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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 78 to 102 of 117. Go back in thread:
Posted by sigismund on November 10, 2018, at 8:07:51
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 9, 2018, at 4:17:52
I wouldn't want to overstate the virtues of the ALP. But the way it handled the Thatcherite capitalist necessities of the late 70s and early 80s in Australia really softened the outcome for us.
Posted by beckett2 on November 10, 2018, at 13:33:02
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 10, 2018, at 5:41:06
> So 1,500,000 former felons in Florida will have the right to vote.
>
> That seems like a lot of people to have locked up.
>
> "We all have enough strength to endure the misfortunes of others."
>
>
> "First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out
> Because I was not a socialist.
>
> Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out
> Because I was not a trade unionist.
>
> Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out
> Because I was not a Jew.
>
> Then they came for meand there was no one left to speak for me."
>That's just Florida.
The smoke is awful.. It's pretty scary.
I don't know enough about Thatcher and the 80's, but the US has taken some wrong turns.
There is possible movement on gun control. I sense it in the press and people.
Posted by sigismund on November 10, 2018, at 16:47:40
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 10, 2018, at 13:33:02
Well, you had Reagan, and what was less excusable, Clinton.
Once the guns are in the community the argument for no gun control makes more sense, since the bad guys already have them. Montana will be different to New York etc.
But......
Completely exposing the NRA
Holding Citizens United in open contempt (I suppose it is.)
Ending the wars
(Goodness me, what's the strategy? 9/11 was a Saudi intelligence branch operation known about by the FBI, cover for the invasion of the Middle East up to and including Iran. Why? It's something to do with the Anglosphere. The US, Israel and Saudi Arabia united in the war on terror. Wonderful. The wheels fell off that cart ages ago.)
And using that money to care for people in the US. That seems the hardest. It is so much more acceptable to kill (the best part of?) a million people for nothing more than to indulge a sense of righteousness than it is to have free health care and education. I don' know why this is. No one ever asks of military spending 'How will we pay for this?'But everybody knows this. Although sometimes I see the Fox alternative reality on clips on the Majority Report, so I dunno. They hate the poor. There's the mirror again. They want total impunity, including from reality.
You remember those words of Roy Harper....
The dream is righteous grandeur fit to flood the universe.
Narcissism as politics?
Posted by sigismund on November 10, 2018, at 17:02:38
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 10, 2018, at 13:33:02
Oh, I understand what you meant about the smoke now.
It was horrible how those Palestinian kids had the temerity to light fires and throw rocks, giving the world the impression they had something to complain about. They should have been grateful. Same thinking as this.......
There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
Just Like Puerto Rico.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 10, 2018, at 22:44:15
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 10, 2018, at 17:02:38
I know I've been ranting about how people in these parts don't know what informed consent is...
But it turns out that recently (this year) there was an article in a journal and also newspaper about how significant numbers of medical students had been performing intimate procedures on patients without obtaining consent.
the point is... they have started speaking out about it. and saying that it isn't acceptable.
last year... the law camp came under fire in these parts. apparently this year... the auckland law camp is similarly coming under fire. the camps are basically... there is a lot of drinking (because our drinking age is so low) and then a lot of nudity and so on... some people say it's all in good fun... but other people say they feel pressured into participating in things they do not feel good about...
there is a bully / sleazy aspect to law in NZ that I noticed (e.g., with my young public defender lawyer in the conversation she was trying to stike up with people in the court room before the judge came in). It was in fact that lack of professionalism in her that really was something significant in my knowing that law was not for me.
anyway... the medical people are saying that the law people have started to acknowledge abuses in the system... the law camp coming under fire was after a law firm came under fire when female interns complained about sexual harrassment there...
anyway...
point is...
that people are speaking out about these things and they are slowly starting to change. don't get me wrong, best to minimise time spent if you want to make it any kind of likely you can come out the other end without being ruined by bullies and abusers...
but i'm glad they have spoken out about this... before i got there.
before i got failed for not partaking in it.
Posted by beckett2 on November 10, 2018, at 22:45:15
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 10, 2018, at 17:02:38
> Oh, I understand what you meant about the smoke now.
>
> It was horrible how those Palestinian kids had the temerity to light fires and throw rocks, giving the world the impression they had something to complain about. They should have been grateful. Same thinking as this.......
>
> There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!
>
> Just Like Puerto Rico.The area north, where the town of Paradise burned through in a day, is home to many trump supporters, and with comments (tweets!) like that, he certainly lost support.
I hope not like Puerto Rico, but if he had his way, then yes. What he cannot control, he devalues. Losers!
sigi, I don't know what will be left of my state :(
Posted by alexandra_k on November 10, 2018, at 22:53:07
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 10, 2018, at 22:44:15
though apparently the person who has decided now is the time to speak up about the numbers of essays she's reading from students saying they feel bad about performing these procedures without consent...
well... apparently she's been reading essays about this for the last 8 years.
but now is a good time to speak up.
i wonder if it's because all our essays / university stuff is submitted online and so that gives overseas people a chance to read it (and actually see what people are passed for and failed for and actually read it for meaning).
it was these people speaking up about how they managed to buy NZ citizenship for themselves at x price and how they spend less than y days in the country.
they are helping us by speaking up about what they have done.
kim.com funded a whole highest court of appeal decision in this country. and thank f*ck*ng god we made the right decision (to extradite him so he could be held accountable for his actions by his home country)...
because if we really were prepared to let people buy a place here no matter their foreign crimes...
well... we really were prepared to do that.
i don't feel that i owe this country anything, anymore. i have in fact contributed significantly to it's development and it barely returned enough to me for my basic needs to be met. i would have contributed more to it's development and it wouldn't even provide me with the minimal resources (largely to do with non-interference) so I could read and write and study.
just awful people taking what they could get because they could get it. awful awful people ruining things for us all.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 10, 2018, at 23:08:26
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 10, 2018, at 22:45:15
it's because nz decided not to bother investing in me.
when the inspectors came around when i was in primary and thought i was better off there, in the poor community...
when the high school teachers allowed me to drop maths and economics and accounting and science and everything... except for english...
when they laughed at me for saying i wanted to do med...
just every step of the way, really.when i come back here and say i want to finish my thesis, if i can find a quiet place to live...
but i don't get enough money to have a quiet place to live
when i try and find a job...
but they want to hold out on that until i'll accept a job doing something obviously immoral
when they won't enrol me in what i want to learn (secondary level science)
when they enrol me in other stuff and then fail me for stuff i'm good at -- becuae they think they can get away with that.
when they wont' enrol me in graduate level research...
when they lose my enrolment...i mean really.
what has nz ever done for me?
Posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 3:54:40
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 10, 2018, at 22:45:15
>sigi, I don't know what will be left of my state :(
The same problem I read on Counterpunch extends up to Washington State (to say nothing of the glaciers). But Oregon has a reputation for being wet? And then down to California.
The indigenous in Australia practiced many kinds of burning, mainly cool weather burning. The knowledge was largely lost, so Australia 150 years after their dispersal (that was the word) was more wooded with thinner taller trees. Like California, vulnerable to fire. Not the rainforest but the sclerophyll (which doesn't explain much but includes eucalypts) and then there is the heath that needs to burn to reproduce. But that has been Ausralia's pattern, not yours. In Wellington I saw many big west coast American trees, I can't recall their names.
What a self absorbed idiot he is.
Posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 4:34:58
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » beckett2, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 3:54:40
From Andrew Levine's latest column.........
Remember too that while there is morbidity and mortality, there is hope.
Being notoriously fickle, the gods might just find it amusing to stop afflicting the world with the Donald, and instead, at long last, to turn on that vile creature himself.
If and when that happens, I, for one, would be especially pleased were cholesterol to be their instrument of choice. Thus, when I see that noxious Trump punimon my TV screen, I often find myself recalling the demise of Mr. Creosote in Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life. There is some consolation to be found in imagining Hispanic restaurant workers in one or another of Trumps gaudy golf resorts bringing the Commander-in-Chief his final cheeseburger and a bucket.
That is at least as likely a scenario as any involving the Democratic Party.
Posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 5:18:41
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 4:34:58
There has just been an earthquake! I have never been in a real one. It was like something was going wild in the base of the building. I didn't have my pants on! What will I do if the building starts falling apart? Look for my pants first and the keys? Birds started flying around unusually. Then it stopped. I was reading this which seems appropriate.......
Posted by beckett2 on November 11, 2018, at 18:53:16
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 5:18:41
> There has just been an earthquake! I have never been in a real one. It was like something was going wild in the base of the building. I didn't have my pants on! What will I do if the building starts falling apart? Look for my pants first and the keys? Birds started flying around unusually. Then it stopped. I was reading this which seems appropriate.......
>
> https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/09/when-it-comes-to-stone-throwing-democrats-live-in-a-glass-house/It's quite a rush, isn't it? I would think pants maybe? Once while driving, my car started bucking and I thought I had engine trouble until I noticed the street poles were swaying. I didn't realize you guys had earthquakes. But aren't you far from the epicenter?
Posted by beckett2 on November 11, 2018, at 18:54:50
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » beckett2, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 3:54:40
> >sigi, I don't know what will be left of my state :(
>
> The same problem I read on Counterpunch extends up to Washington State (to say nothing of the glaciers). But Oregon has a reputation for being wet? And then down to California.
>
> The indigenous in Australia practiced many kinds of burning, mainly cool weather burning. The knowledge was largely lost, so Australia 150 years after their dispersal (that was the word) was more wooded with thinner taller trees. Like California, vulnerable to fire. Not the rainforest but the sclerophyll (which doesn't explain much but includes eucalypts) and then there is the heath that needs to burn to reproduce. But that has been Ausralia's pattern, not yours. In Wellington I saw many big west coast American trees, I can't recall their names.
>
> What a self absorbed idiot he is.What happens to your displaced farmers? All our assets are in our house.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 11, 2018, at 23:29:44
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on November 11, 2018, at 18:54:50
I didn't think Australia had earthquakes either. People laughed at me when I didn't want to put things, unsecured, on high shelves.
Are you sure it isn't the bombs going off?
Posted by beckett2 on November 12, 2018, at 1:48:45
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 11, 2018, at 23:29:44
> I didn't think Australia had earthquakes either. People laughed at me when I didn't want to put things, unsecured, on high shelves.
>
> Are you sure it isn't the bombs going off?Do you have them in NZ? Yeah, we never store things over the heads of the bed, etc. When I was on the east coast, I looked in awe at the fearlessly stocked bookcases towering overhead in home and schools.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 3:07:59
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on November 12, 2018, at 1:48:45
> Do you have them in NZ?
Yes, indeed. The country lies along a fault line and I was trained to secure things overhead in case of earthquake.
I was not taught spider and snake avoidance strategies, however. It was hard for me to remember to be careful of where you put your hands in the wild (e.g., under wood) because of spiders. And to make a noise when tramping to try and scare off snakes.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 3:09:45
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 11, 2018, at 5:18:41
Where are you Sigismund? I thought you were in Queensland.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:25:19
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 3:09:45
I'm in the Andes, in Peru.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:27:29
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 11, 2018, at 23:29:44
There was an earthquake around Newcastle. Sometimes fracking leads to strange movements, wells, rivers and water that can burn. The usual thing.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:33:07
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM » alexandra_k, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:27:29
Did Trump once say of his son with approval 'He'll grow up to be a cold blooded killer'?
For every killer there is/are some killed. We can demonise those. Losers! But his weak spot may be that he doesn't understand sacrifice, whether theological (married by Norman Vincent Peale!) or simply the sacrifices made every day by ordinary decent people.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:42:38
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:33:07
The 'killer' bit is metaphorical. But the 'cold blooded' isn't. It's the replacement of empathy and relation with some kind of narcissistic exaltation.
I can remember my parents talking about FDR. I can just remember Eisenhower. (Ever read about General Marshall?) Of course I remember the day Kennedy was shot. It really is a very sad trajectory. In the past there were men wrestling with complex problems.
Posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:45:11
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:42:38
And that was the problem with Kavanaugh. So he coached young girls playing something or other sufficient to show his virtue. What a bloody ethical mess!
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 10:46:38
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by sigismund on November 12, 2018, at 5:45:11
yes, fracking. that must be it. or something to do with mining, perhaps. earthquake doesn't sound at all plausible to me, but goes down as 'act of god / natural disaster' rather than industry caused with respect to the redistribution of funds via insurance.
the sewers flood in south dunedin every winter. predictably. it was an act of god up until recently. the insurance companies / lawyers have decided that, actually, it's the Dunedin City Council failing to provide adequate infrastructure for it's citizens / international students. that means that any of the people in south dunedin that had home and contents insurance (not likely given what the premiums would have been) will no longer get insurance assistance.
after the series of canturbury earthquakes in Christchurch quite a few new homes were built. the wealthiest people got payouts first / most substantive payouts and there are architectural homes further afield. the series of earthquakes over a few years gave people a good reason to distribute themselves further afield around the country. then a bunch of laws were passed under urgency (not via normal consulation process) in order to get a bunch of bad for the people but good for the firms decisions through... there was supposed to be some large convention centre that would be fairly self contained.
like a...
i don't know what it is called... futuristic building.
there was this book i read as a kid. teen fiction. this really really really huge building with multiple levels. most of the people lived in slum apartments. i suppose that is in our future. the people rich enough to buy into these apartments in the first place (so most are locked out to be subjected to all the fallout cancers). and then of course the slums within...
i mourn the loss of human potential.
what's really interesting with kismet is how you can train kismet to train someone to in fact back off when kismet wants them to. i... don't really have it in my nature to be sufficiently... obnoxious. venemous. vile. repulsive. repugnant. such that people will decide to avoid me, for a change.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:03:50
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 10:46:38
i mean in those momentary interactions. the ones where the person decides they are assessing me before jumping into my lane (when there are other swimming lanes that are vacant). when the person decides they are assessing me before telling me to put clips on... i don't know how to get them to decide that they are better off backing off of me and leaving me alone.
my natural inclination is to indicate that i wish them to back off by avoiding their gaze and partially turning away or fully turning away. that doesn't seem to have the desired effect. more recently i've taken to visibly snarling. like, curling my lip a bit and baring my teeth. oddly, that doesn't seem to have any effect, either. i've also more recently tried taking a belly full of air, puffing out my chest, and giving them a good old stare down but that also doesn't seem to work. maybe i could invest in an air horn? pepper spray? shotgun?
parallel worlds...
it's like the aboriginals with the fire to thin the trees... people, i mean. how the people who make these decisions view people. the 'natural disasters' that are an inevitable part of population control, these days, because people don't / won't hand birth control over to the people whose bodies it primarily affects (in the first instance). instead of being more humane in our... planting strategies... the idea is to sow the seed as widely as possible and then imposed disaster is supposed to thin the herd.
that strategy seems to be maintaining psychopathy at around 75%.
i don't know that our laws are getting more progressive (for a greater proportion of our people).
i don't know what the world population is, these days.
i don't know who does know / what they do know.
i know i have found some stuff that suggests to me that despite everything that we try and convey here, in New Zealand about there being too many unruly youth...
there's actually f*ck all of us. we are outnumbered by tourists something like 4 to 1.
if you aren't part of some artificially compressed herd being subjected to a constant stream of garbage persuading you that you are only one totally replaceable piece of sh*t then there's really no people about...
i wonder how much the rest of the world is like that, too.
on superficial glance mostly pop is thought to be okay...
on more of a look we have exceeded carrying capacity and are in exponential population growth in a way that isn't sustainable.the world health people try and track fertile women. that's all they care about.
it's really... the handmaidens tail but upside down and back to front. it's so very very very very cheap to cast spores to the wind and pop out a constant succession of babies.
then let natural disaster cull them all.
i've been thinking more recently about assisted reproduction and what kind of assurance there is that the egg and / or sperm are actually sourced from where they were supposed to have been.
maybe i am just what happens when you get too old. you start to see how the world works and there is little to no reason to live in it, anymore.
is it all just smoke and mirrors and false ideals until they're... what... 20? 23?
we don't have a health system because nobody wants people here to live very long. nobody really accumulates knowledge considered valuable enough to teach people....
nobody cares about valuable knowledge.
nobody knows it when they see it...
all the awful.... sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:24:16
In reply to Re: one of my favorite FDOTM, posted by alexandra_k on November 12, 2018, at 11:03:50
don't mind me, it's a cool-down period after yet another year of awful.
a year of jumping through a hoop i've already jumped through because 'we don't recognise qualifications that are more than 5 years old'.
a qualification people only allowed me to enrol in because they thought i was mentally defective and didn't have any hope of getting what i'd said done, done.
people who have dragged their heels all year...
all the scholarships that are advertised...
i don't think they are actually awarded to anyone. i mean that genuinely. i think that they are a sham. a hoax. people think that the university is legitimate because there are scholarships and the like, but i can't find lists of people who were awarded them and / or the name of their project...
similarly with the jobs that are advertised in this country.
i think it's all just designed to waste people's time.
it's all an elaborate hoax.students from auckland got sent an email right before their second semester examinations telling them they didn't make the cut off to get an interview for medicine so their applications had been declined.
the students were upset at the appalling lack of timing.
the university said that they did a future forecast thing and assumed they got A+'s for their second semester courses and even with that projection they didn't meet the cut off.the students (rightly) pointed out that the university didn't see fit to tell them that before they enrolled (and paid fees for) their second semester courses.
that's right. that's just the fundamental lack of consideration and disregard for them all over.
quite a few scholarships say they are 'need based'. you are supposed to make a case for why you need the money (e.g., on grounds of hardship). sometimes they are on the basis of what you plan to do with the money. in all these cases there is no evidence the scholarships are ever awarded to anyone at all. it is just people... data collecting. there are scholarships that require people to write essays... again, no evidence they are awarded to people.
you would think that it would be better if... the university could publish a good journal. if the university could get students to work towards writing for the journal. if the university could showcase the best student work it had...
instead of giving the best student work it has failing grades...
it used to be that you could trust universities to look after their studentts. that's simply not the case anymore. these aren't really universities.
i'm afraid that teh universities here will lose their international affiliation / accreditation whatever it is any old day now.
there's a world directory of medical schools and it says things about the unis here that are false (that one is graduate entry and the other is undergraduate entry -- but they are both mixed entry)... they are 6 year programs (but everyone in the entire university can do all the first year subjects). and auckland organises teh first year subjects so you do biology, physics, organic chemistry, in the first semester and they go through masses of content so fast that it is impossible to do well unless you go into the year knowing most of it already. chemistry, in particular, they give you a workbook but they don't put in the structures or the key words that they actually want you to learn. you are supposed to fill these in yourself in lecture... so the kids in the best residential halls have tutors who give them the content they are supposed to learn and drum in the answers. everyone else... cannon fodder. stick around because they are told they have another shot if they finish degrees in minimum time (which means they can't transfer to another university). but then you have that third year bottleneck...
people overseas will know full well what is happening. all this information is readily available. all the essays stuedetns write and so on is uploaded to this online grading thing...
the developed world knows how badly new zealanders are treated.
we are the gamma babies of the developed world. pickled in alcohol and so on. the developed worlds slaves.
i don't see how i could see it any other way...
people have been dragging their heels all year... all year.... all year...
all my life... what was wrong with me was that i didn't say (with feeling)
for all the things people spouted at me...
'i know you are. but what am i?'
sigh.
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