make it for customers who ask. The price is $10. For that, you get a bun and, from the bottom up: 2 chicken tenders 1.5 oz. of roast turkey 1.5 oz. of ham 1 slice of Swiss cheese 1.5 oz. of corned beef 1.5 oz. brisket 1.5 oz. of Angus steak 1 slice of cheddar cheese 1.5 oz. roast beef 3 half-strips of bacon"

"We do things that are urgent, but not important." Breaking the Pattern of Reaction to Regain Control

Limiting Beliefs: Snap Out of Your Trance

Conflicting Values: Sabotaging Your Success

Keys to Living a Fulfilled Life

Training - "Consistency."

8/25 - press, Arnold press, side/rear laterals, Gironda swings - knee raise, twisting crunches

Photo by karatehottiemma: "Don't know how to flex my back but I'm super happy with the progress I've made with my strength and conditioning coach steve from Turning Point here in Albuquerque! #champ #bam #gains #doyouevenliftbro"

Master Ken vs. The Karate Hottie 2 - YouTube

"If you think this Universe is bad, you should see some of the others." - Philip K. Dick

  

I came, I saw, I conquered.: 

 Texts from Star Trek: The Next Generation:

"Depolarization destroys relationships."

"Lower your expectations for everyone else..."

"When you make it worse than it is it overwhelms you, and you won't begin..."

"Most people don't want to feel the fear that they're not enough..."

"We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being..."

No ice bucket challenge for U.S. diplomats | The Rundown | PBS NewsHour: "Lawyers at the State Department have banned American ambassadors and other high-profile foreign service officers from participating in the ice-bucket challenge to raise money and awareness for Lou Gehrig’s disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. In a cable sent this week to all U.S. diplomatic missions..."

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." - Shakespeare

Newspapers are, pretty much, dead. - Boing Boing: "Clay Shirky has some some truths: "Maybe 25 year olds will start demanding news from yesterday, delivered in an unshareable format once a day. Perhaps advertisers will decide 'Click to buy' is for wimps. Mobile phones: could be a fad. After all, anything could happen with print. Hard to tell, really.""

Because Bob Tyrrell Prefers Scotch, Marijuana Should Be Banned - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "In a column published yesterday, Bob Tyrrell, founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator, explains why alcohol is better than marijuana. Both drinking and pot smoking are "coping mechanisms," he concedes, but alcohol is clearly more "civilized" because people can enjoy the taste, drink while reading or conversing, and imbibe without getting "blitzed." All this is either impossible or quite rare among cannabis consumers, Tyrrell asserts with the confidence of someone who has no idea what he's talking about.

"Pot prohibitionists have been pushing this argument for many years, utterly undeterred by how ridiculous they sound to anyone who is familiar with cannabis or with cannabis consumers. If Tyrrell were merely defending his own tastes, there would be no point in arguing with him. But he is doing more than that: He is defending the legal distinction between alcohol and marijuana, insisting that his tastes should be forcibly imposed on everyone else. Given the boldness of that demand, the frivolousness of his argument is striking." 

Why 2 Businesses Survived Ferguson Looting A Lesson for All: "There were police everywhere in Ferguson Sunday night, and not one of those stores were protected against looters. But the two businesses above WERE spared — because they were able to arm themselves. The lesson should have been learned for good after the 1992 L.A. Riots, when only shop owners in Koreatown were spared because they defended their stores with force of arms...

Why 2 Businesses Survived Ferguson Looting A Lesson for All: "At Riverfront Tattoo, owners Mike Gutierrez ( below left) and Adam Weinstein (third from left) brought AR-15s, body armor and lots of high-capacity magazines (the type Obama wants banned) to guard their store against mayhem..."

Huey P. Newton Gun Club Pushes #BlackOpenCarry to Protest Police Violence - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "In Texas, blacks are protesting police violence in a particularly Southwestern way: By invoking their right to open carry. On Wednesday, more than 30 members of the newly-formed Huey P. Newton Gun Club gathered to march through South Dallas with rifles, shotguns, and AR-15s. The group eventually entered a restaurant with their weapons while Dallas police officers were inside eating lunch."

Malcolm X - Wikiquote: "We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."

From School Cupcake Bans to Ferguson to Iraq: George Will's Unified Field Theory of Contempt for Govt - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Washington’s response to the menace of school bake sales illustrates progressivism’s ratchet: The federal government subsidizes school lunches, so it must control the lunches' contents, which validates regulation of what it calls "competitive foods," such as vending machine snacks. Hence the need to close the bake sale loophole, through which sugary cupcakes might sneak: Foods sold at fundraising bake sales must, with some exceptions, conform to federal standards. 

What has this to do with police, from Ferguson, Mo., to your home town, toting marksman rifles, fighting knives, grenade launchers and other combat gear? Swollen government has a shriveled brain: By printing and borrowing money, government avoids thinking about its proper scope and actual competence. So it smears mine-resistant armored vehicles and other military marvels across 435 congressional districts because it can. 

And instead of making immigration policy serve the nation’s values and workforce needs, government, egged on by conservatives, aspires to emulate East Germany along the Rio Grande, spending scores of billions to militarize a border bristling with hardware bought with previous scores of billions. 

Much of this is justified by the United States’ longest losing “war,” the one on drugs. Is it, however, necessary for NASA to have its own SWAT team?... Contempt for government cannot be hermetically sealed; it seeps into everything. Which is why cupcake regulations have foreign policy consequences. Americans, inundated with evidence that government is becoming dumber and more presumptuous, think it cannot be trusted to decipher foreign problems and apply force intelligently."

Ferguson's "free speech zone" is a padlocked no-man's-land - Boing Boing: "The ACLU was denied an emergency injunction against Ferguson's cops' illegal "no standing on the sidewalk" rule because Ferguson promised to erect a "free speech zone," but the only thing on that site is a fenced-off, locked-up pen that no one is allowed to use. At least 78 people have been arrested for standing on the sidewalk in Ferguson, prompting Amnesty International to send 10 observers to the town -- the first time Amnesty's observers have been deployed in the USA. Activists point out that the rule against protesting while stationary amounts to a ban on protesting by disabled and elderly people altogether."

Petty Law Enforcement and Its Effect on Ferguson - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "If indeed more people's usual interactions with police had anything to do with "protecting and serving" and less with violently messing up your life for reasons that can seem petty and pointless, from people whose version of respect is "do everything I say the way I'm comfortable with or you might die," the atmosphere surrounding what happened in Ferguson would likely be less toxic. I remember a few years ago lecturing on libertarianism to a group of community college kids in downtown Atlanta. They sniffed a bit of anarchism around what I was discussing, though I wasn't explicit about it. How would society work without police, a student asked me? I asked them this Zen question: contemplate for a moment that, in any respect in which it helped rather than harmed your life, there pretty much already are no police.  No one argued much."

Police Department Says Cop Camera Footage Not Public Record - Hit & Run : Reason.com: " At least one witness claims Brown stood with his hands up and screamed "I don't have a gun, stop shooting!" while a "source close to the department's top brass" told FoxNews.com that Brown nearly beat Officer Darren Wilson unconscious before Wilson shot Brown six times.  With such disparity between eyewitness accounts, and with high-definition video technology so inexpensive and ubiquitous, there is a growing demand for police to record their interactions with the public. As Reason's Ron Bailey wrote, "Requiring law enforcement to wear video cameras will protect your constitutional rights and improve policing." There have already been some ups and downs with experiments in police cameras. Cameras have been turned off, failed to record, and footage has been lost. It will also likely take some time before departments require their officers to record and preserve video evidence rather than merely suggesting they do so.  Still, in places like Rialto, California, the mere presence of cameras has resulted in a precipitous drop in complaints and use of force. It has also improved community relations with the police, since everyone tends to exhibit more civilized behavior when they know they are being recorded."

Trying so hard not to laugh.  BBC News - Global warming slowdown 'could last another decade': "Scientists have struggled to explain the so-called pause that began in 1999, despite ever increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere."

Awesome.  Police officer goes above and beyond for Sumter teen - WSMV Channel 4: "A few weeks ago, 13-year-old Cameron Simmons called Sumter police because he was upset after fighting with his mom. The teenager told police he didn't want to live in the house with his family anymore. Officer Gaetano Acerra responded to the call. "I said, ‘You have it good, you have a roof over your head,'" said Acerra. "I told him I would try to help him out, and here we are now."    The officer brought Simmons home, and realized the boy didn't have a real bed. In fact, Simmons didn't have nearly anything he needed for a bedroom. "My heart went out for him," said Acerra. "I thought the little things that he needed I could give him, to make him a happier kid." A few weeks after the call, Acerra showed up at Simmon's house with a truck full of gifts. "Bed, TV, desk, chair, a Wii game system that somebody donated to me because of the story I told them," said Acerra."

"Captain America:  He's Cool Now."

Millennials Are Selfish and Entitled and Helicopter Parents Are to Blame | TIME: "There are more overprotective moms and dads at a time when children are actually safer than ever...

Seventy-one percent of American adults think of 18 to 29 year-olds—millennials, basically—as “selfish,” and 65% of us think of them as “entitled.” That’s according to the latest Reason-Rupe Poll, a quarterly survey of 1,000 representative adult Americans. If millennials are self-absorbed little monsters who expect the world to come to them and for their parents to clean up their rooms well into their twenties, we’ve got no one to blame but ourselves—especially the moms and dads among us.

Indeed, the same poll documents the ridiculous level of kid-coddling that has now become the new normal. More than two-thirds of us think there ought to be a law that kids as old as 9 should supervised while playing at a public park...  We think on average that kids should be 10 years old before they “are allowed to play in the front yard unsupervised.” Unless you live on a traffic island or a war zone, that’s just nuts. It gets worse: We think that our precious bundles of joy should be 12 before they can wait alone in a car for five minutes on a cool day or walk to school without an adult, and that they should be 13 before they can be trusted to stay home alone. You’d think that kids raised on Baby Einstein DVDs should be a little more advanced than that...

Curiously, this sort of ridiculous hyper-protectiveness is playing out against a backdrop in which children are safer than ever. Students reporting bullying is one-third of what it was 20 years ago and, according to a study in JAMA Pediatrics, the past decade has seen massive declines in exposure to violence for kids. Out of 50 trends studied, summarize the authors, “there were 27 significant declines and no significant increases between 2003 and 2011. Declines were particularly large for assault victimization, bullying, and sexual victimization. There were also significant declines in the perpetration of violence and property crime...

But whatever the reasons for our insistence that we childproof the world around us, this way madness lies."