Torture

As I watched Congress yesterday on C-Span, I found myself so full of hope. We are going back to the
Geneva Convention. Then I read Molly Ivins article of 9/28 and the horror of our being like the Nazis is back.
Our conservatives without conscience in Washington DC have given their hearts away.

Personality Tests..alluring fantasy

New book by Annie M.Paul The Cult of Personality reveals the truth about personality tests. They are a tool of institutions and don't begin to tell the complexity and richness of our actual selves.

Annie is a Yale graduate and a mental health journalist. The subtitle she uses is, "How Personality Tests Are Leading Us to Miseducate Our Children, Mismanage Our Companies, and Misunderstand Ourselves."

I suggest that, this may be the reason people now are so narrow minded, simplistic to a fault, quarrelsome and without depth. It certainly points to why few people can relate to each other meaningfully. We tend to think of other people in terms of "tidy abstractions instead of real, rumpled human beings, which is a sterile idea for a flesh-and-blood individual."

They make me think of a child's jigsaw puzzle. I, the teacher or company, have a picture of what I want people or children to be and the test is devised to put you in their pieces. If it's not in their picture, that info about you is irrelevant TO THEM.
And, my friends, don't ever forget that. Some tests look for diseases or dysfunction, and they find it because you have to fall into SOME category by the nature of the test.

Being guilty of having designed a test, I would like all to know that phrasing of questions and omissions are keys to
their manipulation....mostly hidden. My Double Bind test was only experimental, very revealing about relationships and opinions of different kinds of therapists, but it was not used to put anyone in a slot.

On page 225, she gives instructions for you..."If a professional psychologist is evaluating you in a situation in which you
are at risk and asks you for responses to ink blots or to incomplete sentences, or for a drawing of anything, walk out of
the psychologist's office." Robyn Dawes says," going through with such an examination creates the danger of having
a serious decision made about you on totally invalid grounds." Read more in her book.

Ann Richards

As I read her book, I'm Not Slowing Down, I have many questions and tho I search the internet, there is nothing
about why she had problems with her esophagus. Seems we hear the word, cancer, and all questioning stops.
1. She took hormone replacement medications for 20 years.... cancer causing !
2. She took Fosamax, stopped and then took Evista . Fosamax if caught in
your throat, burns a hole in your esophagus and you're dead.
Evista is known to cause some cancers.
3. Why, esophageal cancer suddenly in March and now she's dead from it.

Nerves

What I learned today at the doctor's office . . We knew that nerves convey pain as a signal 

of damage as a kind of warning system. Now we know that nerves themselves can be in pain.

For example, too much tension in the nerve can cause pain.

From a View on Buddhism

The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in

the universe is that it has never tried to contact us.

                       

                                 Bill Watterson

Power over you

Dean Ornish made this comment:

 

People have power over you only to the degree that you think you need something

from them.

 

My comment:   .....   like the millions who need a paycheck to buy food, clothing & shelter.

                           perhaps he thinks that needs are only a matter of thought...If that were only true! 

Getting Older

The most amazing thing about getting older is that younger people assume that all your senses

have diminished way below their senses, and; mental acuitiy as well. If you are older and have an auto

accident, everyone blames you, simply because of your age, even when the younger person caused the accident. If you are older and choose not to respond 

to some asinine remark, you are accused of having Alzheimers disease or accused of hearing loss. If you delay

your response because you've learned to be patient and not react to everything, you're called senile. If you see

something different from those around you, you're accused of being blind or not being able to see.

 

The funny thing is that some older people do the same thing to themselves and others. So much hostility is flying

around.

 

Strange world. While the young try to recreate the charm of the 50s or 60s, they will say with great negativity

that the way you

wear your hair is old-fashioned.     

Psych . . .

PSYCH  you out

 

psych YOU out

 

psych you OUT

Latest Con

For those sympathetic to the poor Mexican immigrants, here is the lastest that happenned near Vons

on Turnpike according to the Sheriff's Blotter:

 

Two mexican fella's asked a 78 yr old man to help them. They had a winning lottery ticket worth $10,000

but could not claim it because one has to be a U.S. citizen. The man went home , got $10,000 and gave

it to them in exchange for the ticket and then gave them a ride downtown. Turned out to be a fake.  They are

wanted for Grand Theft.

 

Modern Mistakes

Interesting mistakes being made these days. I think of 2....pilot accidentally picks wrong runway...nurse accidentally

programs electronic drug doser to 4 hours instead of 4 days, both results death. Bet you all can think of hundreds of others like this. I wonder if accidental deaths without malice are increasing or if anyone records those stats. We know that hospitals are having a tough time with this and wrong drugs given is a huge problem and doctors can slip up easily.

What is the underlying problem?  Fatigue? Distraction?  Unclear minds?  Inappropriate goals?  Administators cutting workforce drastically?  No universal language?

 

I heard from a pilot on the radio that at the LAX airport  they have to clear the field for Mexican airplanes coming in because they don't speak English and are so unperdictable, they have to give them the whole field instead of a runway.

 

If we hire non-English speaking workers everywhere, can we anticipate failure to understand procedure?

 

Personally, I have never had a successful conversation with computer support with anyone outside the U.S.