Rocket Scientist: Ebolapallosa!

Great blog post about Ebola - from a scientist's perspective. 

Rocket Scientist: Ebolapallosa!

zoo art

Debriefing Compliments

Posted to Gather, September 18, 2012 08:35 AM EDT

It’s hard to imagine anything looking more painfully wrong. The gown, while still dangling from a hanger in a doorway, reflected the impeccable skill and attention to detail that brought people in need of a special occasion seamstress to my mother’s door. The near paralyzing shock was not related to the garment.

My job that day was to assist with the hemming fitting. Jo changed into the gown and a pair of pumps, clunked across the room, and nearly broke her neck climbing up to stand on a chair. Mom measured and turned fabric – yards of fabric around the bottom of the full-length, gathered skirt of the gown. I held the red felt tomato cushion and supplied Mom with pins. I had done this many times before with no problem other than wondering why she placed the pins I handed her between her lips before using them on the dress. Was I too slow? Did it enable her to position the pin the way she wanted before using it? Did it replace the cigarette that was usually between her lips? What should I do if she swallowed a pin?

This time, seeking an explanation for the shocking wrongness replaced the usual boredom-evading questions. The soft, frilly, bubble-gum-pink bride’s maid gown looked ridiculous on Jo, who could easily have passed for a male in the cloths she had worn in. A quick, self-conscious meeting of the eyes told me she knew this as well as I did and couldn’t wait to change back into her trousers, plaid shirt, and Chuck Taylors.

Guilt almost destroyed me a few pins into the job. I was disappointed in me for not wanting to tell Jo she looked pretty in her new dress. And I hated myself for hoping Mom would swallow a pin since that was obviously the only thing that might stop her continuous stream of mumbled-around-pins, ridiculously unbelievable compliments. Couldn’t she see that Jo looked more miserable with each word?

By the time it was over, I felt as sorry for me as I did for Jo. Not only was I forced to witness the wrongness of Jo in her pink gown and pumps, and her misery in being complimented for looking a way I’m sure she never wanted to look, I was also forced to realize how little my mother’s compliments actually meant. Mom wasn’t blind or stupid so she couldn’t possibly have thought miserable and wrong was attractive on Jo. How many times had she complimented me because she thought it was the right thing to say and not because the compliment was sincere?

If I could relive that day, I would give Jo the honest compliment she deserved: You are a wonderful friend for agreeing to buy and wear this dress in your friend’s wedding since it isn’t your style and you will probably never wear it again.

I would like to believe that I learned a great lesson that day and, since I am older than dirt, that it was a different time and saying the wrong right thing got lost along the way. The truth is I’ve been slammed with that lesson repeatedly, as recently as last week.

I was present the day my daughters experienced this realization together, as adults. A friend, who had praised them from birth and whose compliments they had taken to heart, commented on the beautiful character of a group of people that neither of my daughters would ever have wanted to be compared to. I felt their eyes on me and hated to look because I knew immediately what each was feeling. How could they treasure the compliments she had paid them if her judgment was so different from theirs, or her honesty so questionable? We discussed it later and I shared my Jo story.

I might have learned to tailor compliments so they will honestly fit, and to withhold insincere praise. But, the fact that I can still feel the sting of false compliments, whether sent in my direction or aimed at someone else, or allow a lifetime of compliments to be negated when I hear someone whose opinion I appreciated lavish false compliments on someone else tells me I haven’t mastered this lesson yet.

The big question for me today falls in the chicken/egg category. I do believe that everything that happens, and every person who passes through my life, contributes to who I am today. If I had not had high self-esteem to begin with, how would insincere or undeserved compliments have affected me? Would I have blown them off and not believed them, or might they have boosted my esteem?

Let’s Talk About Legacy, Senator McConnell

Dear Senator McConnell:

Legacy:  something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past legacy of the ancient philosophers>

Thirty years is a long enough pattern to become legacy. When looking at your thirty years in office and focusing, as most people will, on the years since 2007, when you became the Minority Leader in the Senate, your legacy should not make you (or your children and grandchildren who will have to live with it) proud. You will be remembered mostly for your vow to make President Obama a one-term President, with no concern for how badly your attempts to do that harmed the residents of Kentucky, the nation, and the world. You will also be remembered for your pork, which you bragged about for years until your party decided it was a terrible, horrible, must-be-stopped-and-criticized-forever activity. Your filibuster record, including the fact that you are the only Senator to filibuster his own bill, will most surely brighten up a few history classes.

Regardless of the something a voter considers important, you have left the majority of us with less than we had before – exactly like the parent who dies and leaves his children with more overdue bills than assets.

We have fewer jobs. People work harder for lower wages, and each dollar buys less than it did when you came into office. Many people lost their homes and their health care, and are unable to feed themselves and their families. When given an opportunity to vote for something that helps, you consistently fail. Even if it were true that the majority were doing better (and that is not true), ignoring the people who are hurting the worst is inexcusable. Inhumane disregard for those in need will be your legacy. I will help keep that legacy alive for you as long as I can and then ask my grandchildren to continue for me.

Unfortunately for you, regardless of party affiliation/registration, most of us would say we have lost rights during your leadership. Your side screams about being persecuted Christians who are no longer able to pray in school and plaster the commandments they can’t remember on every public space so they’ll never forget to ignore them in public. They mourn the fact that their party has not delivered the theocracy they want, that big brother is watching over home-grown terrorist groups/militias, that they might possibly be close to losing the right to be armed and ready to kill in the grocery and daycare. They are fearful that they might be forced to work somewhere that won’t cause them to have black lung, and that a same-sex couple will get married and cause their spouses to abandon them. Both sides are angry about feeling spied on. Failure to protect our rights will be your legacy (Remember

The Protect America Act and Legislation Related to the Domestic Surveillance Program

which you introduced but tried to squirrel away from?). http://www.llrx.com/extras/nsa.htm

You are in a no-win legacy position, Senator. Your destruction makes you a loser from my proud liberal perspective. The fact that you didn’t destroy this country quite enough makes you unpopular on your own side. If I were you, I’d wish I had been a one-term Senator.

You still have a month to change all of this. You could admit the truth, apologize, and resign. I would remember you quite differently and bet others would, too.

If not for yourself, you might want to consider your party. If, by chance, you care about anything other than yourself. In the thirty years that you have been in office, your party has been circling the bowl. Making that last-ditch-effort change might encourage others in your party to do the same before the final flush. (Food for thought doesn’t really work here, but you get the idea.)

This is what a winning legacy looks like: Ted Kennedy   http://www.legacy.com/news/legends-and-legacies/ted-kennedy-10-facts/826/

Sandy

Why I Will Not Sign the Kroger Petition

Sorry, Paul Hogarth of Daily Kos, but I will not sign your petition telling Kroger that I am counting on them to keep customers and employees safe. That would be counter-productive and dishonest.

I called my local Kroger stores, and then the PR guy that one store was kind enough to refer me to. The answer I received was that allowing open carry is their policy and they are sticking to it. As you pointed out, I can’t go in without shoes or a shirt, or on a skateboard. I can’t smoke in their stores even though I would have to corner someone with a severe respiratory illness in tight quarters and chain smoke for years to kill him, but they will allow a crazy person (because no sane person brings a war machine into the grocery), with the ability to kill many people instantly, to roam the aisles.

Sorry, but no one gets a second chance with me. Now, I shop elsewhere and send Kroger copies of my receipts to show them what they are losing. I will never return to a store that changes policy only after first getting tons of publicity for being jerks, and then again for changing their mind (sorta/maybe,like Target). And I think everyone who participates in this groveling process enables other businesses to play this game.  

In addition, I have been calling businesses ahead of time to ask if they have a no smoking sign on the door. Employees who answer the phone know immediately that they do. Then, I ask if there is a no weapons sign next to it. Not a single person has been able to answer that question. Some won’t go look or transfer me to someone who knows. Some try their best not to answer the question since they don’t know which side I am on. I have told several places that I will just mark them off my shopping list, question unanswered.

I’m not going to shop on line with businesses that won’t protect me inside their stores, either. They don’t deserve my business.

Please, don’t participate in the craziness. Boycott. And never go back. That will send a message to all businesses so we don’t have to spin wheels and waste time going through this repeatedly. We look sorta silly when we do that.

cross-posted on Daily Kos 

Identifying a Snow Job (Metro Chamber of Commerce aka GLI edition)

Words matter. 

When drafting a page like this one from the Greater Louisville, Inc. website (www.greaterlouisville.com/AboutGLI/), the purpose is to put together words that will communicate a message that readers will find attractive. The less attractive the product or service is, the harder that project will be for the author. Fluff words and convoluted, meaningless tripe are necessary when the actual message would repulse the average reader.

To hear/understand the actual message, it is important to remove unnecessary fluff words, and then to dissect the meaning, context, and motivation behind choosing the remaining words.

The author of the GLI webpage deserves the golden turd for written bs (seriously, at one time, there was such an award). I will take you through the page and insert the red flags I found. Please, feel free to point out anything I missed. 

From this point on, my words will be in parentheses and italicized. The rest are from the GLI website. 

About GLI

Greater Louisville Inc. – the Metro Chamber of Commerce,  

(why don’t they call it the Metro Chamber of Commerce if that’s what it is? Could it be that people discovered a few years ago that the Chamber of Commerce is not a friend of workers and patrons?) 

is one of the region’s premier business organizations  

(Google the word premier and laugh with me, please. There is a premier bank, a premier home care agency, a premier pet products store, a premier tattoo studio, a premier league football news, etc. Every business that wanted to capitalize (pun intended) on the word premier, whether or not earned or explainable, uses the word premier in their description.) 

and the leading economic development agency for Greater Louisville.

(The is a word that matters more than most. A would have meant the author considers GLI one of more than one. The means the author absolutely states GLI is the leading agency.) 

(If I had some justification for stating I was the premier agency, I would include the justification here. It is missing on the GLI page.) 

Our purpose is to transform the community in pursuit of our 

(Our gets three red flags from me. They, an agency I have no respect for or trust in, want to transform me--I am part of this community--into their dream? Whoa. Be still my Adrenaline.)  

dream for the region to become an idea capital where imaginations and individuals thrive.

(What a string of nothing. I can just see a group sitting around a conference room table brainstorming words that everyone likes – dream! Imaginations! Individuals! I’m surprised Baby Jesus, veteran, kitten, and tax evasion didn’t make the cut.) 

We do so by increasing human capital,

(What does that mean? Are they birthing more workers for the community? Giving us money? Saving the people who can’t find their caps lock keys?) 

driving job creation  

(Driving? Hard to believe that’s the word this author wanted since it tells me nothing.) and entrepreneurship, maximizing

(Oh, can’t wait for the next line that tells me how they hope to do this) 

global opportunities and inspiring business leadership engagement on issues that impact the competitiveness of our region.

(Total brain freeze. My sarcasm does know some bounds. And guess I’ll have to keep waiting because they aren’t telling me how they hope to do this.)

Our Dream...

 
To become an idea capital of the world, where imaginations and individuals thrive.  

(Wow. Little ole Louisville the idea capital of the whole world. My huge imagination is finally going to pay off and this individual is going to thrive. Watch out world, and, grandkids, pack your bags for that island vacation I promised when I hit the jackpot.)

GLI is committed to the One Dream for our 26-county region .  

(Louisville has 26 counties? Or, do 25 other counties not have someone to write golden-turd-worthy websites for them?)

Our Purpose...  

 
To transform our community in pursuit of the dream.  

(This time it is the dream, not our dream.)

Our purpose is our organization’s reason to exist and our commitment to changing our region for the better.  

(Huh? My purpose is to be human, to age each day, and to state the obvious. How about yours?)

Our Strategy...

 
To lead

(I didn’t vote for them to lead me.)   

innovation and civic entrepreneurship…

(Why use ellipsis here? Is something missing? Are they admitting it is too vague? Are they reaching out to the right-wingers who think no sentence is complete without erroneous punctuation?) 

while maintaining a commitment to sustainable development – meeting the needs of the present without compromising our ability to meet the needs of the future. 

(Okay. I’ll see that load of pretentious bull and raise you this. A bigger load of delightful nothingness I have seldom seen.)   

We approach all we do from a strength-based position, 

(WTF? To quote Judge Judy, "Don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining.")

building on the authentic assets of our organization  

(Please, do identify your authentic assets of your organization.)  

and our region.

We are focused on five priorities:

• Engaging  (Engaging how?) 

 supportive 

(Should I assume you will ignore the ones who don’t support you – as well as the non-stakeholders who live and work  in the community – specifically the people fighting for a raise in the minimum wage?)

stakeholders and delivering results

(Where do you detail the results you have in mind? I’m worried, especially since this follows your commitment to supportive stakeholders.)

 
• Funding our efforts through healthy finances  

(I get this. I totally get this. Who wants diabetic or anemic finances?)

 
• Expanding our chorus of raving customers who realize the value of Greater Louisville Inc. (If you don’t read anything else, this line is too good to miss. Their chorus of raving customers. I see them performing on street corners for coins often, don’t you?)

 
• Leading a passionate and talented staff through effective management practices

(In the spirit of tossing out any group of words that come to mind, I use a napkin when I eat.)

 
• Maintaining a commitment to being a learning and growth centered organization 

GLI’s dream, purpose and three-year strategy was adopted by GLI’s Executive Committee in November of 2010. It serves as an organizational blueprint for GLI and guides all its work.
Success against these objectives is measured by ambitious goals and tracked on its balanced scorecard.
 
Our Staff Values
Results-Oriented: Pursue Excellence
Collaborative: United in Work & Spirit
Flexible: Expect the Unexpected
Passionate: Driven to Achieve
Fun: Enjoy the Journey

(This page says nothing. Absolutely nothing. Please, think when you read and listen. Parsing words can be fun.)

Frank Simon of AFA Preys On Uninformed Kentuckians With Sensationalism and Lies

Each election cycle, the sinfully dishonest, gay-hating American Family Association of Kentucky sends out a letter similar to the one I'm posting here. Like their side-kick, the Good News Club, and in alliance with the Republican Party, they use military language to appeal to their millions of brainless followers because - you know - Onward Christian Soldiers, and good AFA Christians are such epitomes of weakness that they  just want to kill people who don't want to be like them. (Follow the last two links and you'll see that I can speak their language when mocking them.)

In true Republican form, they project their guilt onto others and capitalize words that are not proper nouns ("It's a propaganda war. It is being led by the Liberal Media and our own Public Schools.") And their lies would rival even those of Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Michele Bachmann (who accidentally told one truth about Jesse Benton).

Please, read this trash carefully. Notice that they first use their war language, then remind their prey that this is a war and they have been threatened, and then link Left Wingers, Muslim Terrorists, and One Worlders. Tell me their goals don't stop at scaring people, but also go on to incite violence.

The call on their brainless wonders to do three things: 1) pray, 2) organize, and 3) believe that Common Core is an "illegal pornographic federal education program" instead of a program to save their children from being as stupid as they are.

If I were a praying (or preying) person, I would pray that they all stop with number 1.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.