I Wanna Be Around -- Dinah Washington (1963)

I wanna be around to pick up the pieces
When somebody breaks your heart
Some somebody twice as smart as I

A somebody who will swear to be true
As you used to do with me
Who'll leave you to learn
That mis'ry loves company, wait and see

I mean, I wanna be around to see how he does it
When he breaks your heart to bits
Let's see if the puzzle fits so fine

And that's when I'll discover that revenge is sweet
As I sit there applaudin' from a front-row seat
When somebody breaks your heart
Like you, like you broke mine

A psychopathic serial killer, Dennis Rader (BTK)

Just in case you want to have nightmares tonight, here's a link to Dennis Rader's BTK courtroom confession.

The following excerpt is from a pretty good piece on Dennis Rader, the BTK serial murderer. It appeared in The Independent (UK). Rader is one of the few people that I could cover in my Forensic Psychology course but I choose not to, because I don't like thinking about him.

"Think of psychopathy as a personality disorder defined by a cluster of traits centred around three different factors which, over time, have become ingrained as beliefs and behaviours.   

First, is their inter-personal style, which allows the psychopath to be glib, grandiose, dishonest and manipulative; they are always arrogant and deceitful in their day-to-day dealings.  Second, as far as their behaviour is concerned, psychopaths will be sensation seeking, impulsive, reckless to the point of stupidity - seemingly having no thought for their own safety.  Finally, psychopaths will have defective emotional responses so that they lack remorse for their manipulative, reckless behaviours and find it impossible to truly understand why it is that you might actually find their behaviour wrong.  In short, they just don’t get it; they operate in a totally different moral universe.

Rader could often be reckless in how he went about his murders – despite planning them with care; manipulative of his immediate family and of his community; arrogant in his demand for attention; and grandiose in his belief that he would not be caught and that he had somehow befriended the police officer assigned to catch him.  He gave a jaw-droppingly insensitive performance in front of the judge and the families of his victims.  He was at last publicly living the life less ordinary that he had always craved, and could only previously achieve in private when he killed."

Was Jack D. Ripper right about fluoridation?

"Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face."

Probably not. But underactive thyroid can cause depression.

Telegraph (UK)

"Fluoride could be causing depression and weight gain and councils should stop adding it to drinking water to prevent tooth decay, scientists have warned.

A study of 98 per cent of GP practices in England found that high rates of underactive thyroid were 30 per cent more likely in areas of the greatest fluoridation.

It could mean that up to 15,000 people are suffering needlessly from thyroid problems which can cause depression, weight gain, fatigue and aching muscles.

...

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in water in varying amounts, depending on the region and it is also found in certain foods and drinks, including tea and fish. It helps combat tooth decay by making enamel more resistant to bacteria.

But previous studies have found that it inhibits the production of iodine, which is essential for a healthy thyroid.

The thyroid gland, which is found in the neck, regulates the metabolism as well as many other systems in the body.

An underactive thyroid can lead to depression, weight gain, fatigue and aching muscles and affects 15 times more women than men, around 15 in 1,000 women.

The researchers say councils must rethink public health policy to fluoridate the water supply in a bid to protect the nation’s tooth health.

However Public Health England said that previous evidence overwhelmingly showed that fluoride in water was safe.

Dr Sandra White, Director of Dental Public Health at Public Health England, said: “Public Health England regularly reviews the evidence base for water fluoridation.

“The totality of evidence, accumulated over decades of research, tells us that water fluoridation is a safe and effective public health measure, and shows no association with reduced thyroid function.”

Other experts also warned that the study may have been skewed by population bias, a claim denied by the authors.

Prof David Coggon, Professor of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Southampton, said: “It is quite possible that the observed association is a consequence of other ways in which the areas with higher fluoride differ from the rest of the country.

“There are substantially more rigorous epidemiological methods by which the research team could have tested their idea”"

General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: [very nervous] Lord, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, Jack, Jack, listen... tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first... become... well, develop this theory?
General Jack D. Ripper: [somewhat embarassed] Well, I, uh... I... I... first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
General Jack D. Ripper: Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue... a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I... I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Hmm.
General Jack D. Ripper: I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh... women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: No.
General Jack D. Ripper: But I... I do deny them my essence. 

COL Anthony B. Herbert, Ph.D. in clinical psychology, RIP

 

NYT

"During World War II, he ran away to join the Marines, but was sent home the next day because he was just 14. He enlisted in the Army three years later and, bemedaled with four Silver Stars, four Bronze Stars and four Purple Hearts, became the most decorated enlisted man during the Korean War. He volunteered for service in Vietnam, where, as a lieutenant colonel, he earned a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, an Air Medal and an Army Commendation Medal in only 58 days of combat.

And then, on April 4, 1969, Anthony B. Herbert, the Army poster boy from the Pennsylvania coalfields, was abruptly relieved of his command.

Colonel Herbert said he had been sacked for exposing brutality against civilians by American troops —

...

[During the Korean War, he was s]elected by the Army for a delegation of distinguished soldiers representing the United Nations, he met President Harry S. Truman and the former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who urged him to get a college degree.

After marrying Marygrace Natale, who survives him along with his daughter, Toni, and two grandchildren, he graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a degree in English, re-enlisted again, became commander of an Army Ranger unit and served as an R.O.T.C. instructor at the University of Georgia, where he earned a master’s in psychology.

In August 1968, he joined the 173rd Airborne Brigade stationed in the central highlands of South Vietnam. It was there as commander of the Second Battalion of the 503rd Infantry, he said, that he witnessed what he described as eight war crimes, including serial executions of detainees and water torture of a prisoner.

He reported the offenses to the commanding general of the 173rd Airborne and his deputy. The next day, Colonel Herbert was relieved of his command and dealt a devastating efficiency report.

He then turned around and filed charges against the officers and challenged the efficiency report, and it was eventually withdrawn. He was later promoted, and, after being wounded 14 times, he retired early from the Army in 1972.

But on Feb. 4, 1973, in a segment produced for “60 Minutes” by Barry Lando, the reporter Mike Wallace portrayed Colonel Herbert as a liar who had revealed war crimes only after the My Lai massacre became public late in 1969 and who was guilty of brutality himself.

He sued for $44 million in a case that would inch forward for 12 years.

...

While the case unfolded, Colonel Herbert, in retirement from the military, earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Georgia in 1975. He later practiced privately in Colorado, served as an efficiency consultant to state legislatures and wrote several other books.

Books, indeed, had become dear to him. Not long before he resigned from the Army, he was stuck in a humdrum recruiting job, where, he said at the time, at least “I get to do a lot of reading.”

“Books I never had time for before,” he said. “Books like ‘Catch 22.’ ”"

The Washington Post obit is even better:

"His 1973 book “Soldier” was reportedly used as inspiration by actor Robert Duvall, who played an air cavalry lieutenant colonel — the one who says, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning” — in the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now.”

“People tell me I should see ‘Apocalypse Now’ because the Duvall character is modeled after me, and others tell me the Brando character, Kurtz, is modeled after me,” Dr. Herbert told The Post in 1979. “I’m not Brando; Brando’s not me . . .

“And I don’t want to see any [expletive] war movies. If I want to see a movie, I go to ‘The Sound of Music.’ I’ve seen it 31 times.”"

Here's an interesting article on Dr. Herbert's involvement in a missing person's case (when he was 80 years old).

House of Cards Season 3: The Return of The West Wing?

Yeah, if only. The number of people he has killed so far in Season 3 is ZERO.

Spoilers below.

Well, I have watched 9 of the 13 episodes of Season 3 of Netflix's House of Cards. I don't want to say very much about it because the show doesn't warrant terribly much commentary. If you were a fan of the BBC original, which I heartily commend to you, then you are probably seriously disappointed at this point.

Here's the problem. Now that Francis Underwood has climbed to the top and into the Oval Office, suddenly he seems to have lost his cynicism and menace. The plot of the season centers on a ridiculous New Deal-type of jobs program that Frank seems to earnestly believe in: "It's about jobs," he implores. He makes a saccharine visit to the FDR memorial, to show just how much he believes in this nonsense. In contrast, Season 3 of the "real" House of Cards had Prime Minister Francis Urquhart pursuing universal conscription, but only so he could use the "surplus population" to redress the balance of trade. Frank Underwood gets called "a tyrant" for his efforts, but calling him a tyrant seems rather hysterical. Frank's attempt to launch "America Works" is no more tyrannical than President Obama's health care reform machinations. So, in sum: Ho-hum.

Now this fellow...this fellow could get things sorted out in the remaining four episodes.

Frank has a couple of moments where his old self shines through, but there isn't any followup (so far). He pisses on his father's headstone. He spits on a crucifix (which promptly shatters into a thousand pieces). He contemplates pushing the President of Russia (who is the greatest thing about this season) down a stairwell and lighting his body on fire. But overall, he seems to have grown a conscience this season, which is hell on a dramatic series. Imagine if Macbeth had grown a conscience, or Iago. People would walk out before the end of the play. Frank's horrible wife, Claire, tells him that "we're murderers, Francis," and the rest of season contains a bunch of hokey crap about mourning the loss of soldiers he sends into harm's way. Very West Wing.

President Bartlett, by the way, also cursed God in a church.

Frank is generally taking shit from way too many people. His wife is the prime offender, getting him to give her a recess appointment as UN ambassador, which she promptly makes a hash of. Having a dissident hang himself with her scarf as she dozes within arm's reach, when her mission is to bring him safely home, is nothing but a complete disaster. She is so insufferable, though, that she compounds the damage by spouting off during a press conference, condemning Russia's president, to his face, for not being as enlightened as she is about gay rights. Claire is no longer a partner to Francis, but a problem. The old Frank knew how to take care of problems.

"Yes, I'm aware that this short haircut makes me look like a man."

So, just four more episodes to watch and Francis has a lot of work to do. First, he has to drop his earnest belief in government programs to change anyone's life for the better. His villainy, you see, at least to the elites who seem to like this show, is plain in that President Underwood would dare to "gut" Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in order to fund a federal jobs program -- they see that as evil, when it is only swapping one flavor of welfare state for another. The other reason they have to hate Frank is that he grew up poor, and went to a military college on scholarship. [It's funny that he seems never to have served in the military, though, as most graduates of the Citadel (called the Sentinel in the show) would have during the time.] The English viewing public was expected to hate Francis Urquhart because he grew up rich. The American elites prefer their villains to have less distinguished pedigrees than their own.

Frank has to either get Claire back on board, or neutralize her. He has to punish Chief of Staff Remy for talking back to him. He has to stabilize the unstable Doug Stamper. He has to punish the demented Supreme Court Justice and the woman who is running against him for President in 2016. He needs to show his VP running mate who's boss. He needs to destroy the head of FEMA, who is an insufferable bureaucrat who thinks that he's irreplaceable. Pretty much the only people who are in the clear are his press secretary, his biographer (well, so far), and Secret Service agent Meachem (but he seems a bit mentally unstable as well).

That's a lot of work for just four episodes. I'm not hopeful. The only person being Frank Underwood this season is the Russian President. Killing eight of your own soldiers with an IED because "Russia has nothing to gain from peace in the Middle East" is exactly what Francis Urquhart would have done.

Update:


I watched Episode 10. It's not looking good. Frank met with the Russian President Victor Something in a desert outpost and was utterly emasculated. At the Russian's insistence, Frank had to fire Claire (vengeance for embarrassing Victor at the press conference). Then he ended up holding hands with his biographer (a former homosexual hustler) in the middle of the night in the White House residence. WTF?

The problem is that nothing that Frank has done this season answers the question, "What's in it for me?" How does reforming entitlements and bringing peace to the Middle East get him elected in his own right in 2016? And how can he tolerate all those morons at the Iowa town hall meetings? Why not a vicious aside during those moments? (You can imagine what Francis Urquhart would have thought of rubbing shoulders with those plebeians.)


The episode ended with a totally out of nowhere, supposedly menacing stare into the camera. What are you so mad about Frank? That you turned out to be such a wuss?


There is a clue as to how he might get out of this. His aides noted that Claire was very popular with women. What's more popular than a popular first lady? 


How about a grieving Presidental candidate who just became a widower because his wife was apparently shot down in her helicopter by the Russians? Talk about a rally round the flag effect.

Go for it, Frank. I know you have it in you.


Update, 3/4/15

Well, that's 13 hours of my life I'll never get back. What a waste of a season. Everyone on the show talks about Frank Underwood as if he's some demonic force, but he didn't do anything but talk a big game for this entire season. The lady reporter said, "He's the President of the United States. He destroys people." Whom exactly did he destroy this season? He fired one fellow from the AmWorks committee but that guy went straight to the press and ended up hurting Frank. Doug Stamper (finally!) getting around to killing Rachel was just some leftover mischief from before Frank was President. His biographer isn't afraid of him and his threats (hard to fear a guy who wears purple sweaters). The humorless Heather Dunbar tears him a new one every time she opens her mouth. Even useless little Jackie Sharp of the quivering lip gets away with stabbing him in the back. Chief of Staff Remy abandons him without repercussions. Even Freddy, the BBQ man who would be unemployed without Frank, talks smack behind Frank's back this season. And then this whole twisted nonsense about barren, reptilian Claire leaving him? What is the freaking point of all this? Worse yet, who cares what happens in the marriage of these two people?

The season ended with Frank winning the Iowa caucus. That probably means that season 4 is going to cover the general election of 2016. My first hope is that the producers understand that if they want Frank to be a villain, they are going to have to make his Republican opponent a good guy proposing sound policies. I doubt that they will be able to manage that. More likely, the Republican villain will out-villain Frank, as the Russian villain did this season.

Next, Claire has to die. We have suffered enough. There is precedent, as Francis Urquhart's wife had him killed in the final episode of Season 3 of the original, excellent BBC House of Cards. I'm sure there's a long list of people who would be glad to help Frank out with that one.

I haven't any idea how Frank's going to handle Heather Dunbar. So, she might have to die, too. A plane crash, let's say. 

I'm hoping that Frank's got video surveillance of Remy's apartment, so he's got Jackie Sharp's adultery on tape. That would take care of her.

And Frank needs to think seriously about what he wants from the power he wields. Sitting in "the Oval" (omigod do people actually say that -- it's soooo lame) obviously isn't enough on its own. Since he supposedly hates God so much, why not go on an anti-Christian crusade, under the guise of separating Church and State? Pressure state governments to remove property tax exemptions from churches. Forbid government funding that involves any religious charity. Don't allow Catholic-affiliated hospitals to get Medicare/Medicaid reimbursements. Burn the National Christmas tree and end the Easter Egg roll. 

Be the villain they think you are, Frank.



 

 

 

David Handlin's (draft) list of the 100 best American novels

 

David Handlin's (draft) list of the 100 best American novels. I appreciate that he is not biased towards the past 50 years. I love the excess of Melville and Hemingway and Faulkner. Here are my Top Twelve, extracted from his Top 100 -- not necessarily the best, but the best place to start.

16. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale (1851)
25. Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
34. Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (1895)
49. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
51. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926)
54. Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (1929)
55. William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)
61. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
66. Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
70. James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce (1941)
81. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1958)
85. Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961)

---

1. Hugh Henry Brackenridge, Modern Chivalry (1792–1815)
2. Hannah W. Foster, The Coquette (1797)
3. Charles Brockden Brown, Wieland (1798)
4. Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Hope Leslie (1827)
5. James Fenimore Cooper, The Prairie (1827)
6. John Pendleton Kennedy, Swallow Barn (1832)
7. Robert Montgomery Bird, Sheppard Lee (1836)
8. Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket (1838)
9. Johnson Jones Hooper, Some Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs (1845)
10. George Lippard, The Quaker City, the Monks of Monk Hall (1845)
11. James Fenimore Cooper, The Crater (1847)
12. Herman Melville, Redburn (1849)
13. Ik Marvel (Donald G. Mitchell), Reveries of a Bachelor (1850)
14. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850)
15. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables (1851)
16. Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or The Whale (1851)
17. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Blithedale Romance (1852)
18. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852)
19. Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man (1857)

20. John W. DeForest, Miss Ravenel’s Conversion (1867)
21. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868–1869)
22. Albion Tourgée, A Fool’s Errand (1879)
23. George Washington Cable, The Grandissimes (1880)
24. Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1881)
25. Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885)
26. Henry James, The Bostonians (1886)
27. Henry James, The Princess Casamassima (1886)
28. Edward Bellamy, Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888)
29. Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)
30. William Dean Howells, A Hazard of New Fortunes (1890)
31. Stephen Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893)
32. Henry Blake Fuller, The Cliff-Dwellers (1893)
33. Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894)
34. Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage (1895)
35. Harold Frederic, The Damnation of Theron Ware (1896)
36. Frank Norris, McTeague (1899)
37. Kate Chopin, The Awakening (1899)
38. Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900)
39. Frank Norris, The Octopus (1901)
40. Henry James, The Wings of the Dove (1902)
41. Owen Wister, The Virginian (1902)
42. Henry James, The Ambassadors (1903)
 
43. Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth (1905)
44. Willa Cather, O Pioneers! (1913)
45. Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons (1918)
46. Willa Cather, My Ántonia (1918)
47. Sinclair Lewis, Main Street (1920)
48. Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920)
49. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
50. John Dos Passos, Manhattan Transfer (1925)
51. Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises (1926)
52. Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927)
53. Claude McKay, Home to Harlem (1928)
54. Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms (1929)
55. William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury (1929)
56. William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying (1930)
57. Willa Cather, Shadows on the Rock (1931)
58. William Faulkner, Light in August (1932)
59. Daniel Fuchs, Summer in Williamsburg (1934)
60. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood (1936)
61. William Faulkner, Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
62. John Dos Passos, U.S.A. (1930–1936)
63. Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
64. John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
65. Nathanael West, The Day of the Locust (1939)
66. Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
67. Richard Wright, Native Son (1940)
68. Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
69. Raymond Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely (1940)

70. James M. Cain, Mildred Pierce (1941)
71. Robert Penn Warren, All the King’s Men (1946)
72. Norman Mailer, The Naked and the Dead (1948)
73. Paul Bowles, The Sheltering Sky (1949)
74. Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952)
75. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
76. Saul Bellow, The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
77. James Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953)
78. Raymond Chandler, The Long Goodbye (1953)
79. William Gaddis, The Recognitions (1955)
80. John Cheever, The Wapshot Chronicle (1957)
81. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1958)
82. Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums (1958)
83. John Updike, Rabbit, Run (1960)
84. Walker Percy, The Moviegoer (1961)
85. Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961)
86. Richard Yates, Revolutionary Road (1961)
87. Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire (1962)
88. William Faulkner, The Reivers (1962)
89. Peter Matthiessen, At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1965)
90. William Styron, The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967)
91. Philip Roth, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969)
92. Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1970)
93. Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose (1971)
94. Isaac Bashevis Singer, Enemies, A Love Story (1972)
95. Thomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow (1973)
96. Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon (1977)
97. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (1980)
98. William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)
99. Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985)
100. Don DeLillo, White Noise (1985)

MCMXIV -- Philip Larkin

Those long uneven lines
Standing as patiently
As if they were stretched outside
The Oval or Villa Park,
The crowns of hats, the sun
On moustached archaic faces
Grinning as if it were all
An August Bank Holiday lark;
And the shut shops, the bleached
Established names on the sunblinds,
The farthings and sovereigns,
And dark-clothed children at play
Called after kings and queens,
The tin advertisements
For cocoa and twist, and the pubs
Wide open all day;
And the countryside not caring
The place-names all hazed over
With flowering grasses, and fields
Shadowing Domesday lines
Under wheats' restless silence;
The differently-dressed servants
With tiny rooms in huge houses,
The dust behind limousines;
Never such innocence,
Never before or since,
As changed itself to past
Without a word—the men
Leaving the gardens tidy,
The thousands of marriages
Lasting a little while longer:
Never such innocence again.