Monday, September 30, 2013

9:56 AM I'm still drinking coffee and watching TV. Dr. Oz is on. I don't usually watch him, but I'm enjoying it this morning. My news channel is not coming in at all on the antenna. The antenna is in position as it should be and I haven't changed it in over a week. I was getting reception just fine, but now I'm not, so I think it is the broadcast station that isn't at full output. It's a little cloudy today, and sometimes that seems to cause problems, too.

I have to call my doctor's office to get them to put in a prescription, or call Walgreen's and get them to request it again. It has been over a week, so I think they never received the request. I was supposed to take my weekly bone pill this morning, but I was out with no refills allowed. It won't hurt if it is a day or so late every now and then, I'm sure.

I need to go to see the doctor and show him the letter from the insurance company denying my stress test. The letter is not really clear and I want Dajac's office to request the tests again. I'm not sure the secretary told them everything when she requested the test authorization, and I have the right to dispute the finding.

I spoke to the woman who called the insurance company, and was unable to get her to put in another order for the test, listing all the symptoms I had. She said for me to call the insurance company. I have already done that and they said for me to put in a written request. So I typed a thorough letter describing what happened and when, and sent a cc to Dr. Dajac. I can't send it today, though, because my printer has chosen this time to stop all printing until I replace the three color cartridges that are supposedly outdated. I'll go to Walmart tomorrow and get ink cartridges. It's going to cost a bundle. Have to do it, though.

I have finished reading the biography of Zora Neale Hurston. She wrote some things that got her considerable acclaim, but had some failures too. Some of her work was not in tune with the times, because she wasn't trying to complain about how black people were treated as other black writers were, so her work wasn't always what the editors and the public were expecting. She wasn't really interested in politics, and didn't think that simply integrating the school systems would improve the lot of black children. Also, she was a Republican. She stuck to her guns and produced what she wanted to. Probably as a result of that she never made very much money on her writing, and lived in more or less desperate financial conditions most of her life, but she didn't give up. In 1959 she had a stroke and was put into St. Lucie County Welfare Home. She had another stroke and died on January 28, 1960. Her most important work was Their Eyes Were Watching God. She had close friendships with Langston Hughes and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and was an important part of the Harlem Renaissance. She traveled extensively whenever she could scrape together the money, usually collecting folk tales and music. She wrote several stage productions using the folklore, though she never had much financial success with that either. I have to admire her fight and determination, though. She never gave up writing until she had the stroke. I'd like to read her most famous work as it was a fictionalization of one of her love relationships, and explored the equality of men and women in relationships.

4:57 Time to eat. The end for today.

Sunday, September 29, 2013

9:33 AM I didn't read my library book very much yesterday. I read articles about bullying on the Internet. There is a lot of material, but as with other Internet subjects, only a few are written by trained psychologists and professionals. Blogs can be good sources of information, but they are likely to be the work of a concerned or biased individual who may or may not bother to write up a list of their sources and cover all aspects of the subject. Actually, it would take a book to cover all the subjects related to bullying, and months to research it. Some things I saw were more interesting to me than others, though. In my thinking about it, I started with my young years – my experiences and the overall attitude of the school officials at the time.

I came along in the late 1950's and early 1960's in a fairly small high school, where I knew nearly everyone by name and face and generally something about their reputation. The teachers and administration were definitely geared to the “popular” kids who were active in lots of clubs and activities, especially sports, and to the wealthy parents. They did stress academic achievement, though, so a good student from an underprivileged home could still gain some recognition, and there were a number of activities available other than football or cheer leading. I felt it was a fair and open environment overall.

Thomasville, North Carolina was at that time a small industrial city with one main industry, the manufacturing of furniture. The population was 10,000. We had about 15% of blacks in the population and virtually no other minorities. Our school was segregated. I used to say the town was an uncomfortable size – it was too large for you to know everyone and be a part of a homogeneous mix of people, like Andy Griffith's Mayberry, and it was too small to have a touch of the cosmopolitan about it. There were few restaurants and entertainment sources, so when we dated we usually drove to High Point or even Greensboro a few miles away, which were larger. It was also in a dry county, so there was no alcohol to be had in Thomasville. At that time I had never had a drink of alcohol anyway, so that wasn't much of a loss for me, but the availability of alcohol does tend to relax the overall atmosphere and social climate.

Southern culture was also mainly conservative at that time, and it was easy to cause a scandal. There was little place for an openly rebellious or non-conformist person, and the “tough kids” were not treated with leniency by the school administration. The tough kids were mainly poor and into drag racing, smoking and drinking. Some of them, but not all, were playground bullies. Some of them were just on a track to failure, doing poorly in school and likely to drop out rather than graduate.

The football players and cheerleaders were definitely treated better than other clubs, or other students who didn't join any groups. The football team was fairly good, and the players tended to be heroes in the town as well as in the school. As with most privileged groups, they were more “popular.” They were also more likely to drink, be involved in sex, and have wild parties. Some of them were bullies. So much of bullying involves the physical size and aggressiveness of the student, and the prevalent “group-think” of team sports. I would like to see school sports emphasized less, and academic achievement more.

I was not in the popular group, but more of an individualistic person by nature and a fairly feisty one, with my main group of friends being the Girl Scouts and the band. I wasn't attacked, as I would verbally defend myself. I was also fairly conformist, with nothing like the gay issue or a reputation for being “fast” attached to my name. The Girl Scout relationships were respectable and we were all good students, so we didn't stand out negatively in the social sense. Also it gave me a social group of people I knew well to bond with and meet my companionship needs. I learned to form deep friendships. As I went away to college I became more of a non-conformist, joining a women's liberation group, plus I was married by the time I was nineteen, so I wasn't in any college social groups. I mainly studied and had friends among the graduate students in the Zoology Department who were my husband's fellow scholars. I also had a friend who was my college roommate in my freshman year, and we were in NOW (National Organization for Women) together.

While I wasn't bullied, I always felt sorry for those who were and was prone to befriending people who were underdogs. I made relationships with other individualistic people who stood out from the status seekers and thought their own thoughts. I don't think bullying was as prevalent in my high school as it is in some larger or rougher schools, in general. It is a real problem nowadays, though, especially with the Internet, and among the gays and other non-conformists.

One of the most interesting things that I found on the Net was the fact that as early as 9 months old, babies can begin to be aggressive against others, stealing their toys, biting or hitting them. Around the age of 18 months or two years, babies begin to develop a sense of autonomy, which is natural and necessary, but the parent needs to intervene and train them away from being self-centered and violent. A “spoiled” two year old can become a bully by the time they are in kindergarten. Several examples of that were given on the Internet. I have even seen two year olds hit or bite their own parents, and receive no negative reinforcement. Some parents are so afraid of intimidating their children that they let them get away with misbehavior. I think children need to see their parents as authority figures, and need to adapt to their status as the child and become more or less controlled, though for the parents to talk to them about it most of the time is probably best, rather than hitting them. I think hitting children (and dogs) in trying to train them, tends to make them angry and fearful, either of which can cause them to attack.

One thing that I think would be true in a perfect world is that people would choose the positive aspects of cooperation – achieving group goals within the framework of fair play, seeing themselves as part of a benign larger whole, and following ethical and moral rules intelligently and without rigidity – while maintaining self-assertiveness and individual autonomy so their voice will be heard. A citizen of a free democracy needs to operate as a thinking, voting, socially active and creative member for the society to be strong. Group-think promotes the development of evil and abuse, and makes us a culture of thoughtless robots. One thing these articles stressed is that schoolyard bullies become workplace bullies, so it isn't just something that threatens a minority of the population at an early stage in their life. It is everybody's problem and it has lasting effects.

I looked for articles on the Internet about the psychological types that often become bullies. The following information was copied from those articles.

Understanding Bullying
Bullying is a distinctive pattern of deliberately harming and humiliating others. It's a very durable behavioral style, largely because bullies get what they want—at least at first. Bullies are made, not born, and it happens at an early age, if the normal aggression of two-year-olds isn't handled well.
Bullies couldn't exist without victims, and they don't pick on just anyone; those singled out lack assertiveness and radiate fear long before they ever encounter a bully. No one likes a bully, but no one likes a victim either. Grown-up bullies wreak havoc in their relationships and in the workplace.
Myths and facts about bullying
Many beliefs about school bullying are not supported by current research. Among the most common myths that even some teachers have been known to endorse are the following:
Myth #1: Bullies are rejected by their peers and have no friends
Many people believe that everybody dislikes the class bully. But in truth, research shows that many bullies have high status in the classroom and lots of friends (e.g., Cairns & Cairns, 1994; Rodkin, Farmer, Pearl, & Van Acker, 2000). Particularly during the middle school years, some bullies are actually popular among classmates who perceive them as “cool” (Juvonen et al., 2003).  Many classmates admire their toughness and may even try to imitate them.
Myth #2: Bullies have low self-esteem
Just as it has been incorrectly assumed that bullies are rejected by peers and have no friends, there is a general belief that such youths have low self-esteem. That myth has its roots in the widely accepted view that people who bully others must act that way because they think poorly of themselves. Some readers may remember the self-esteem movement of the 1980s when many people argued that raising self-esteem was the key to improving the outcomes of children with academic and social problems (Baumeister, 1996). But, there is little evidence that bullies suffer from low self-esteem. (Baumeister, Smart & Boden, 1996). To the contrary, many studies report that bullies perceive themselves in a positive light, perhaps sometimes displaying inflated self-views (Zariski & Coie, 1996). Therefore, just focusing on self-esteem enhancement will probably not improve the outcomes of youths who pick on others.
Myth #3: Being a victim builds character
Another misconception is that bullying is a normal part of the childhood and adolescence experience, and that surviving peer harassment builds character. In contrast to this view, research findings clearly show that being bullied increases the vulnerabilities of bullied children. For example, we know that children who are passive and socially withdrawn are at a heightened risk of getting bullied and these children become even more withdrawn after incidents of harassment (Schwartz, Dodge & Coie, 1993).
Myth #4: Many childhood victims of harassment become violent as teens
The portrayal of bullying victims lashing out in anger at their tormentors in school shooting incidents has been reinforced by the media over the past few years. However, most victims of bullying are more likely to suffer in silence than to retaliate. As indicated above, many victims experience psychological adjustment problems like depression and low self-esteem that encourage them to turn their anger inward rather than outward.
Myth #5: Bullying involves only perpetrators and victims
Many parents, teachers and students view bullying as a problem that is limited to bullies and victims. Yet, bullying involves more than the bully-victim dyad (Salmivalli, 2001). Studies based on playground observations found that in 75 percent  of bullying incidents, at least four other peers were present as either witnesses, bystanders, assistants to bullies, reinforcers or defenders of victims (O’Connel, Pepler, & Craig, 1999). Assistants to bullies take part in ridiculing or intimidating a schoolmate. Reinforcers, in turn, encourage the bully by showing signs of approval (e.g., smiling when someone is bullied). In contrast to the pro-bully participants, those who defend victims are rare. One observation study found that in more than 50 percent  of observed incidents of bullying, peers reinforced bullies by passively watching. In only about 25 percent  of the incidents did witnesses support the victim by directly intervening, distracting or discouraging the bully (O’Connel et al., 1999).
Understanding facts versus myths about bullies and victims is important for intervention. The problems of victims and bullies are not the same. (Profiles of Early Adolescents). Victims of harassment need interventions that help them develop more positive self-views and learn not to blame themselves for their experiences with harassment (Graham et al., 2006). Bullies need to acquire strategies that help them control their anger and their tendency to blame other people for their problems. And peers need to learn that bullying is a whole school problem for which everyone is responsible.
What about bullies? Compared to victims and the well-adjusted “normal” group, bullies appear to have healthy mental lives. They are no more depressed, anxious, or lonely than the well-adjusted group and they have high self-esteem. These findings are at odds with the widely held belief in our society that people who aggress against others must act that way because they think poorly of themselves. But in fact, there is very little indication in the research literature that aggressive youths suffer from low self-esteem (Baumeister, Smart, & Boden, 1996). Also, bullies are least likely to blame themselves for any conflicts they have with their peers. That finding is consistent with the large body of literature in developmental psychology that reports it is common for aggressive youths to blame the hostile intentions of others for their difficulties with peers rather than blame their own characteristics or behaviors (see Coie & Dodge, 1998). And consistent with this low self-blame, bullies are more likely to believe that the school environment is safe, but teachers and administrators treat them unfairly.
Another noteworthy finding reported in Table 1 is that bullies, compared to victims, enjoy high social status. This may help to explain their positive self-views. Bullies are often perceived as especially “cool,” where coolness captures both popularity and possession of traits that are admired by early adolescents. As early adolescents exercise their need for autonomy and independence, it seems that bullies enjoy popularity as their better-adjusted peers attempt to imitate their anti-social tendencies.
In the third column you will see the profiles for youths with reputations as both victims and bullies. Are they more similar to victims, to bullies, or to a distinct subgroup with its own unique characteristics?
In comparing columns 1 and 3, it seems that bully-victims are somewhat unique and they exhibit the worst characteristics of both categories. They report psychological maladjustment as high as that of victims, yet they do not enjoy any of the social benefits of bullies because their peers overwhelmingly reject them. In some cases, bully-victims turn inward and feel bad about themselves; in other cases, they turn outward and aggress against perpetrators. But with few friends, bully-victims have little social support to help them ward off potential retaliation. Like victims, bully-victims feel unsafe at school; but like bullies, they judge the school rules as unfair.
 
This suggests that bully-victims suffer from multiple risks. They also do more poorly in school than any of the other groups.
Considering all of the adjustment outcomes examined here, bully-victims may be the most troubled and vulnerable of the behavioral subgroups (Unnever, 2005).

Bullying consists of three basic types of abuse – emotional, verbal, and physical. It typically involves subtle methods of coercion such as intimidation. Bullying behavior may include name calling, verbal or written abuse, exclusion from activities, exclusion from social situations, physical abuse, or coercion.[13][19]
U.S. National Center for Education Statistics suggests in 2001 that bullying can be classified into two categories:
1. direct bullying, and
2. indirect bullying (which is also known as social aggression).[1]
Ross states that direct bullying involves a great deal of physical aggression, such as shoving and poking, throwing things, slapping, choking, punching and kicking, beating, stabbing, pulling hair, scratching, biting, scraping, and pinching.[20]
He also suggests that social aggression or indirect bullying is characterized by attempting to socially isolate the victim. This isolation is achieved through a wide variety of techniques, including spreading gossip, refusing to socialize with the victim, bullying other people who wish to socialize with the victim, and criticizing the victim's manner of dress and other socially-significant markers (including the victim's race, religion, disability, sex, or sexual preference, etc.). Ross[20] outlines an array of nonviolent behavior which can be considered "indirect bullying", at least in some instances, such as name calling, the silent treatment, arguing others into submission, manipulation, gossip/false gossip, lies, rumors/false rumors, staring, giggling, laughing at the victim, saying certain words that trigger a reaction from a past event, and mocking. The UK based children's charity, Act Against Bullying, was set up in 2003 to help children who were victims of this type of bullying by researching and publishing coping skills.
It has been noted that there tend to be differences in how bullying manifests itself between the sexes. Males tend to be more likely to be physically aggressive whereas females tend to favour exclusion and mockery, though it has been noticed that females are becoming more physical in their bullying.[10] There can be a tendency in both sexes to opt for exclusion and mockery rather than physical aggression when the victim is perceived to be too strong to attack without risk, or the use of violence would otherwise cause problems for the bullies such as criminal liability, or the bullies see physical aggression as immature (particularly when bullying occurs among adults).[citation needed]
Clayton R. Cook and co-authors from the University of California at Riverside examined 153 studies from the last 30 years. They found that boys bully more than girls, and bullies and victims both have poor social problem-solving skills. More than anything else, poor academic performance predicts those who will bully.[21]
Of bullies and bully accomplices
Studies have shown that envy and resentment may be motives for bullying.[22] Research on the self-esteem of bullies has produced equivocal results.[23][24] While some bullies are arrogant and narcissistic,[25] bullies can also use bullying as a tool to conceal shame or anxiety or to boost self-esteem: by demeaning others, the abuser feels empowered.[26] Bullies may bully out of jealousy or because they themselves are bullied.[27] Some have argued that a bully reflects the environment of his home, repeating the model he learned from his parents.[28]
Researchers have identified other risk factors such as depression[29] and personality disorders,[30] as well as quickness to anger and use of force, addiction to aggressive behaviors, mistaking others' actions as hostile, concern with preserving self image, and engaging in obsessive or rigid actions.[31] A combination of these factors may also be causes of this behavior.[32] In one recent study of youth, a combination of antisocial traits and depression was found to be the best predictor of youth violence, whereas video game violence and television violence exposure were not predictive of these behaviors.[33]
According to some researchers, bullies may be inclined toward negativity and perform poorly academically. Dr. Cook says that "a typical bully has trouble resolving problems with others and also has trouble academically. He or she usually has negative attitudes and beliefs about others, feels negatively toward himself/herself, comes from a family environment characterized by conflict and poor parenting, perceives school as negative and is negatively influenced by peers".[21]
Contrarily, some researchers have suggested that some bullies are "psychologically strongest" and have "high social standing" among their peers, while their victims are "emotionally distressed" and "socially marginalized".[34] Other researchers also argued that a minority of the bullies, those who are not in turn bullied, "enjoy going to school, and are least likely to take days off sick".[35]
It is often suggested that bullying behavior has its origin in childhood. As a child who is inclined to act as a bully ages, his or her related behavior patterns may also become more sophisticated. Schoolyard pranks and "rough-housing" may develop into more subtle activities such as administrative end-runs, planned and orchestrated attempts at character assassination, or other less obvious, yet equally forceful forms of coercion.[citation

12:34 Lunch time. 1:55 I went to the drugstore and got a prescription. I'm reading the Zora Neale Hurston book now.

Friday, September 27, 2013

8:38 News –- Rosie the Riveter – Elinor Otto -- is in the news. She is not only still alive, she is still riveting. She said she gets bored if she doesn't work. She was dressed up and looked pretty at her job. They showed her punching in at her time clock, and a couple of men that she works with, who said that they have no excuse for being late or not showing up as long as she works. She is 93 and drives to work at Boeing every day. She is petite and lively, and speaks with no sign of age like I sometimes have, forgetting what she wants to say. Maybe she will live to be a hundred. According to the NBC report, there were other “Rosie the Riveter” girls as well. At the end of the war, they all lost their jobs, but she did get a new job in the airline industry in California and continued to work on the assembly line until the present time. Sometime next year Boeing is planning to close their operation there, and Otto will probably finally have to quit work. She probably won't know what to do with her time when she does. She has been getting up at 4:30 every morning and going to work all these years. Maybe she should write a book about her life story. If she can't write, she could get a professional writer to do it for her. Lots of people do that. I'd like to read a biography about her.

Well, I finally finished Creole Belle. Burke wrote a hugely climactic ending with the forces of good battling the forces of evil rather than having the police come in and arrest the bad guys. The villains were “larger than life,” and the story had quirky and bizarre twists. It's not my kind of mystery. It's a story created to make heros of Purcell and Robicheaux despite their character flaws, and devils of the southern aristocratic family of villains, who were rich enough to get away with their crimes and therefore had to be killed. In the author's defense, the police, when Robicheaux tried to get their help, told him not to investigate it and to leave the Duprees alone.

I appreciated the critical look at deep south culture that is elegant on the surface and corrupt underneath, as long as racial bias and the misfortunes of the downtrodden poor continue to exist. The politics of the south are still right wing in many places, and the KKK and “patriot” groups of white racists are still active. Too many ignorant southern poor people haven't been brought upward by the progress that has been made in society for the last thirty or forty years to the degree that I would like to see.

I have read several by Burke, a number of which feature Purcell and Robicheaux, but none of them have been this violent and full of corrupt people to the extent that I couldn't identify with the main characters. One of his other titles is called Rain Gods, with a hero named Hackberry Holland, a Texas sheriff, and I enjoyed that one. I'll try to find some more of this series. I think some men might like Purcell and Robicheaux more than I do. I prefer to be able to identify with the characters, especially if the story is going to be more about the characters than the plot. This story didn't develop as a plot as much as I like to see until the very last. I often felt like I was wading through something sticky like molasses when trying to read it. Oh, well, It's done now. I think I'll go to the library and try to get some non-fiction that is interesting, or a classic novel like Pride And Prejudice.

Going out now, to the library, the grocery store and the drugstore if my prescription is ready. 4:13 It wasn't ready, but I got a week and a half's worth of yogurt for breakfast and 5 books –- a biography of Sidney Poitier and a book about Zora Neale Hurston and her work, plus 3 novels. None of them are very long. I think I'm going to start with Zora Neale Hurston. It's called Rhythm and Folklore. According to Wikipedia, she was a folklorist, anthropologist and writer during the Harlem Renaissance. She was born in 1891 and died in 1960. She wrote four novels, over 50 short stories, and plays and essays. She is best known for a 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. She was a Republican with libertarian viewpoints and not in favor of integrating the school systems. This book should be interesting. I'll start it tomorrow. It's 4:55 now.

Thursday, September 26, 2013

8:18 AM News – Shellie Zimmerman, George Zimmerman's wife, was interviewed and my TV was skipping in and out to the point that I didn't get to hear what she said. I'll go to the Internet after a few hours to see if her comments were published there. Apparently she called the police on him after he punched her father and threatened her with a gun when they came in to get some of her belongings. She has filed for divorce. She said she doesn't know where he is, and hasn't been able to serve his divorce papers as a result. He is apparently a more disturbed person than he appeared, or his arrest and trial damaged him emotionally enough to change his behavior. I didn't think he should have been acquitted, though. He had no need to follow Martin. He was told not to by the police, but instead went to his car and got his gun. He didn't act like an innocent man, but one who was looking for a fight. I wonder what he was like as a husband before all this occurred? 8:32 – The interview has been reported on the Internet. She just said that he has changed since his acquittal and now treats her “like she is disposable,” and went on a “victory tour.” She said she is conflicted over the question of whether or not he acted in self-defense. She said she doesn't know what he is capable of. Maybe he was always a ticking time bomb, and not the peaceful man that people thought. Someone was reported to have said about him that he was a “wanna be cop,” which says to me that he was disturbed and angry. Shellie said she didn't think he was profiling Martin, but I doubt that that is true, because all the young man was doing was walking down the street. He was wearing a “hoodie,” which some people consider to be gang clothing. Zimmerman was overheard saying something about “punks.” I think the whole “movement” of neighborhood watch is questionable unless the neighbors limit themselves to calling the police and letting them investigate and subdue the suspect. I especially question the idea that an individual is not allowed to walk down the street undisturbed, unless he gets off the pavement and into someone's yard or house. Cities are full of people who are out on an errand at night and minding their own business. Everybody needs to work together to produce a peaceful environment. I used to live in Washington, DC without a car and was often out walking at night. I was always on my guard, but wasn't overly afraid in most neighborhoods, and I can only think of three or four instances when I felt directly threatened.

The novel –- I'm trying to skip parts without missing the story and move through this book. The character of Purcell's daughter Gretchen is turning out to be exciting. She is, it turns out, the shooter of one of the criminals from earlier in the story. Purcell has finally told her he is her father. She is on her way to find the man who replaced the one who had been hiring her to do hits. She thinks her former employer has probably been killed. She told him she had quit and wouldn't do any more hits when he called her to kill Purcell and Robicheaux, and he told her that if she quit he would kill her mother. She didn't kill Purcell, and informed him of the contract. Purcell tells Robicheaux. Meanwhile Gretchen drives down to Miami and finds her mother, then comes back and is next seen defending a black female cop who offended one of the meanest of the villains, Leboeuf. Leboeuf finds where the black cop lives and talks his way into her house and assaults her. He is in the middle of trying to rape the cop when a mysterious shooter in a ski mask walks into the room and threatens him. First he begs and then he runs toward the bathroom, where she shoots him twice. He slowly dies where he fell in the bathtub, and the lady cop calls 911 after the shooter leaves.

Robicheaux goes through Lebeaux's pockets and finds a receipt with the coordinates of Alexis Dupree's island on it and he and Purcell go to the island on a private plane. They break into the house and find the torture chamber and two young people who are on the island in a tent doing drugs. They tell Robicheaux that Dupree is on his yacht. Then Gretchen shows up on the island and tells Robicheaux that the albino Lamont Woolsey, who was with Dupree, is the one who issued the contract on him and Purcell. They didn't find Tee Jolie, or in fact anyone, in the house. Purcell is going after Woolsey. He finds him and beats him up, but then lets him go. None of these criminals are getting arrested. The police are totally out of the picture. It looks like the author decided to go for as much violence as possible, without actually solving the crimes. This is really disappointing. I have liked his other books, but not this one. I have about 20 pages left to finish it. I'll do it tomorrow. I want to see if he ties up any of the loose ends.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

8:51 AM Well, it's another rainy and cloudy day, and my allergy problem is back. Damp air causes fungus to grow and give off spores, and that's one of the very worst allergy producers for me. I've taken as much medicine as I dare to take at one time, and it's only a little bit better.

I'm watching the news. I've also been looking up the prom photos of Obama and his friends, because somehow that is on the news again. When I went to the Internet I found many sites saying that Obama engineered the publication of the photos to make a smoke screen on the IRS issues. The right wing really does hate Obama, and I noticed in reading their rancorous and often uneducated comments that they are still trying to say that Obama wasn't born in the US, and other allegations from the last few years. The comments, except for one, all were short and extremely biased. They said things like “the photos show that Obama used to like white people,” and that he “once had a life.” His friends in the picture were all white except him, which shows me that he was always open to white people, as he still is. He has appointed white people freely for his cabinet positions. The only time I ever saw him come close to the prejudice line was when he came out immediately in the media against the police officer who arrested Professor Gates on his own front porch, even after he showed ID that proved his identity. He could have made a statement about it, though, without calling the police officer foolish. All in all, though, I think Obama is a calm and fair leader, and extremely intelligent. I don't always agree with what he has done, but I think he has been basically a good leader. I enjoy seeing him on the news, because he has a refined manner and a healthy looking and always well-groomed appearance. He is handsome, but hasn't been in the news for having affairs or being “forward” with women, unlike President Clinton. I often agreed with Clinton and admired his ability to talk clearly in plain language and his knowledge about many issues, but his Lewinsky scandal was a shame. He should have known better. Of course, the press is an all-seeing eye that is always open, examining every single statement or action with a close and potentially critical attention. I wouldn't make it ten minutes as a politician. I make too many opinionated statements and don't try to keep up a public image. I would be like VP Biden, only worse. I would also be very unhappy in that situation. I prize few things above my freedom to be myself. I don't envy the presidents.

I'm going to read for awhile now. 10:14 – Purcell and Robicheaux are both pursuing information by getting close to shadowy witnesses or people of interest. Purcell has hired his daughter as an office assistant without telling her who he is and how he happens to have met her before. He is being a loose cannon, as usual, and is walking just to the edge of a fine line on which the issue is incest. He thinks she is the professional killer who shot three men who were connected to his IOU problems, and feels protective of her as his daughter, but also sees her as a sexual woman. He has chosen to involve himself closely with her, and she shows signs of being approachable sexually. I have a problem identifying with Purcell, one of the two “good guys” in this story, because he isn't clean enough for my tastes and operates from the base of his perpetual anger. Robicheaux has a long term relationship with him in spite of his violent tendencies, because he once saved Robicheaux's life. Robicheaux often seems to be trying to protect Purcell from his own self-destruction, but gets on the dark side of it himself sometimes, like a basically good kid following another's bad example. His “male bonding” logic often makes him go along with Purcell and get in trouble himself as a result.

Robicheaux, meanwhile, questioned an ex-cop named Leboeuf who had a reputation for being a bully when he was on the force, and Robicheaux rubbed his fur the wrong way by being confrontational. Presumably as a result of that, two men in a freezer truck – leading me to question whether they were involved in Blue's being found dead in a large block of ice – try to run Robicheaux off the road and then shoot at him with a sawed-off shotgun. His windshield is destroyed but he is unharmed and calls in the incident to 911. His superior rousts Leboeuf and has him brought in for questioning. They can't prove anything on him about the shooting and have to let him go, though his phone records show that he made three suspicious telephone calls immediately after Robicheaux left his property, possibly setting up the hit.

This author has just committed one of my pet peeves. He put cicadas singing in the dark. If you hear bugs and other sounds after dark is going to be crickets, katydids and tree frogs. Every now and then an author does something like that and it always stops the flow of my reading and irritates me. Probably they haven't studied biology, or had their father tell them things, or noticed nature. They have been told that there is such a thing as a cicada and that it sings, so whenever they hear something they think it's a cicada.. Not everybody has had a lifetime of paying close attention to the natural world, of course. Still it's irritating. Of course that's the worst thing he has done as a writer, except for using so much gangster slang that I can't always follow what he is talking about. The plot of the book is interesting and complex.

Robicheaux got a late night phone call from the man who tried to shoot him, Chad Patin, but it's not a threat. He wants help to get out of the country because the bad guys who were behind him are trying to kill him now. He tells Robicheaux that one of the crimes that is behind the bad dudes who have appeared so far in the story is white slavery, and that Tee Jolie is a captive. Robecheaux thinks it's also about an art theft ring and drugs. The leader is called Angelle. The shooter Patin is interrupted in his call to Robicheaux by three men who, according to an eyewitness who had called 911 and reported the break-in, wrap him up in a rope and carry him away.

Page 251 –- This story doesn't move forward in a clear and traceable line, but inches ahead by small increments. Robicheaux and Purcell are both involved with a family who are suspected of being the center of several seemingly separate crimes. The husband Pierre Dupree and his grandfather Alexis are both cruel and abusive, though big power players in the community. The grandfather, in the words of Pierre, is both his grandfather and his father. His mother committed suicide. Pierre is married to a sexually promiscuous woman who tried to set Purcell up for blackmail. Purcell and Robicheaux keep interacting with the family to try to find out where the singer Tee Jolie is, if she is still alive. They are also trying to solve the murder of her sister Blue. The solution to both these crimes is not developing. That is becoming irritating to me. The story has too much interpersonal complexity without progress in the story line. I also don't like any of those characters, or sympathize with them. I'm on page 251 and it looks like I'm about halfway through. I hope the books starts to move soon. It's 5:51, so I'll quit reading now.

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

7:02 AM I got up early and started coffee because I couldn't sleep The news is on. I had to switch to channel 4, which doesn't have as thorough a news presentation as 12, and virtually nothing of national news, but sometimes my antenna just won't bring 12 in, and today is one of those days. The sky is very cloudy and dark, with a slow but persistent rain falling. My father would say it's good for the garden, because the water makes its way down farther into the soil than with a heavy rain. I'm having to use my bedside lamp. From the way the weather map looked, it shouldn't last all day, though. Good. I don't like two and three days of rain. The news is showing more accidents than usual today. When I'm out on the road in the rain I always slow down, but there are inevitably some cars that whiz past me. I have had several experiences of skidding on a wet road, and it always scares me. I'm just not willing to speed up for them.

President Obama was on TV at about 10:00 this morning speaking to the UN. He gave a very good speech and most of the audience seemed to be interested and paying attention. One man was smirking. I didn't recognize him. I wonder what country he represented.

3:35 I have just paid all my bills and called the insurance company to see why they denied permission for me to get a stress test. They are going to reconsider it and write me another letter.

I'm reading now. 5:33 I'm not making much progress with the novel. News and supper now.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Cher is on the Today Show today. She has a new album, her 26th, and I think it said she is going to go on tour again. She arrived at the studio riding behind a uniformed police officer with two others, all riding on motorcycles and with their sirens going. Cher does know how to put on a show. Policemen in uniform are usually unsmiling, but this one was grinning, especially as Cher kissed him on the cheek when she got off the cycle. She is still slim, and was dressed in tight black pants and a spangled top. I remember her fondly from the Sonny and Cher television show. I always thought she was very tall, because she was so much taller than Sonny, but in her biography on Wikipedia it said she is 5'8”. Sonny must have been very short indeed. She sang a new song “It's A Woman's World.” Her voice sounded slightly husky, but was still strong.

I was watching my bedtime tape of television documentaries last night and on it was some extended news footage of the Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel trial. They are the ones who owned the two dogs that killed Dianne Whipple in January of 2001. That breed is called Perro de Presa Canario, originally bred for working cattle on Spain's Canary Islands. Show quality males are 23 to 26 inches at the withers, and weigh from 100 to 140 pounds. They require “early socialization and obedience training,” and still are sometimes aggressive toward other dogs and suspicious of strangers. These particular dogs came from a prison inmate named Paul Schneider who was attempting to start a dog fighting business from behind bars. Knoller and Noel got the dogs “through the relationship” with him, apparently a friendship. Knoller adopted Paul Schneider as her son shortly before the dog attack occurred, so it was more than a client and attorney relationship. Schneider was also a prominent member of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. The dogs had already bitten a number of people, and Noel, when told by a professional dog walker to muzzle them, told him to “'shut up' and was called offensive names.”

The jury convicted Knoller of second degree murder and Noel of felony charges of keeping a mischievous dog. It was not clear, according to Wikipedia, whether they had actually trained the dogs to attack, or simply had insufficient control of them. It was stated that the the woman who raised the dogs had kept them on a chain, which tends to make dogs more vicious. Knoller is serving a 15 year sentence, and Noel served a term of 4 years. Both owners were attorneys in California and as a result of the trial were disbarred. It was a deeply sad story –- that an animal had been allowed or even caused to be so vicious and that two lawyers, who are supposed to be respected members of society, were so lacking in common sense and moral fiber as to keep them without proper restraints and training. Their close connection with a prison inmate serving a life sentence is also amazing. What kind of people were they? Some people love their animals over all other things, of course, but I wonder if they were actually planning to fight the dogs at some point. At any rate an apartment house in the city is not the place for such an animal. Maybe they should even be a banned breed, as probably the pit bull should be.

President Obama came out this last August against the banning of specific breeds of dogs, based on studies by the Centers For Disease Control and the Task Force On Canine Aggression and Human-Canine Interactions. According to those studies, there are no “objective” criteria for determining exactly what breed a dog belongs to, as so many dogs are mixed, and both owners and law enforcement don't have a clear cut way of knowing what a given dog is. Also, according to the White House report, those individuals who are intentionally raising vicious dogs will simply move on to another breed that is not yet banned. The ASPCA recommends education of owners and the spaying or neutering, as that reduces a dog's aggressiveness. Nancy Perry, the ASPCA's Senior Vice President For Government Relations praised Obama's stance. So it's apparently next to impossible to tell on the basis of breed alone whether a dog will be dangerous or not. In the book I read about dogs, however, the author said that genetics is a major cause of aggressiveness, and that some breeds of dog should particularly be given lots of warm human socialization early in their life and obedience training. The author also was against methods of dog training that included physical punishment and intimidation, as a timid dog is more likely to deliver a “fear bite.” I have always loved dogs, and have found most of them to be receptive to being touched gently, but some dogs I've met don't respond in a friendly way and I always respect their distance. If I have a dog, which I won't at this time in my life, but if I were to win the lottery and buy a house with a big back yard, I would like a border collie because they are mostly gentle, but will bark and even bite if their owner is threatened, and they have the intelligence to make a better judgment of which people they meet are dangerous to their owner. A prowler skulking around the house would be challenged.

10:25 Finishing my coffee now, and back to reading my mystery novel. Bix Golightly, the underworld operator who is threatening Clete, is described here in a humorous and entertaining way, rather than as a truly dangerous man. His thug underling Waylon Grimes shows a definite lack of respect for him and Golightly doesn't smash him to bits. He then sees Clete come to a bookstore near his house and confronts him. Their conversation is a really funny run of tough guy language. After besting him in the verbal jousting match, Clete follows him, planning to catch him and Grimes together and beat them both. He parks outside Grimes' apartment house and watches as Golightly goes in. Unbeknownst to Purcel, Golightly has found Grimes dead inside. As Purcell waits for Golightly to come out, the police come by and spot Purcel, but go on about their business. Then Golightly comes out and goes to his car, when a shadowy figure emerges from the doorway next door and shoots Golightly three times. Purcel hides in the alley and watches the shooter walk away.

12:58 I just finished watching “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire,” which I like a lot because the questions are a combination of common knowledge and logic, so I can usually answer them. I wish I could get on the show, because they definitely do win a lot of money. I complained about Cedric The Entertainer when I first saw him, because he was so boisterous and loud, but I'm used to it now and I find him funny. He pulls some funny facial expressions and hasn't shown any bad taste, like I thought he might.

More reading. Blue Melton, Tee Jolie's sister, was also missing. She shows up a couple of days later floating in a marsh encased in a large block of ice. Robicheaux is called to the scene and identifies her. The coroner examined her and found a red balloon in her mouth in which a message was inserted. It was in Blue's handwriting and said “My sister is still alive.” She had received a “massive” overdose of heroin, and had a puncture mark on her body. The coroner concluded that she was injected while in the water or was put in the water shortly afterward. The author didn't say why the coroner thought that, but I conclude she probably had water in her lungs. There is no trace of humor in the author's writing now. The narrator Robicheaux, after leaving the coroner's office, sits by the bayou and watches a cottonmouth moccasin come out of the water and slither into the bushes. The only reason I can imagine for the author to include that is to heighten the suspense, which was already created by the bizarre fact that Blue was imbedded in a block of ice when she was found. Definitely spooky.

Purcell has a problem. He saw the shooter when he was hiding in the alley and recognized her as his daughter whom he had met only once when he bailed her out of jail at her mother's request. As a result, he didn't go to the police to identify her as the shooter. He was looking for her instead and finally met her in a bar, but didn't identify himself to her. He finds that he can't help noticing her beauty as a woman and doesn't want to show it. He leaves the bar and drives to the gangster's apartment who was said to be holding the IOU against him. He asks him who hired “Caruso,” who happens to be his daughter. He takes his anger out on that man when he says he doesn't know, and tells him to pack up and leave the city. Robicheaux, meanwhile, is still looking for Tee Jolie Melton. He goes home and finds his daughter there looking at a series of photographs of paintings at a new exhibit. He looks at them and thinks the model on one is Tee Jolie. Alafair his daughter tells him he's been imagining things about seeing Tee Jolie, but agrees to go with him to his apartment to talk to him. The painter Pierre Dupree tells him the model isn't Tee Jolie and he's never heard of her.

Purcell shows up next in the police station being questioned about the murder of the gangster. It seems he made it on the bus to Baton Rouge where he went into the men's room and the mysterious shooter kills him. They throw Purcell in jail until they release him on bail. When he gets out he finds the woman from the bar (his daughter) who bailed him out. He gets in her car and they go to a cafe. They make some introductory conversation, during which Purcell still doesn't tell her that he has recognized her, and instead asks her if she wants a job working for him. Her answer is that she isn't big on clocks and calendars. She thanks him for the beignets and asks him can he walk to his office, that it's only two blocks, and leaves. He is wondering how she knows where he works, thinking she had followed him from the gangster Frankie's apartment to the bus station, and then followed the bus to Baton Rouge.

Robicheaux wakes up at four in the morning hearing the phone ringing in the kitchen. He gets up to answer it and it is Tee Jolie who has called to tell him she is okay. He tells her about her sister being dead, but she says the static is so bad she can't hear him. She says goodbye and hangs up. His wife Mollie asks him what he was doing and she doesn't believe him when he tells her. She says she can't deal with his delusions. He goes back into the kitchen and sits in the dark. She calls him back to bed and said she didn't really mean it. She asks him what he was dreaming about and he says he can't remember, rather than talk about it.

5:46 Time to eat and watch the news. More reading tomorrow.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

It's 11:43 AM and I have finished the Ann Rule book, Too Late To Say Goodbye. It was interesting to the very end, at which point Rule tied up every loose end about each character. The story was true and she followed out every detail about the prosecution's case. It took over two years before they finally traced the murder weapon to the dentist Bart Corbin. The connection was a friend of his in Alabama who gave him the gun, supposedly for self-protection against Jenn his wife. The friend was a very reluctant witness, saying simply that he “didn't want to get involved.” However the police finally found the serial number of the gun on a 911 tape in the Alabama town where the witness lived, and the witness confessed to his local sheriff that he did in fact give Corbin the gun. When Corbin's defense attorneys were informed of that, they asked for a plea agreement. There was no trial. Corbin plead guilty to two charges of murder.

There was a great deal of detail about Corbin and his life. While he was certainly unstable, given to crying jags and rages at both the women, there was no sign that he was irrational – just extremely self-centered, egotistical and lacking in empathy. He lived his life in a coldly logical way. He simply refused to let either woman reject him, which was of course what they both did, and paid for it with their lives. There was also another woman who had a relationship with him and then mysteriously disappeared, but he was not tried for her murder, and it remained unsolved. The result of his pleading guilty was that he was charged with two counts of murder for which he is serving two life sentences. Unfortunately, he is serving them concurrently, so he may at some point get out on parole. One source on the Internet said that the date that he may be up for parole is 2020.

Lunch now. I'm watching “Aqua Kids” on channel 4. The content of the show is interesting to adults as well as teens. I'll watch anything about animals, almost. I don't like the show on Animal Planet that shows the police arresting people for abusing animals. I can't watch animal abuse. I know it goes on, but I don't see how I can help, and some of the things on that particular show are really gruesome. Some people will argue that the Bible says man was given “dominion” over the animal world, and that therefore hurting animals is no crime. The same argument is given for our despoiling the natural environment. It really is a great loss. Once a forest has been cut down a number of bad things happen – we lose the power of plants to clean up the air, the soil begins to erode, animal habitats are destroyed, and we no longer have that sense of peace that walking in the woods can bring. I don't basically believe that man is the measure of all things. We overrate our intelligence and importance when we think that way. Man needs nature to bring out our best personal characteristics, not to mention the very things required for life to continue, breathable air and clean water.

1:24 PM I'm starting a new novel, Creole Belle by James Lee Burke. I've read a number of his and they are all different from each other with fresh new ideas for the plot, and they often contain mystical aspects. He is an American Indian who lives in Missoula, Montana. He has written, according to the cover of this 2012 story, thirty novels and two collections of short stories, won six prizes and has had three of his books made into movies. I look forward to starting this one.

Dave Robicheaux and Clete Purcel are best friends – Robicheaux is a sheriff's deputy, and Purcel is an ex-policeman turned PI who work in New Orleans. They are violent and tough talking, but they champion the cause of underdogs. The dialogue is rough with a touch of profanity. A creole woman that some thought was dead has appeared in Robicheaux's hospital room and left him an Ipod that supposedly has her voice on it. This is the only proof he has of her presence among the living. Oddly, no one but Robicheaux can find her voice on the Ipod. There are two underworld types trying to shake down Purcell over an IOU that he paid off within a week of incurring it, so the paper shouldn't have been kept at all. Purcell, who has flashbacks from his time in Vietnam, went into a blackout and beat the man within an inch of his life. I don't see how that is going to solve his IOU problem, but I will continue reading and find out.

Robicheaux has a cat fitting for a tough rogue cop: Tripod the pet raccoon's “buddy Snuggs, our unneutered warrior cat, …. His ears were chewed, his neck thick and hard as a fire hydrant, his body rippling with sinew when he walked. He was fearless in a fight, took no prisoners, and would chase dogs out of the yard if he thought they were a threat to Tripod.”

5:57 I have quit reading and am watching an interview with Cher. She does fascinate me. She is so striking, even now when she is probably 70 years old. I think I'll look her up in Wikipedia. She is one year younger than I am. Her name was Cherilyn Sarkisian. According to Wikipedia, the name Sarkisian is Armenian. Her biography articles on the Net don't say what her ethnic background is. I thought she was part Indian, but it didn't say so. She is dark and has a strong nose. Armenia is a former part of the Soviet Union. Maybe I'll get a biography about her from the library.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

8:22 AM News –- Channel 12 First Coast News discussed bullying. A young man who was bullied has written and is acting in a play about bullying. He said that both people who were bullied and former bullies have come up to him afterward and talked to him. It seems that some people who were bullies come to regret their actions and try to change. I'd like to see that play. I'd also like to get a good book or two about the psychology of bullying. FCN has a boot camp for young people called the Anti-bullying Boot Camp, also. Cyber bullying is a big problem, and the lady who was on the segment said that laws are being written that criminalize it. I'll look on the net and see what I can find about that. I'd like to see all bullying criminalized. It is, after all, assault. I feel the same way about kids who bring knives to the schoolyard. It shouldn't be considered “a stage they are going through.” It should be punished as though they were adults. In the same category is hazing. I wish the human animal could be more civilized. Teachers and other school officials should crack down on it. Instead they often try to ignore it. They aren't doing their jobs and should be fired for that.

A friend of mine has a spunky daughter who was slapped by a boy when she lit into him verbally because he spit on her friends food. When he slapped her she “went blank” and began slugging him with both fists, backing him up against a wall. Her parents went to the school officials to get the boy punished, but they were told that “we would have to punish her too” if they punished him. Nonetheless, the boy got the message and never bothered her again. Some self-defense techniques might help the students who are bullied. I do basically believe that bullies, like other criminals, don't want to pick victims who can fight back. It is also true, though, that being able to stand up for oneself verbally should be tried first, and will often be enough. One kid has little defense against a gang, of course. The schools should monitor what goes on on the playground and in the hallways, so that the gangs who go around together could be watched. Cliques among the jocks and “popular kids” should be watched, too, as they do often harass less aggressive students. We tend to think of the problem kids as being from poor homes, but they are often privileged instead. Sometimes those kids are used to getting everything they want from their parents, and don't develop a very active conscience. If I were the head of the school system, the students who start fights either in a group or singly would be expelled. Of course, I would investigate the incident and try to get witnesses, so it could be established who hit first and what the provocation was. It seems to me that spitting on somebody's lunch is provocation.

Coffee now. 9:21 On the net – Author Lindsay Ashton has written a murder mystery called The Mysterious Death Of Miss Austen, based on the true case of her symptoms when she died and a lock of her hair which a reader bought at auction, which tested positive for arsenic. I'd like to read that book. I'd also like to read a real biography of Austen's life. She is probably my foremost literary hero. With none of the flashy techniques of some modern authors, she wrote beautiful prose which flowed perfectly and never failed to have a well-formed “plot,” while writing deep characters as well.

Net and news – Mystery intoxication condition –- a man in East Texas, 9/20/13, was diagnosed with an infection of brewers yeast. The yeast had colonized his colon, and caused him to have a blood alcohol reading of .12, though he hadn't had any alcohol to drink. It took five years for anybody to believe that he wasn't actually drinking. Finally a nurse Barbara Cordell who was a friend of his took him to Dr. Justin McCarthy who put him in the hospital for observation and diagnosed his condition. The condition is called “auto-brewery syndrome,” or “gut fermentation syndrome, and the high production of alcohol is triggered by a “glucose challenge” (high blood sugar) and a high carbohydrate diet. Fascinating!

Reading now. I'm about halfway through the Ann Rule book. The murder suspect is a chronically angry and bitter man with a very negative attitude toward women. He was slow to begin to date women, had the attitude that men are tops and women are secondary under all conditions and was very angry and “hurt” when his first real girlfriend dropped him. He alternated between crying and raging over it. When the second girlfriend wanted to split up he killed her, and then his third romance with his wife went the same route. He is a dentist who, according to his words, wants to “stick it to his patients,” so that he can make more money. He is parsimonious and greedy about money and harsh toward his young sons and wife. His wife didn't catch on until the very end that he was physically dangerous and didn't make the attempt to leave him in time. I'm at the point in the reconstruction of the crime at which he is about to kill her. I don't know what the author's evidence was as to the events, though in the introduction it said she read the case files in the police department. I'm reading with interest.

My allergy problems are better today, though I haven't taken an anti-histamine. I ran out and need to buy some more. I have decided to go with Benadryl rather than Claritin, because it does as much good and doesn't cost as much. I need to buy groceries today, too, so I'll get dressed after lunch and go up there. Still reading.

I went to the drugstore and bought Benadryl and Sudafed (store brand) and a mouthwash fortified with fluoride that is supposed to harden the enamel. I bought too many groceries. The bags were so heavy that I could barely make it in the doorway. Luckily the guard was there and she opened the door for me. I'm well-stocked now, though, so I don't have to go again for about a week. I only bought 5 cups of yogurt, so I will need that a little sooner.

I tried to finish the book this afternoon, but it's time to eat and try to catch some news. I'll finish it tomorrow morning.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

News – The most interesting thing in the news today was the scheduled testimony of Caroline Kennedy in front of the Senate as the nominee for Ambassador to Japan. She has worked in party politics, supporting Obama over Clinton, though she also contributed funds to Hillary Clinton in the same race. She is a lawyer, writer and editor, and has served on many boards for charities. She worked two years for the Office Of Strategic Partnerships for the NYC Department of Education. She is a liberal, favoring same sex marriage, the pro-choice position on abortion, gun control and the death penalty. She advocates the security of Israel with Jerusalem being the undivided capitol of Israel, and Israel as being responsible for their own security decisions. She hopes for a two-state peace agreement with Palestine, if Palestine is “a true partner for peace.” The Wikipedia article and other websites did not comment on her expertise on Japan. If she is confirmed she would be the first female ambassador to Japan. The website nippon.com stated that the consensus in Japan is one of approval. I will be happy if she is approved, because she is the last of the well-known Kennedys and though she is in the midst of a separation from her husband with a rumor of an affair on the side, she seems to me to be a promising candidate. I think she is intellectually capable of performing well.

The weather yesterday was, as predicted, rainy with 4” falling in Jacksonville. Naturally there was flooding in several parts of the city. Our drainage system doesn't work perfectly. San Marco has a number of streets that almost always flood when it rains much. There are always the warnings for drivers to turn around and go back rather than trying to drive through flood waters, but there are always cars that get stranded because they didn't follow the advice. I hope I will have the common sense not to drive through flood water if I'm ever out in a heavy rain storm. I have been in storms with rain so heavy that I couldn't see, even though the windshield wipers were going at full tilt. Sometimes I put my flashers on and slowly proceed, but more often I have pulled over to the side and parked until the rain got lighter. A thunderstorm in Jacksonville doesn't usually last more than 15 or 20 minutes, luckily.

There is a really cute commercial that just played for Captain D's, a restaurant that I never patronize because they have mediocre food in small quantities. Their commercial, though, has a young black girl and her father sitting in Captain D's. The father asks her “If you have 6 shrimp and someone takes 3, how many do you have left?” She gives a couple of seconds thought to it and says “Six, because nobody is going to take my shrimp.” Her father is taken aback, and says she is a smart girl. Then after a brief announcement of what Capt. D's offers, they switch back to the father again, who is reaching out his hand to take some of her shrimp. Without a moments pause, she says with a determined smile, “We just talked about that!” The father gives a very funny expression of dismay and says “You sound just like your mother!”

I'm going to start reading a true life crime story by Ann Rule, who has written a number of those. This one is called Too Late To Say Goodbye. A woman who is supposedly happily married is found dead with a gun beside her. The husband, it turns out, had another relationship in the past in which a similarly suspicious suicide occurred. The story takes place in Buford, Georgia in 2004, with the previous death occurring in 1990. Reading now.

Page 23, this sentence strikes me for its literary style, almost like poetry. “The shriek of sirens piercing the chill December morning on Bogan Gates Drive was almost as alien as the thackety-thackety of helicopters overhead would be.” That really is a very good opening sentence. The author comments on the fact that Oprah Winfrey once broadcast her show from Buford to turn a light on the hard-set racial problems there. The neighborhood is well-to-do, the husband a dentist. Rule is going into considerable detail about all the people involved in the story, and I am enjoying it. It reads smoothly and I'm moving right through it at a good pace. I'll have to get another one of hers. I saw one the last time I was at the library.

It's 5:25. Time for the news and supper.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

News –- The Today Show had a series of new patents on today, several of which I missed, but the the last three were interesting. The best one was a set of folding reading glasses which fold up into a round pendant that you wear around your neck. Then when you can't see your menu you just open them up for the time it takes to read it and then close them up again. They are decorated with rhinestones and hang from a long chain that has no clasp, under the theory that you can't see clasps anymore. It looks like something that will sell. I wear glasses all the time, but if I didn't I would definitely need them.

The weather forecast for today is a 50/50 chance of rain, and from the look of the sky it's coming this morning. I'm having to use my bedside lamp, it's so dark outside. Oh, well. There has been no rain for over a week, so I assume we are in a drought by now. That is the standard condition in Jacksonville, hence the paleness of lawns and shrubbery as compared to the darker green in Piedmont NC where I come from. I do sometimes miss the deep black soil and greenery as you drive along the roads in North Carolina.

I need to buy a new mouse. The roller ball in my mouse is not turning like it should and I'm having to pick it up in my hand and turn the ball with my finger. Supposedly you can open up the mouse and pull the ball out and wash it to solve that problem, but I can't get it to open. I also need printer inks, so I should just go out to Walmart and get them both. I'll try to do that soon.

Reading now. I rushed on through the book. The author basically says to accept your introversion and use the strengths that it entails. Don't fight your nature. If you “can't think” in a big, loud party, then don't go to one. Don't make excuses for yourself about it – just thank the well-meaning extrovert for the invitation, but say you need some time to yourself or even that you don't like large groups of people. Most people understand that. Do meditate, exercise your imagination and your logical abilities, do something artistic or read a book. Don't consider yourself to be inferior or weaker because you spend a lot of time thinking. If you want to participate in a group activity, do so, knowing that you can go home earlier than some of the others. We are all mixtures of introversion and extroversion, and both types benefit from the society of the other. Don't nurse anger at the extroverts if you can help it. Anger does lead to mental and emotional illness. Instead give yourself the things that make you feel satisfied –- ideas over game playing or lightweight conversation and cooperation over competition. Write, paint, play music, take a quiet walk or talk to a close friend.

Personally, I wouldn't want to be only in the presence of other introverted individuals because I sometimes find extroverts, if they have the capability of listening as well as talking, to be up beat and cheering. I do think it is possible to be alone too much, and I find that my introspective thoughts can become depressing. If people are the competitive type, I don't want to be around them, though. To me competition is not the action of a friend. I want close friends, primarily, rather than a large number of acquaintances that I tolerate, but don't really like. So I can be fairly critical about the matter if I think they are uncaring, unthinking or even cruel. To me people like that aren't superior. They're extremely flawed.

5:00 It's news time. Goodnight.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

11:33 I had a doctor's appointment today at 8:30 for a blood test and consultation. I got a new prescription for Flonase, a nasal spray that used to help me a lot. I hope it does, because I am tired of this endless stuffy nose and tickling throat. I have coughed so much that my chest and throat hurt.

I made three cups of coffee this morning, instead of two. I don't want to make a habit of that, but every now and then I just want the luxury of having something tasty to sip. I'm reading the book on introversion. I have never had any doubt that I am primarily introverted, but I also have a more extroverted side – at least I am pretty assertive and interested in the external world. This author keeps talking about the preference for internal thoughts. I do read almost constantly, but I like exciting or intriguing things. I once substituted books on archeology for mysteries, and was just as interested by delving into the deep and mysterious past as I was by exciting stories. I like getting input from external sources, but am more likely to use books and TV documentaries for that than people, especially those who aren't good sources of information. The true extrovert isn't very interested in learning things. They do tend to talk mainly about other people and status activities. I like to find friends who also read and like gathering information, and whose conversation about themselves is more probing and thoughtful. Talking to them is more interesting and less likely to be full of competitive interaction. I don't like to compete. It doesn't feel friendly to me, and I don't get that thrill from winning that some people do. I always tend to protect the underdog.

This author talks about American society as being predominately extroverted, and even we introverts tend to adapt to that by opening up more as we mature. Helgoe says that making contact with other less aggressive people (aggressive is my word. This author hasn't talked about gentle versus aggressive.) and interacting in the greater depth that one on one conversation allows, or in small trusting groups, is better for the introvert. In other words, acknowledge your type and stop blaming and criticizing yourself. It's healthier and more satisfying. Make friends who are like yourself. This is what I've always done, of course. If I am invited to a large party, I probably won't attend. I like a small party with half a dozen people of mixed sexes and varying backgrounds, and I can have individual conversations within the group, plus the subjects of conversation probably won't be gossip. Of course, it also matters who is giving the party and inviting the guests. A good introvert is more likely to invite more socially open and thoughtful people. The author mentions that a psychological type conference in Britain, saying that the British people had difficulty identifying American introverts, and the Americans had trouble spotting the British extroverts. Americans are more excitable, aggressive, and talkative in general. I have liked most of the British people whom I have met. Of course, I have only met a few, and mainly while I was in college, so they were scholarly types.

“The Extroversion Assumption: -- Introversion is the exception and extroversion is the norm –- Parties are fun – Being popular is important –- It's who you know, not what you know – Networking is essential to success –- It's not good to be alone –- It's important to be a team player --- The more the merrier. The pressure to act like an extrovert can be intense. We as introverts need to improve our ability to see others who are similar. There are certain places where introverts dominate, especially libraries and coffee houses I would add, concerts, plays, and actively benign social groups such as church related activities or clubs with a common interest or goal. For me the goal is to enjoy myself and grow as a person. I have always been one who needs friends, but they are close friends rather than the type of surface-level group-centered relationships that many extroverts prefer. As an adult, I have found it possible to enjoy what I had available to me and be happy most of the time. I need the time apart from others to ponder and analyze, thus calming myself and straightening up my thinking. I do tend to make all my own decisions by myself from the “facts” gathered from either close friends or books. I am not easily swayed by pressure or “group think.” I can be a very good friend to certain other people.

The author gives information on two introverted societies, “Norden” and Japan. By Norden, she is referring to Norway and the other far north countries. One aspect I wouldn't like about that area is the very short winter days, with no sun at all on Dec. 21 inside the Arctic Circle in Norway. One thing that does drag me down into depression, or did until I began taking my current medications, is the short winter day and especially the rapidly shortening days of Autumn. October is my most anxious month. April, on the other hand is my most buoyant, giving me a high that got me diagnosed as bipolar. The author, in describing Norwegian society, says visitors “are stunned by its beauty and cleanliness.... Introverts are less likely to feel overstimulated here, and are spared the constant evidence of the other people who share this space.... The prevailing form of government, social democracy, embraces consensus decision-making.... a more inclusive “feminine” style of management, and more attention to the individual worker.” “The Norden personality emphasizes privacy, restraint, respect and equality.... The dominantly Lutheran religious culture emphasizes private faith over public evangelism. Showoffs are not appreciated.” Helgoe highlights the career of Alfred Nobel, a well-known introvert, stating that he had 350 patents and controlled factories and laboratories in twenty countries, was fluent in five languages, and wrote novels, poetry and plays. About the long, dark winters, there are “light cafes” in Norway, where your seat is served by a therapeutic light box. Light boxes light that can be bought on the Amazon website and other sites on the Net. The downside is that the taxes and the cost of running a business are very high.

“Japan: Manners Over Mouth” – Helgoe is most impressed with the tea garden, a place that is made very beautifully, not for a large group, but for an individual, and in which the sitter can meditate. Zen Buddhism, she said, is very popular in Japan. In meeting a new person for the first time, the Japanese consider holding out your hand and introducing yourself to be “intrusive,” preferring instead “holding back” or “enryo” to give the other person time to “size up the situation,” thus you wouldn't learn the name on first acquaintance. I see that gives you a chance to learn a little about the other person, and then be ready to receive their name.

I have a difficult time remembering names on first acquaintance, and do better if I talk a little first. I always want to know a little of the inner self when I am meeting a new person, so I can know if I am gravitating toward them or away from them. The name “clicks” better for me that way. My main problem is with first names, and many people when they introduce someone they only give the first name. I have a much fuller picture of the new person if I get their last name, too, since I like to guess the language and country where their family came from. According to Emily Post, when introducing people you are supposed to tell each of them something about the other. This can be demanding at a party where you may not know the people that well, but it does help that first name to stick in my mind.

The term “honorable” is used in personal interactions, showing a “reverence”, as is the bow. The following sign was put up by the owner of a narrow driveway: “We're sorry, but we must respectfully request that owners of honorable cars not connected to this household cooperate by refraining from parking in front of our humble driveway.” I can't see Americans ever going to that extent to be polite. I would feel very restricted in such a society. Maybe that is because I am only introverted to a certain extent, and can be extroverted at times. When I am feeling in a good mood, I have a good deal of energy and I want the freedom to stride confidently forward with life. I want to be gentle, but not invisible.

The result shows up in the difference between Japanese and American crime statistics. Murders in the US are 8 times more common, rapes are 25 times more common, aggravated assault 81 times, and robbery 146 times more common. On top of this, they only have 1/3 as many police, 1/5 as many judges, and 1/20 as many jail cells as we do in the US. The Japanese prize restraint, harmony and spiritual practice (over religion, per se), and the result is a safer society. According to the author, safety is very highly prized by introverts. It's necessary, really, if you are going to go by yourself and take a quiet walk in the woods. That is something that I used to do every day as a child. I came home from school, put on my slacks and tee shirt, and took my dog down in the woods behind our house to give her some exercise. That was a very safe time and place. No sexual predators ever waited there for me.

Japan, unfortunately, has one of the highest suicide rates of industrialized countries. So do the Nordic countries. In the far north it is thought to be because of the dark winters, but in Japan I would think it would be because of the suppression of natural tendencies and individualism. According to this book, the Myers Briggs test has been given in Japan, too, as well as a number of other countries, and there are about a 50 percent division of the populations worldwide between introverts and extroverts. I suspect it may be an inherited factor, from thinking about my own family. However, the extroverts in Japan must be bordering on depressed all the time, or very angry. The Japanese phrase, which I've heard before this book, is “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down,” whereas the American phrase is “It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease.”

There is a trend in Japanese society toward a practice called “hikikomori,” which is the withdrawal, usually by a boy, out of society and into his room for six months or longer. One such boy had been shamed and bullied by his classmates because he had a God-given talent for baseball which made him show up his teammates, who though they tried, couldn't do as well. This is a polar opposite from American society. I wouldn't want to live in a completely introverted society. I have too much enthusiasm in my own nature to want to cope with the constant “hammering down.” Humility and gentleness is a good thing, but for a whole society to be suppressed isn't good. I would just like for Americans to be more thoughtful, polite and gentle, as some of them certainly are.

5:45 Supper and news now.

Monday, September 16, 2013

9:40 Instead of the news, I am watching an old tape I made from the TV in 2000 of a documentary called “Raising The Mammoth,” which is the story of an expedition to excavate and carry a frozen mammoth (of which there are quite a few in Siberia) to a laboratory. It is done in the autumn to keep it from thawing and therefore rotting. The scientists enlist the help of the Dolgans, a reindeer herding people of Siberia. The Dolgans often find mammoth tusks and know where to look for them. The scientists are using ground penetrating radar to find anomalies under the soil. They find a mammoth buried in the permafrost except for the tusks, which are protruding out above ground, and dig it out, carrying it by helicopter. The scientists' goal is to use the cells from the mammoth to implant their DNA in an Asian elephant's egg and produce a living cross-breed, to be used over a series of generations to develop a pure mammoth. I looked up this kind of experiment on the Internet and got an article from Wikipedia. It will probably take 5 years, and have a 1% to 5% chance of success. The mammoth DNA that is available to scientists is fractured into short pieces. According to the Wikipedia article, there were mammoths as late as 3,800 years ago on the small Russian island of Wrengel. Most, in their original range of Africa, Asia, North America, Central America and Europe, were extinct by about 7,600 years BP. Theories about their extinction include a large meteor that changed the climate and simple extermination by human hunters.

I was just thinking of Lannie, my first college roommate. I lost touch with her in the 1980's, and was hoping to find some hits on the Internet for either her or her husband, but neither shows up. She is one person I used to be close to, but as time passed I didn't write or communicate and now I can't. I was never one to write very often to anybody. I didn't like to sit down with pen and paper and do it. It seemed like a difficult task. Emails are much easier, and there is almost instant gratification since the message goes through so fast. I feel much more in touch now. I hope I never have to give up the Internet.

11:22 Finishing my mystery now. Done – It was a satisfying finish, with the lead character Kathryn Dance making the correct decision between two men with whom she was having a borderline romantic interaction without any sexual involvement yet. She chose the man who was free of entanglements, and who represented a new direction for her. Dance has been in a number of Deaver's books, so I have followed her. She was half in love with a married police officer with whom she worked frequently, and he showed no sign of leaving his wife, but didn't distance himself from Dance. That kind of thing is bothersome to me. It can't go forward, and keeps people bound into the situation, but unsatisfied. Better to just avoid the situation. Being “in love” can happen again with a more appropriate partner.

12:13 PM news – A major shooting has occurred at the DC Washington Navy Yard, with 4 killed and 10 injured. There are thought to be two shooters, whose identity and background has not been given, but one was black and the other was white. They were wearing “military style” uniforms. According to the TV at noon, one of the shooters has been killed. I'll keep track of this as the day goes on.

1:22 PM I'm starting one of the two non-fiction books that I got recently. Neither is all that fascinating, but they were the best that I spotted the other day. This one is called Introvert Power, by Laurie Helgoe, a PhD psychologist and part-time actor and model. She is quite pretty. She has written other books, including The Complete Idiots Guide To Raising Boys, The Anxiety Answer Book, and an article in Psychology Today called “The Revenge Of The Introverts.” Her advice comes from her own life, as she is herself an introvert. Introverts make up 57% of the population, rather than the 30% that psychologists formerly thought, and are no longer assumed to be maladjusted. This book is a serious study rather than just another self-help book, and her work is well-known and referenced by other authors. Let's see what she has to say. The following quotation from Buddha is in the front of the book: “Believe nothing. No matter where you read it, Or who said it, Even if I have said it, Unless it agrees with your own reason And your own common sense.” I don't think he is advocating self-centered self-satisfaction, but thoroughly and boldly thinking for oneself to come to our “beliefs.” I couldn't agree more with the statement. I don't think God gave us a critical and incisive brain to require us then not to use it, or run the risk of a fearsome Hell. We do have to make a life habit of keeping in sight the fact that our thoughts and observations could be wrong, and therefore opening our mind to new viewpoints and information. That is what I call humility, and is the counter-balance to overly developed self-confidence. Given that, I'll try to learn something from this book.

First, introverts and extroverts are very different in the way they think, make decisions and learn. In the introvert the person's brain works more effectively when they are left alone to develop their thoughts. They will solve problems, come to new understandings and absorb new information better in a quiet mode than in a loud and exciting or competitive group interaction session. According to the author, studies have been done of brain activity, and the introvert's brain is more constantly active than the extrovert's. Maybe because of this, they are subject to over-stimulation, causing the need to get to a quiet place and think for awhile. The group problem solving method that is often considered superior is not as effective for them. Unfortunately most school classrooms are geared to group interaction. So is American society in general. Japan is contrasted, with a gentler and less competitive emphasis.

The “secretive” or less expressive introvert may be suspected by extroverts as being subversive or otherwise dangerous, or even snobbish. They don't slap each other on the back because they are more reserved. They don't get a kick out of listening to gossip, because it is either threatening or simply not as interesting as ideas are. The introvert is less likely to go along with the group direction no matter where it is leading, so they are more prone to object to group excesses or just be a “wet blanket” and keep others from having fun. The introvert is harder to convince of any dogma or sales spiel, because they are more mentally “aroused.”

The author argues against introversion as indicating mental illness or maladjustment, because there are differences in the way the introvert's brain works. She doesn't consider them to be “anti-social” (having a lack of empathy and conscience), “asocial” (not interested in social interactions), or “snobbish.” Extroverts respond to external stimulation and introverts to internal. All people, according to the Myers Briggs test, are mixtures of introverted and extroverted. I gather most of the modern thought about introversion and extroversion is based on this test, which divides people roughly into groups according to how they answer questions about their preferences.

The author talks about alienation, comparing it with mere “aloneness”, in which the person may feel basically “connected” or “recognized” and is therefore comfortable The alienated person does not feel recognized or understood. Alienation is connected with more problematic psychiatric conditions than simple introversion. “As adults, we see ourselves as being empowered or understood when we see our values reflected in society.” One can be alienated from society (social alienation) or from oneself (self-alienation). “Some introverts … embrace alienation from society … drop out of the mainstream. These are the Shadow Dwellers … keep a low profile or become openly hostile.” The author goes on to describe those who look on the outside like an extrovert, achieving through great effort social success, but not “having fun” or fulfilled This self-alienation... can lead to depression.”

Ending on page 27. News now.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

Bad news – A public library has opened up in Texas which has no books –- only Ebooks and computers. In Fairfax, VA the library system has decided to go all digital and was destroying books until charitable organizations and ordinary citizens complained loudly. They have stopped the destruction until the community organizations get to go through the discarded books and choose which they would like to keep for homeless shelters, hospitals, etc. I doubt that Jacksonville will do it soon, but it is being done in response to ever more restricted city budgets like ours. Ebooks are cheaper. The libraries are also getting rid of their professional library staff and hiring only library aides and other less professional workers, even for the head librarian positions. One librarian at the Texas library said that they may not have all the titles that are being sought. I think there are fewer titles that are out as Ebooks, probably. Either that or the goals of public libraries will be less lofty in the future, with the library no longer being an indispensable tool of an educated populace. People like me will be at a loss for what to do with our time. I hate this. We'll go back to the days when people had to buy books to read them, if publishers will still be printing books. I'm reminded of the “bookleggers” in A Canticle For Leibowitz. I no longer have my copy of that, I don't think. I wonder if I could find it on the Internet?

News – There is a Dengue fever outbreak in Florida at Jensen Beach. Martin County officials are going door to door to take blood, in an attempt to find out how widespread it is. Dengue fever is something I connect with other countries, but of course, south Florida is tropical. Looking on Wikipedia. It occurs in Africa, Asia and North America, and was first identified and named in 1779. The hemorrhagic fever which can develop with it is often fatal. It is characterized by high fever and intense bodily pain. Florida had 198 cases 2010, with others in Texas and Hawaii. This year there have been two cases in Florida so far.

More news – Dreaming In Cuban is on the list of recommended reading for high school students along with classics like A Farewell To Arms. A parent complained when her tenth grade student began reading the book that it was pornographic. She pointed out the page, on which was a very intense and graphic sex scene. The school immediately pulled the text from the curriculum. The author Christina Garcia defended her book, saying “students shouldn't be deprived of a broader cultural experience.” She went on to say that “many works, not just mine are misinterpreted or misguidedly banned because of the limitations and short-sightedness of a few.” The school curriculum director said the books on the list are recommended as examples of an appropriate reading level, not necessarily for purchasing. The book had been praised by a Pulitzer Prize winning author, so the Core Curriculum committee assumed it was good for the age group. The school superintendent said that they had “learned a lesson,” and that they would put steps in action to prevent its occurring again. I hope one of the steps will be for someone on the school staff to read the books, if they are not true classics like A Farewell To Arms. One reason I tend not to read modern novels that are not mysteries is that you never know what kind of story you will get, they differ so much from each other. There are often extended sex scenes in modern works, or the story may just drift around from one minor event or interaction to another without having any cohesive idea or anything resembling a “plot.” That's why I stopped reading Loose Change last week. I lost patience with it. It didn't have any sex scenes in it, however, though the women did have lovers or boyfriends. They also didn't have important events in their lives, or anything to build interest. Part of the trouble with the book was that it consisted of a series of chapters named for the women one at a time, and concerning only that woman, within each chapter. The result was an uncoordinated series of segments which didn't develop toward anything, and didn't show the relationships between the women very much. I would have preferred for the author to take one of the women and develop a story for her, carrying it to a conclusion in which she develops as a person, while also showing the interactions between them for variety.

Back to my mystery. 7:01 I'm almost finished with Deaver's book. I thought he had lost the story line for the teenaged boy, but it turned out he did have a plan, and to my relief, the attacker in the story turned out to be someone else. I just have one chapter left. I'll finish that tomorrow.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

News from last night – Dan Gorske has set a world record, eating a Big Mac or two every day since May 17, 1972. In 1911 he hit a total of 25,000 and in 2013 26,000. One article on him said that his taste buds don't work well. It also said that he has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder – he has also kept every receipt he received when he bought the Big Macs. His blood cholesterol is under 200, and he is not overweight. That's the only food he eats. It didn't say whether he takes vitamins or not. He published a book of his life in 2008. I wonder if I could get a copy. It's probably not at the public library.

Two days ago Vladimir Putin published an Op-Ed piece in the New York Times with the help of an American public relations firm called Ketchum, which has been doing work for the Russian Federation since 2006. According to this article there are a number of American firms working for foreign governments, including Syria. The world is too complicated to keep up with and follow the news without dropping the ball, much less reading every viewpoint expressed. This Putin publication seemed too bold (to put it politely) to ignore, so I have copied his article in a Washington Post version with commentary and fact-checking by Max Fisher into a file on my computer to keep. Fisher defends the American stance on foreign affairs. Senator John McCain has stated that he will write an answer to Putin within the next few days. I am curious to see what Putin has to say and the general tone of his comments. I think Putin's move was disrespectful of American boundaries, but he stated that he wanted to speak to the American people. It seems possible that he is genuinely concerned about the possibility of American strikes on Syria, and the state of world peace. I must admit, I think we intervene too frequently in the affairs of other countries, all in the name of democracy. Some peoples don't want democracy, and consider America to be an aggressor. The world is too big for the US to rule and dominate totally, and when we think we are so very good and great we are being blind and arrogant. In my opinion we are in over our heads now, with Afghanistan still going on. I fear that we may lose our leader status by pushing the envelope too far, maybe even starting World War III. Our economic problems are partly due to our high level of spending on foreign enterprises, while things like public education and healthcare at home are slighted.

According to Fisher, though Putin has a number of compelling points, his writing is hypocritical and dishonest in some places. Fisher does a line by line criticism of the writing, with Putin's words in bold text and his own in plain. I have just read Putin's comments. The tone is mild and seeks consensus, though that is part of what Fisher calls hypocrisy. He does not attack Obama, except to express concern that his recent speech described the US as being “exceptional,” which I, too, think we do as a society too often. It's as though we have a right to take aggressive stances because we are better than others. That viewpoint has been prevalent in our society since World War II, when our entering the fight made a difference between Hitler's winning and losing, and anyone disagreeing with the extreme nationalism that was rampant in this country, was in for a fight, especially in the 1950's and 60's. We should remember that hatred against Jews and blacks is still too commonplace in our society as is the great disparity between the rich and the poor here, so how is it that we are so virtuous? I think we should have some humility.

Fisher, who has a Masters Degree in security studies and is the Post's foreign affairs blogger, conceded that Putin has a number of compelling and valid points, but shows hypocrisy and dishonesty in others. He also voices doubt that Putin actually wrote the piece without the help of his Public Relations firm Ketchum. Putin defends the veto power by leading nations within the United Nations as being wise, helping to maintain the stability of relations between the major nations. Fisher doesn't think it's so wise, just inevitable to get the UN on its feet in the beginning, and states that the US and Russia both use their veto power too frequently, thus making the UN less powerful. He states that Putin's fear that the UN won't survive US strikes on Syria is unrealistic. He also thinks that a US strike on Syria would be less important than Putin says, given the state of civil war currently going on. I did see on the news a Syrian militant saying that he would welcome a US strike against Assad – it would be a case of his enemy fighting his enemy, and thus be good fortune for the rebels. Fisher stresses the hypocrisy of Russia criticizing American interference, since Russia has been giving Assad weapons. Putin also, according to Fisher, has not been promoting peaceful dialogue in Syria, but instead supporting them in an all out victory over the rebel forces. Putin has also blocked efforts in the UN to censure Syria for use of chemical weapons, while saying that he proposed peace through the UN. Putin claims that the rebels were the ones to use chemical weapons, while Fisher says that there is “strong circumstantial evidence” to the contrary. I, like many others, can't forget the strong US claim that Iraq had chemical weapons, only to find that if they had had them at one time, they had already destroyed them, so our pretext for the Iraq War was a false one. Finally, Putin says that Syria has become willing to place its stockpiles of chemical weapons under international supervision to destroy them. Fisher states that this seems to contradict Putin's argument that Assad wasn't the one who used the chemicals. Also it is an attempt to portray Russia as a peacemaker, rather than an involved party in the Syrian war.

I wonder what stance McClain will take – hawkish on the issue of attacks on Syria, or trying to cover up US embarrassment over Putin's daring to issue the op-ed. The boldness of it must be troubling to Obama, as it constitutes a loss of face. The White House reportedly responded that Russia's actions internationally show the US to be indeed an “exceptional” nation, and said that our freedom of speech is evidenced in his freedom to put opposing comments in the Times, which would not have been allowed in Russia.

The relationship between Obama and Putin has been in the news. A satirist on the New York Post wrote a report of Obama calling Putin a jackass, and going on to say lots more highly inflammatory remarks against him. It was untrue, but it hit the Internet and went viral, with many people thinking it actually happened. They don't get along well, though, and have had conflicts that may have been unnecessary, making it hard to interact peacefully. Obama did say that Putin looks like a rebellious teenager at the back of the class, referring to his body language. We don't need a “pissing contest” between heads of state. It can't be helpful.

1:48 PM I went past my lunch hour again. I'm hungry!

3:19 I just got back from the grocery store, carrying a heavy load with two bags in each hand, and noticed that I was having labored breathing. I'll have to do some walking with the ankle weights to tone myself up and get some cardiovascular exercise. I need to be stronger. Of course my bronchial tubes are tight, too, from my recent allergy trouble. I have some congestion in there, more than usual. I took Claritin this morning, but it isn't as effective as it was the last few days. Maybe the pollen is worse.

Reading my mystery now. 6:28 It's getting really good. I have about another hundred pages to go.