The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False | Donald Trump's skewed portrayal of Obama's stimulus
Just over eight years ago, when Barack Obama was just as new to the Oval Office as Donald Trump is now, he signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, more commonly known as the stimulus. Its supporters give it a measure of credit for making the Great Recession milder than it could have been. But critics, including Trump, argue that it was a whole lot of nothing. He said as much at a town hall for CEOs on April 4, 2017. "You know, there was a very large infrastructure bill that was approved during the Obama administration, a trillion dollars," ...
One of the best movies of last year was a little Greek film titled Chevalier. It was submitted by the country for the upcoming Academy Awards and hopefully, there can be some recognition in store for it since it is a profoundly pulp-induced picture that finds a way to exquisitely balance brutal machoism with endearing nurture. It is unapologetic and earnest in its approach— and I was all the more grateful for it.
What better way to tell a story of masculinity than to thrust it into the world of mother nature as the entirety of the film takes place on a fishing yacht in the Aegean Sea off of Greece. On the glorified boat are six males— all at different points and circuits in their respective businesses. What ensues are several days of endless comically absurd competitions to prove to one another who is the most manly.
Much like masculinity, people do not know how to define it because it is a concept that is constantly evolving.
The film taking place on a boat in the middle of the sea is a smart move. When one is humiliated at their sudden loss of macho-points, it is not as if they could just storm out, can they? Instead, they are all stuck on the boat and forced to take their loss among a parade of judgmental male peers. Only another man can tell you if you are a man—that theory strikingly pertinent to the plot as each of the characters go to great lengths to for winning approval from the other men. What do they win? A ring they call Chevalier, a form of knight—which eventually becomes the symbol of maintaining manhood. It is a barbaric game where mercy is stripped naked and forced to don the knight and shining armor that only a manly man can wear.
I had written an essay about the perspective of masculinity through the lens of filmmaking. A lens that far more often than not associates violence with it. That kind of impact may be a leading cause as to why the world is the way it is or maybe not, but Chevalier is an astonishingly raw piece of storytelling filmmaking that does not bother to provide answers that can easily be dismantled, but rather only brings about questions. The real unflinching questions.
There is Yorgos and Josef, two doomed business partners who arrive on friendly terms only to continue their trip falling prey to the same contradicting manifesto of machoism. They are visiting on the boat of the Doctor. The oldest of the bunch who tries so hard to convince the others of his domineering health that he must smoke cigarettes in secrecy. Yorgos and Josef are fine specimens on their own merit It is a misconception that men cannot feel insecure about their bodies, which is why— for the sake of the game— it goes much more beyond what they can show they are capable of but instead must now venture into bringing out each other’s insecurities (fat-shaming, cholesterol counts).
Much like masculinity, people do not know how to define it because it is a concept that is constantly evolving. This probably makes it one of the most misunderstood notions of misnomers. Just like in the real world, the game has no rules, there is no fair way to play, and you must constantly prove you are capable of playing it at any given moment. None of it makes sense, but who cares, the end result is clear (the ring), isn’t it?
The rest of the crew is filled out by Yorgos’ biggest competition, Christos, who once dated the Doctor’s daughter, but couldn’t keep her. The Doctor’s new son-in-law Yannis and Yannis’ brother Dimitris. Each of them are no different than Yorgos and the Doctor when it comes to their insecurities, but they are all the same in that the game is all that matters to maintain a sense of honor amongst men.
The real question for the film is, does it really matter who wins the f*cking ring? I mean, there is no clear-cut definition of masculinity which is only part of the reason why it is so misunderstood. I mean, what I might find manly is something that you might find crazy. Which is the very point of the film. The film is shot in a gritty palette rich with only specific colors. The boat and the sky are not what is illuminated. The skin of the male characters is illuminated. The water is illuminated. These specific choices in the cinematography make the film all the more sinister in its objectification of the human psyche.
It is not to lay blame on masculinity and make men feel guilty for trying to obtain, rather it is an examination of just how complex it is.
Just like what Jaws did, the land is not seen in the background. It is all water from one end of the frame to the other—these men are both symbolically and literally trapped. Similarly to Attenberg, also directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, we dove into the sexual spirit of a female teenage character, Chevalier delves into the male spirit of toughness and testosterone. It is not to lay blame on masculinity and make men feel guilty for trying to obtain, rather it is an examination of just how complex it is. When audiences see two men in the same movie scene, they are quick to align it to violence and bloodshed. When defining masculinity one of the words found in its definition is sexism, which is kind of absurd when you think about it. Using sexism as a synonym for masculinity is just one of many factors as to why it is so condemned and misunderstood today.
The film is directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, who co-wrote it with Efthymis Filippou, whose film indie The Lobster is making the awards round this season. The screenplay is tight and animalistic, reminiscent of the aggressive questions being tackled by the film. The film is in limited release in cities and hopefully, with enough traction, it can get a little bit of a wider one. It is a heartfelt comedy-drama where feelings are not even remotely mentioned. Instead it relies on its characters and settings to display that.
The truth about terrorists, and why we need to stop fueling the fear.
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Terrorists want us to talk about their deeds. They want us to spread the news. They want us to be afraid.
What if we stopped feeding the flame? What if we looked at where they came from, what has been modeled for them, and what their intention is?
We could ask any number of dictators, terrorists, and evil leaders of the world the same question. “What is your intention?” The answers might surprise us.
Every behavior has a positive intention. You might ask, “What is the positive intention in these horrible acts?” In their minds, there is positive intention. In their minds, they are right. In their minds, they are doing the right thing.
We could ask any number of dictators, terrorists, and evil leaders of the world the same question. “What is your intention?” The answers might surprise us.
How each of us responds is just as important as how all of us respond. The world is in crisis. Buying more guns, locking ourselves up inside our homes, living in fear, treating others badly, is not the way to respond. The way is through love. The way is through forgiveness. It isn’t an easy task to forgive.
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” – Dr. Martin Luther King
I have often said, “They can only bring to the table what they know,” if they have been modeled only hate, it is up to us, who know love, to bring love to the table.
Why do we forgive terrorists? We forgive them because if we didn’t that would fuel the fire both in our own hearts, and in theirs.
We forgive because life gives us the opportunity to begin again every single moment of every day. Holding onto what was done, keeps us thinking of the past, and keeps us in fear for our future. Forgiveness brings peace and brings you to the present moment.
True forgiveness strips them of the power they thought they had. And what could be more powerful than that?
You: Older gentleman in business casual, liquor on breath, sense of self worth fueled by demeaning other people
Me: Diminutive girl with light purple bike, grey helmet, still hopeful, heart hurting
Remember me?
I shouted at you and your friends to get out of the bike lane and was met by a chorus of jeers. I turned around, got off my bike, and politely asked that you and your friends and your wife, who was holding your beautiful, sleepy tow-headed child, if you could move your conversation from the bike lane to the sidewalk so other people on bikes wouldn't have to swerve around you into traffic, and so you wouldn't be at risk of getting hit by a less attentive cyclist.
I said please and thank you. I called you sir. You called me an entitled bitch and told me the world would be a better place without me and people like me.
Your friends laughed while tears of shame and anger burned in my eyes.
Your wife smiled and shrugged when you told me you hoped I got hit by a semi and splattered all over the street.
You told me that pedestrians have the right of way no matter what*, and that I was wrong, and that I would get what was coming to me.
Your child looked at me with big, round, curious eyes, and began the lifelong process of learning how to treat other humans like garbage.
I hope you wake up tomorrow in your comfortable bed, a slight hangover creeping into your graying temples. I hope that you feel gravity wearing on your bones, every step to your bathroom sink a shuffling chore, the repetition, the mundanity of your life exhausting from the moment you wake up. I hope you splash your face with cool water and look into the mirror, bleary, and see your reflection, and see yourself as I saw you, your entitlement, your brazen lack of empathy, your inability to consider the implication of your actions. I hope your son clings to your leg, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and begs you to give him a horsey ride even though now he is getting too big. I hope that you feel a pang of regret, even just a twinge, thinking about his bearing silent witness to your verbal abuse of a stranger.
I hope you tell him to try his best to be nice to people, even when they aren't always nice back, just like my father told me.
I hope he listens.
* Chicago municipal code:
9-60-050 Pedestrian to yield right-of-way when.
(a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.
9-60-060 Pedestrian crossing.
(a) No pedestrian shall cross a roadway at any place other than by a route at right angles to the curb or by the shortest route to the opposite curb except in a marked crosswalk.
(b) No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield.
9-60-120 Pedestrians to exercise due care.
Nothing in this chapter shall relieve a pedestrian from the duty of exercising due care [the conduct that a reasonable man or woman will exercise in a particular situation, in looking out for the safety of others].
Anthony Michael Hall, aka “The Brain,” toking away in the school library in “The Breakfast Club.”
So I’ve taken rather a long hiatus from this site so I could focus on finishing a book. To those who have waited patiently with me, thank you. And now that that project is in production—the book will be out in October, holy shit!—I’m starting to ramp back up here and in other places.
One of those places is Addiction Treatment Magazine. These folks found this blog and asked me to run some story ideas by them. Recently the New York Times ran an op-ed by a Weill Cornell Medical College psychiatrist about “Why Teenagers Act Crazy.” The psychiatrist described how, during adolescence, the part of the brain called the amygdala grows much faster than the part called the prefrontal cortex, and this is the cause of teenagers’ anxiety and compromised ability, under stress, to make wise decisions.
While writing this book I learned all about the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, which some doctors and researchers call the “PFC.” The amygdala is the seat of the memory and emotional responses, and a part of what’s often called the “midbrain” or “limbic system.” It’s a very evolutionarily old part of the brain, and as such it sits deep inside the brain, at the top of the spinal column and the spinal cord.
The PFC evolved later in human evolution, and because of this it’s located on the outer part of the brain, in the front of the skull. It’s the center of what researchers call “executive function”—decision-making based on values, principles, reason.
What taught me all this? Lots of reading and several people, most particularly Kevin McCauley, M.D., director of program services at New Roads Treatment Center in Sandy, Utah. McCauley is a former Naval pilot and flight surgeon who, many years back, became addicted to dilaudid while on the job. He hid his addiction for a while, then eventually the Navy discovered it and, instead of sending him to treatment, sent him for a year to Leavenworth prison. He used his time inside to read as much as he could about the physiology of addiction. And what he found out was that drugs hijack the midbrain and move straight to the top of its priority list. The midbrain, McCauley says, is the part that “gets us through the next fifteen minutes alive”: it protects our ability to eat, fight, and reproduce. So when we’re addicted, instead of enacting these survival skills, our hijacked midbrains tell us we need drugs before we need anything else.
To boot, addiction short-circuits the communication link between the prefrontal cortex and the midbrain. So not only do drugs move to the top of the list of the hijacked midbrain, but also the PFC can’t override the hijacker because it’s bound and gagged.
(If you want to hear McCauley talk about the theory of Addiction As A Disease that he developed while he was in prison, start with this YouTube video, then visit his site and snag his DVD called Pleasure Unwoven.)
When I read the NYT piece, bells went off in my head. Being the mom of an almost-17-year-old young man, I realized in the same moment:
He gets mouthy and anxious and hungry (and probably horny, but I don’t know about that) because his PFC isn’t done growing; and
People in active addiction are basically like teenagers. They can never get enough of anything, and they want it NOW.
The only advice the writer of the NYT piece had about how to handle teens’ “craziness” was this: We parents just have to tell them to be patient, they’ll grow out of it. This kind of bugged some readers, and in the comments section they were like, Can’t you do any better than that?
I can do better than that. To hear my suggestions about how to talk to teens, both about their anxiety and about addiction, read thefull piece.
Here’s McCauley in a three-minute video about addiction as a disease.
Yoga is a practice of creating our best self. It is not a religious practice. It is not just a way of exercising, stretching, or getting more fit. It is much, much more. Yoga is the stepping stones that allow us to continually learn what we did not know before, to heal the old hurts, and to understand our path to fulfillment. Yoga is a means of bringing into reality our highest potential.
Yoga can be seen as many different things. Yoga is not only creating postures like shining the heart to the sky with up dog, grounding into the earth in tree pose or working through resistance by learning how to put your foot behind your head. These postures, and all of the asanas, of yoga are a tool in taming the thoughts of the mind through the use of breath.
What does yoga help in life? Here are three aspects to living that yoga will positively influence…
1. It will make you feel better. Yoga has an amazing ability to rid the body of disease and to reverse the signs of aging. It has been known to help people on the verge of not being able to walk anymore to run with ease. It has helped others, whom are on the brink of death, to eradicate cancer from their bodies. It is even known to assist mental illness disappear completely. Not to mention it dissolves sadness and depression. In a recent study done by the Center for Mind and Brain at the University of California in Davis showed that doing activities like yoga and meditation where the mind is silenced lowers the stress hormone cortisol, helping to decrease harmful aspects associated with stress.
2. It will help you to release anger and resentment. It is a known thing that anger, stress, and resentment cause ill to the body. Yoga is an amazing way to help heal the source of these feelings so that a person does not have to face the negative effects of harboring these emotions. With each session of yoga, a small amount of healing takes place. By doing the practice on a regular basis the body and mind have the opportunity to become quiet, to link with the breath and to erase that which hurts us.
3. It helps us to create clarity on what we want in life. Yoga is a multi-century practice of quieting the mind. Every single person on the planet has the issue of quieting the endless chatter of the mind. It is only with practice that the thoughts are able to be controlled. Think of the mind as a muscle that you would train at the gym, like the bicep. The more you do bicep curls, the more your bicep can lift. The more you use yoga and the implementation of deep breathing, the more you obtain the ability to quiet the mind at will. If it is something that you do every day it will, over time, become a habit. A habit that will bring true clarity on what the purpose of your life is.
So you just forked over a boatload of cash for a shiny new PC, but before you can really do anything other than watch YouTube videos and make crude Microsoft Paint drawings, you have to shell out even more to get the software. With today's leading applications costing hundreds of dollars, editing your photos or managing your finances can leave your wallet feeling substantially lighter. But fret not, for the Internet is your bank account's salvation from pricey PC programs! (See also: The Most Underrated Software You May Already Own)
A Quick Word on Free/Open Source Programs
Software that is developed as "freeware" will almost always have certain limitations compared to the paid apps that they seek to emulate. As such, one simply cannot expect these free programs to offer the same range of features and/or functionality present in their costlier counterparts. That being said, many free or open source alternatives can get the job done without you having to spend a fortune.
Microsoft Office vs. LibreOffice
The Office suite by Microsoft is hands down the number one application that people spend money on. Whether by accident or by design, Microsoft Office is the tool virtually every business, school, and casual user uses to compose their digital documents. As Microsoft continues their market domination of office software, they offer a dizzying number of products and payment options, from subscription based services to one time license fees.
If paying $100+ to write your Twilight fan fiction sounds unreasonable, you're not alone. A non-profit organization, The Document Foundation, developed LibreOffice in 2010, an office suite including (but not limited to) programs similar to Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Visio, and Access. The programs resemble the layouts of their Microsoft counterparts, and are generally compatible with Microsoft file types. Of course, LibreOffice has its pros and cons.
Adobe Photoshop vs. GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP)
Whether you are a professional photographer or an amateur shutterbug, you would be hard pressed to find someone who wasn't aware of Adobe's powerful photo editing software, Photoshop. From photo retouching to image authoring, Photoshop leads the market as the software of choice for professional and home users alike.
For those who don't necessarily need the wealth of tools that Photoshop has to offer, a popular alternative is GIMP. Although it may not be fair to compare the two programs head to head, the attractive price of zero dollars coupled with impressive features make GIMP a solid option for photo manipulation.
Interested in making a jump from Photoshop to GIMP? GIMPShop may be the best option for you.
Microsoft Outlook vs. Mozilla Thunderbird
Finding the right email client for you can be a long and arduous process. The go-to program to tackle a wide variety of email needs has been Microsoft's Outlook. A strong competitor has come in the form of Thunderbird by Mozilla, the same team that brought the world Firefox. While development of Thunderbird is community-based, meaning that Mozilla no longer has a hand in its growth, it is a reliable and impressive Outlook doppelganger.
Although Thunderbird is not as feature rich as Outlook, there are a wide variety of add-ons that bring it pretty darn close to Outlook experience. If you don't need to link into the Microsoft Exchange servers, Thunderbird should garner more than just a passing curiosity.
Reckon vs. GnuCash
Whether you struggle to balance your checkbook, own a small business, or do all of the bookkeeping for your local bocce club, an accounting program would certainly make your life easier.
Powerhouse accounting software from Reckon or Intuit will supply you with a wide variety of tools to get your finances on track, and the first thing you can do with them is deduct the cost of the program itself. If the steep price of Reckon products don't fit within your budget, the most feature rich alternative is GnuCash. Compared to popular software by Reckon, GnuCash can handle most bookkeeping tasks thrown at it, and can be run on various operating systems, all for the bargain basement price of free.
With a little bit of research and the willingness to try something a little less known, you may find yourself saving boatloads by adopting these free software alternatives. If you do find yourself perusing through the free/open source marketplace, just remember that there are many individuals and organisations which work tirelessly in order to design, develop and distribute these programs. If you appreciate their work, remember to donate (if you can) or simply say thanks!
Do you any of these or other free alternatives to popular software packages? Please share in comments!
After many years of ownership, selling one of our Saabs - our 1987 turbo convertible. We have owned this car for almost 20 years, and in that time, driven summers only. Runs well. It has been maintained and driven easily. Front seat tan leather was r [...]
The composer Arnold Schoenberg, father of the twelve tone system, scandalized the music world in 1913 Vienna -- and became the go-to music teacher for innumerable American composers after he moved to the US in 1934. How can we understand his music? WNYC’s Sara Fishko gives it a try in this Fishko Files.
Do you have a science degree? Do you think the world would be better if you could just be in charge? Do you want to show those fools at the academy?
I am listing a small selection of Death Ray parts as a service to the junior members of the mad science community. This includes a high voltage power supply, suitable for gauss cannon, tesla coil, or even just Jacobs' ladder use; three vacuum tubes with emitters rated for soft X-rays (No guarantee of safety made when pumped to hard X-ray levels, but then, is there ever?); and a Fresnel lens appx 60 inches corner to comer, suitable for solar melting of asphalt, aluminium, and the skulls of your enemies.
All this is free for pickup. It's all in one convenient 450lb package, a Panasonic PT6G53. Yes, the TV functionality is fine, and until recently I was using it as a second monitor attached to one of my command station computers. However, times change, plasma TVs go on discount, and you can pick up this attractive bundle of parts for the low price of FREE!
Please bring minions. It's seriously very heavy.
Email to set up a time to meet at the facility. Available evenings after 6pm, or any time on the 13th or 14th.
Location: Belleville
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Glacier Park, Inc. – Join us at beautiful Glacier Park Lodge in East Glacier, MT. – Help Wanted Now
emotions. With each session of yoga, a small amount of healing takes place. By doing the practice on a regular basis the body and mind have the opportunity to become quiet, to link with the breath and to erase that which hurts us.
