Can Congress Make You Buy Broccoli?

12/31/10. Yes, No, or Maybe?

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/can-congress-make-you-buy-broccoli/?print=1

Making 2011 the Year of Great Relationships

12/20/10.

WSJ writer Elizabeth Bernstein:

"Increasingly, experts have been telling us how important social bonds are to well-being, affecting everything from how our brains process information to how our bodies respond to stress. People with strong connections to others may live longer. The quality of our relationships is the single biggest predictor of our happiness..."


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203731004576045721718177728.html?KEYWORDS=elizabeth+bernstein#articleTabs%3Darticle

Billy Taylor. R.I.P.

12/30/10. Jazz pianist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/30/arts/music/30taylor.html?_r=1&hpw

Denis Dutton. R.I.P.

12/29/10.

December 28, 2010, 11:14 am

"Denis Dutton, founder and editor of Arts & Letters Daily and a professor of philosophy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, has died. Born in California, Mr. Dutton received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He created Arts & Letters Daily in 1998. The Chronicle of Higher Education purchased the widely praised site in 2002."

Chronicle of Higher Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/founder-of-arts-letters-daily-dies/29349

The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2010/12/denis-dutton.html

The New York Times
http://www.city-journal.org/2010/eon1229td.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/01/arts/01dutton.html?_r=1&hpw

So Young and So Many Pills

12/28/10. So many children and adolescents benefit from accurate diagnoses of medical and psychiatric disorders --- and sometimes medications offer life-saving benefits.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203731004576046073896475588.html?KEYWORDS=kids+and+drugs

Monday Quotations

12/27/10.

"I have no race prejudices, and I think I have no
color prejudices nor caste prejudices nor creed
prejudices. Indeed, I know it. I can stand any society.
All that I care to know is that a man is a human being --- that is enough for me; he can't be any worse."

---Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)


"He who would do good to another must do it
in minute particulars;
General good is the plea of the scoundrel,
hypocrite, and flatterer:
For art and science cannot exist but in
minutely organized particulars.

---William Blake (1757 - 1827)


"Liberty is the hardest test that one can inflict
on a people. To know how to be free is not
given equally to all men and all nations."

--- Paul Valery (1871 - 1945)

The Original Birth of Freedom

12/27/10. Starting in Athens.

http://www.city-journal.org/2010/20_4_history-of-freedom.html

Book Review: "Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life"

12/24/10.

Eric Felten introduces the author Karen Armstrong:

"...A couple of years ago the TED Conference awarded a prize to popular religious historian Karen Armstrong. In addition to giving her a handsome cash award, the TED people offered to fulfill a wish of hers for a better world. And so they helped her to organize a "Charter for Compassion." Suggestions were solicited across the Internet for how we can restore compassion to the center of moral life. This trove of deep thoughts was culled "by leading thinkers from a variety of major faiths" and condensed into a manifesto in favor of empathy, the golden rule and 'a principled determination to transcend selfishness...' "
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704774604576036192104542026.html?KEYWORDS=try+a+little+less+tenderness

The Rational Optimist

12/24/10. Three views on Matt Ridley, including Matt Ridley.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/three-views-of-matt-ridley/

The Arduous Community

12/22/10.

David Brooks on Erica Brown:

"...Then I invited her to coffee, and it all became clear. Brown has what many people are looking for these days. In the first place, she has conviction. For her, Judaism isn’t a punch line or a source of neuroticism; it’s a path to self-confident and superior living. She didn’t seem hostile to the things that make up most coffee-table chatter — status, celebrity, policy, pop culture — she just didn’t show much interest. As one of her students e-mailed me: “Erica embodies Judaism’s stand against idol worship. It is actually true that she worships nothing other than God, which is particularly unusual in Washington..."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/opinion/21brooks.html?src=me&ref=homepage

Tracing the Spark of Creative Puzzle-Solving

12/22/10.

"...In a just completed study, researchers at Northwestern University found that people were more likely to solve word puzzles with sudden insight when they were amused, having just seen a short comedy routine..."


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/science/07brain.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Joseph Epstein: "The long, unhappy life of Saul Bellow"

12/20/10. Who knew? Joseph Epstein, and others.

http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/The-long--unhappy-life-of-Saul-Bellow-6495

NewScientist: Best Books of 2010

12/20/10. Scientists and authors pick their favorite books of the year.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/culturelab/2010/12/best-books-of-2010-its-funny-when-a-planet-dies.html

Monday Quotations

12/20/10

“I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.”

--- Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 – 1926)


“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the one I used to know,
Where the tree-tops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.”

--- Irving Berlin (1888 – 1989)


“In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking
Now, heaven knows,
Anything goes.”

--- Cole Porter (1891 – 1964)

Einstein's God

12/15/10. So if God does not roll dice --- what is God's role?

http://www.bigquestionsonline.com/columns/michael-shermer/einstein%E2%80%99s-god

How to Cope with Adult Temper Tantrums

12/14/10.

WSJ writer Elizabeth Bernstein on relationships and anger:

How do you keep a loved one's tantrums from ruining your relationship? Here are some tips from the experts:
Don't be silent. Ignoring the bad behavior enables it. And withdrawal makes the angry person feel judged, says Joe James, a psychologist and anger-management specialist.

Validate the feelings, not the behavior. 'Say, "Honey, I understand that you are really upset," ' says Karen McMahon, a divorce and separation coach from Oceanside, N.Y. 'You are not validating their reaction; you are validating their emotion. And it is the quickest way to disarm them.'

Explain later why the behavior upsets you. Were you embarrassed? Irritated that an evening out was ruined? Frustrated that the situation caused delays? Say, 'I love you but it's hard for me to be supportive of you when you handle a situation like that.'

Ask open-ended questions. How does the person feel about her behavior? Is she under stress? Try to understand what's going on.

Change your own behavior. Stop upholding your end of the relationship—refuse to cook, say—until the bad behavior stops. 'As soon as one person begins to change, the dance has to change,' Ms. McMahon says. 'The shift always happens when you change yourself, not the other person.'

 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703727804576017430496839642.html?KEYWORDS=This+Loved+One+will+Explode

"Anger helps straighten out a problem like a fan helps straighten out a pile of papers."

---Susan Mancotte

Untangling the Myths About Attention Disorders

12/13/10. Perri Klass, M.D. reviews some concrete evidence for a real, but intangible disorder.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/health/14klass.html?_r=1&hpw

Stephen Hawking's Radical Philosophy of Science

12/12/10. Psychologist and editor of Skeptic Magazine, Michael Shermer outlines this radical view of science.

Michael Shermer writes:

"Do you think that there is a computer screen sitting in front of you right now?


It would certainly seem so if you are reading these words online, but in fact you are not actually “seeing” the computer screen in front of you. What you see are photons of light bouncing off the screen (and generated by the internal electronics of the screen itself), which pass through the hole in the iris of your eye, through the liquid medium inside your eye, wending their way through the bipolar and ganglion cells to strike the rods and cones at the back of your retina. These photons of light carry just enough energy to bend the molecules inside the rods and cones to change the electrochemical balance inside these cells, causing them to fire, or have what neuroscientists call an “action potential.” ...
http://www.bigquestionsonline.com/columns/michael-shermer/stephen-hawking’s-radical-philosophy-of-science

A Roomful of Yearning and Regret

12/12/10.

Wendy Plump writes from personal experience in her marriage --- how affairs damage trust and wreck lives.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/fashion/12Modern.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=a%20roomful%20of%20yearning%20and%20regret&st=cse

Human Nature and Capitalism

12/12/10. Arthur C. Brooks and Peter Wehner:

"The model of human nature one embraces will guide and shape everything else, from the economic system one prefers to the political system one supports."

http://www.american.com/archive/2010/december/human-nature-and-capitalism