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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 71 to 95 of 135. Go back in thread:
Posted by alexandra-k on July 23, 2018, at 8:32:06
In reply to Re: Paul Jay, posted by alexandra_k on July 23, 2018, at 3:53:24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8cOq7YWXys
stretch, stretch, stretch yourself long in the pool...
Posted by alexandra-k on July 23, 2018, at 9:14:56
In reply to Re: Paul Jay, posted by alexandra-k on July 23, 2018, at 8:32:06
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hokqRs9GbrI
they really are.
but, still, one day orthopedics and physiotherapy and so on and so forth will develop such that people have similarly caring, knowledgeable, and responsive treatments from conditions that threaten to undermine their mobility.
lolz
how many generations??
Posted by sigismund on July 23, 2018, at 21:34:36
In reply to Re: Paul Jay » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on July 23, 2018, at 2:08:18
>I had heard vaguely about detention camps in Australia. Or just out of Australia (so what goes on there is not covered by Australian laws - or similar). It isn't something that I have followed, though. I have also vaguely heard that NZ has detention / refugee camps in Auckland, and probably other places around the country, too.
Ours are off the mainland, to the north of New Guinea (Manus) or north-east of the Solomon Islands (Nauru), above NZ, well away from the press, without possibility of visas for them.
The psychology is similar to Trump's separation of children and then blaming it on the Democratic Party. There's that little cruel twist that one almost admires for the imagination that created it.
Posted by alexandra_k on July 25, 2018, at 21:02:36
In reply to Re: Paul Jay, posted by sigismund on July 23, 2018, at 21:34:36
> Ours are off the mainland, to the north of New Guinea (Manus) or north-east of the Solomon Islands (Nauru), above NZ, well away from the press, without possibility of visas for them.
Yes.
I think you will find there are prison camps / refugee camps / detention camps secluded away in the outback, too. But, yeah, I imagine the message is mostly 'don't try and get into Australia unlawfully because you will likely find yourself stuck in a camp outside Australia'.
> The psychology is similar to Trump's separation of children and then blaming it on the Democratic Party.I don't know anything about any of that.
Well, my test is done, now. I don't feel good about it, actually.
I don't see any personal or financial gain to be had by anyone at all to hear my opinion that the test was around 40 questions too long which forced people into making decisoins between time spent on a question (which would result in getting a question right?) vs getting through more of the questions (because some of the questions seemed easier to figure in less time than others). It was also really hard to know whether you were getting them right, because sometimes more complex questions require you to do more checks on them, but there really wasn't enough time to do complex checks on them...
Anyway, I got through the whole thing, and got to (I hope) sensibly answer some of the ones I missed on a first pass near the start)... But I really didn't get back through more than a few pages before having to just fill in anything at all so as not to leave blank fields on the form. I worry I made the wrong decision to move forwards quickly to get through the whole test and that it may have resulted in my getting them wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. Because it takes a bit of time to actually read the question and probably I over-estimate how much 'thinking time' goes in to actually answering it and / or checking it has been answered properly once you've actually parsed the task... I don't know. I may have done better to have resigned myself to not finishing and to have really worked out some of those earlier ones that I could have worked out (I think?) I don't know.
I guess part of the idea is to overload things and see how they break...
I felt upset / disapointed that a lot of the section two questions felt like personality test questions to me. Genuinely ambiguous and what emotional tone do you read into the situation. Aside from avoiding obvious ones like 'everything is always about sex' and so on... Sometimes it was less clear which of the characters they wanted you to resonate with mostly. I imagine I didn't do well on this section because they would want more along the lines of happy / bubbly / normal than someone identifying more with the sick / injured / a-typical? Who knows...
I don't even trust any of the above, at all, with respect to any of it. Designed to see how they break, for sure.
I had the weirdest dream the night before.
Turned up and was instantly hungry but no way to get food. We were herded about really quickly. The employees making comments I don't remember about 'we treat you like sheep now because xxx' And we got herded into various rooms and sat down and talked to for a bit.
Then we were all herded together outdoors and there was this ravine or valley with this sort of a... Underside of a bridge with metal beams or it was a rope bridge or similar... SOmething likethat sort of a structure. ANd we were supposed to go across that.
And there was something like that at camp when I was my first year at intermediate. Around 11 or so. ANd I really didn't like my teacher much (and she really didn't like me much) but we had mostly the same hobbies (pre-existing). So she turned out to be my hockey coach and symphonic band teacher, too (I already played the violin). And on camp there was this rope bridge. And I was terrified about the height really terrified and I didn't want to go across. And there was a lot of pressure for me to do it. And one of the parents offered me lots of kit cats or similar.. Not really offered sort of bribed.. Anyway... I tried. And I got about 1/4 of the way across and I just froze. And I couldn't open my eyes and I couldn't move I just just stuck and so terrified. And eventually I think the teacher had to come out and coax me into looking at them and following them back but I've never been so scared in my whole life.
Anyway... In my dream a couple people bounded off to do it and most of the people sort of ambled off after... And I just sort of hung my head becaue there was no way I could do it.
And there was something odd about cremated remains had been scatted over the bridge or something to... Bless it, or something. Only there were chunky bits (it's harder to cremate things to an actual ash than you might suppose) but in my dream even that morphed into fresh people mince.
And people were running / flying across the bridge so fast they were eating bits of it. Like how if you run in teh bush at night you sort of inhale / eat hoo hoo grubs.
And there was a guy who was leading the whole thing. Really tall and handsome and charasmatic. And he was looking at me with... Disdain? that I wasn't participating in the process... But his attitude to those who were was ambiguous, too. Whether they stood out for being the best or whether they stood out for being the worst / most corruptable. He wiped his finger in the swarm (somehow the people mince was like a swarm of locusts or something around the bridge) and offered it to me 'want a taste'.
And I turned my head away and hung back.
F*ck*ng strange, huh.
I do not normally have f*ck*ng strange super-vivid dreams like that.
I don't usually care at all... But I wonder what it means.
Posted by alexandra_k on July 26, 2018, at 3:30:00
In reply to Re: Paul Jay » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on July 25, 2018, at 21:02:36
the real rope bridge was like this:
only, it was a lot higher and the stream under was a lot smaller and rockier. we were only to go across one at a time because it would sway...
it seems very cruel to me, now.
i'm sure they wouldn't be allowed to do that to kids, now.
I do get a fear of falling, sometimes. when I look down. That was the trouble, I looked down to see where I should place my feet and then I freaked out. I remember it was really f*ck*ng slow to back track back because I could only move at all without looking down at my feet and I had to try and feel out whether I had my foot well positioned enough (I didn't have a lot of upper body strength to trust I'd be okay if I lost my footing). Anyway... The whole thing seems actually unsafe to me, now. And disrespectful of what I knew about my actual capacity / capability. I simply do have a bit of a 'does not funtion at height' situation going on. I mean, I'm okay in buildings because I forget, but if I look down I fear falling and lose my sense of balance etc...
I suppose it's just about fear of corruption. Of being corrupted. Of perhaps people being corrupted. Of perhaps being placed in a position where people try and make me believe that you need to do x or y or z awful thing... And whether or not that's true... I guess I think there would be something wrong with me if I wasn't worried about such things...
Only it's probably too introspective and self-absorbed... Or something...
I think there is supposed to be a lesson about huddling with the herd because what's the alternative? You just want to get in with a group where the group is going places / mostly going to be okay and then try and huddle into 'normal' in that setting...
Which is a bit odd for me because usually people try and encourage me to huddle into groups where doing so is really not at all in my interests.
Anyway... It's done, now. Onto the next hurdle.
Posted by sigismund on July 31, 2018, at 22:47:37
In reply to Re: Paul Jay, posted by alexandra_k on July 26, 2018, at 3:30:00
https://therealnews.com/stories/gore-vidal-interview-series-with-paul-jay
Posted by beckett2 on August 3, 2018, at 1:23:57
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal, posted by sigismund on July 31, 2018, at 22:47:37
Posted by beckett2 on August 3, 2018, at 1:59:17
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal, posted by sigismund on July 31, 2018, at 22:47:37
Have you read any James M Caine? Los Angeles noir. 'They Shoot Horses, Don't They'? (That's not by Caine) I was on a noir jag for sometime.
Posted by sigismund on August 3, 2018, at 19:06:53
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on August 3, 2018, at 1:59:17
I have not read James McCaine, but I did see 'They Shoot Horses Don't They?' in the 70s.
We're not waiting for the miracle any more. Like AH said at the start of Barbarossa 'The world will hold its breath'. We're doing that.
So it's the Chinese with the Iranians then?
Well, it's one way to live a life. I really doubt it has to be this bad.
The MEK sounds interesting. Life long celibacy, or do I have that wrong?
Posted by sigismund on August 3, 2018, at 19:12:14
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal, posted by sigismund on August 3, 2018, at 19:06:53
>The MEK sounds interesting.
Too much more mention of them and the MSM may have to mention the Iran - Iraq War.
Posted by sigismund on August 3, 2018, at 19:15:12
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal, posted by sigismund on August 3, 2018, at 19:12:14
Posted by beckett2 on August 3, 2018, at 20:25:45
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal, posted by sigismund on August 3, 2018, at 19:12:14
What's MEK?
Posted by alexandra_k on August 6, 2018, at 6:30:41
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on August 3, 2018, at 20:25:45
I don't know anything about any of this...
Posted by sigismund on August 6, 2018, at 19:58:22
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on August 3, 2018, at 20:25:45
The MEK is the front organisation that Pompeyo and Bolton expect to take charge in Iran after the successful-whatever there, so they say. Whether they can believe that, I wouldn't know.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 8, 2018, at 15:24:03
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal, posted by sigismund on August 6, 2018, at 19:58:22
I want to go to Israel and swim in the dead sea...
I suspect I'm not the only one.
Posted by beckett2 on August 8, 2018, at 20:38:25
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal, posted by alexandra_k on August 6, 2018, at 6:30:41
> I don't know anything about any of this...
I might know 2% :)
Posted by beckett2 on August 8, 2018, at 21:16:16
In reply to Re: Paul Jay » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on July 10, 2018, at 20:01:53
I know this post is from a ways back in the conversation, but, or so, economic hardship in AU is filtering onto my radar. I hadn't realized there was as much economic difficulty for many people. Is there actual homelessness? Forgive my ignorance.
> > https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/03/fiona-the-underemployed-bettong-v-malcolm-goldplated-trufflecustard-turnbull
>
> I shuddered a lot at this one.
>
> Because (if Australia is anything like NZ) there are a lot of phoney jobs out there. I mean, there are things they call 'jobs' but you need to purchase a uniform (and / or pay for the uniform to be laundered) and you need to pay for parking in the vicinity etc... Such that the hourly rate you earn is actually less then the costs involved in taking the job.
>
> I used to believe that they wouldn't make you do anything like that if you were a genuine person...
>
> But my more recent experience of things in Dunedin, particularly, leads me to believe that actually, yes, that is precisely the sort of things that some people would do.
>
> Stanford Prison Guard experiment-style. Or Nazi electrocution experiment-style.
>
> There are people who are forced to work at these job agencies. Who have quotas on how many people they need to give those awful 'jobs' to. If they don't send people to those awful jobs - then they will be next. They will be sent off to one of those awful jobs instead...
>
> These actually are the sorts of pressures some people are operating under.
>
> And it would be nice to think that these people must be fundamentally base, or something, to be treated, so.
>
> But my recent experience of things in Australia and New Zealand... And that's simply not so.
>
> And I think 'who would make all of these people do these awful things? and why?' Because there really is enough for everyones need...
>
> And I think it is about human depravity. The urges... Needs... Some people have in genuinely sadistic directions.
>
> Something about how not everyone can grow up with self-esteem. Who would dance in our strip clubs? And what would the point of a high speed internet connection be if there wasn't so much porn?
>
> People want things... And there need to be people who will do fairly much anything for money. There needs to be something that will incentive things... There need to be incentive structures. Not for meaningful work... But precisely for things that aren't meaningful work at all. The real value of it... You have to keep self esteem pretty low, indeed, because it's hard to overestimate just how sick so many people really very genuinely are...
>
>
>
>
Posted by beckett2 on August 8, 2018, at 21:28:52
In reply to Re: Paul Jay and Gore Vidal, posted by sigismund on August 3, 2018, at 19:12:14
> >The MEK sounds interesting.
>
> Too much more mention of them and the MSM may have to mention the Iran - Iraq War.Good lord! There is a limit to what I can read or catch up on. Sigh. I'm very much ignorant of Middle Eastern politics.
What surprise me was learning in a podcast that Trump had private business dealings with Iranian Revolutionary Guard before and during the election despite national sanctions. Here's a short article.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-iran-business-ties-trump-didnt-disclose
Posted by sigismund on August 8, 2018, at 22:27:36
In reply to Re: Paul Jay » alexandra_k, posted by beckett2 on August 8, 2018, at 21:16:16
When the land had been recently stolen and the stealing had been explained away and forgotten yet the land remained in quantity, we were fine. As were all settler societies. The limits bumped up against corresponded with neoliberalism, therefore no public housing.
Posted by beckett2 on August 8, 2018, at 22:37:05
In reply to Re: Paul Jay, posted by sigismund on August 8, 2018, at 22:27:36
> When the land had been recently stolen and the stealing had been explained away and forgotten yet the land remained in quantity, we were fine. As were all settler societies. The limits bumped up against corresponded with neoliberalism, therefore no public housing.
>
>That happened here too :(
Posted by sigismund on August 10, 2018, at 0:31:43
In reply to Re: Paul Jay » sigismund, posted by beckett2 on August 8, 2018, at 22:37:05
Posted by alexandra_k on August 10, 2018, at 22:53:54
In reply to Re: Paul Jay, posted by sigismund on August 10, 2018, at 0:31:43
so true.
we are having troubles over here.
it's become very fashionable to go 'that's racist' as a way of shutting down... anything that calls into question the present (racist) status quo.i once said to the speaker after a seminar that Maaori seemed to be doing better in Australia and so perhaps we should look into that since this country seems to be so very toxic for them...
and apparently that was racist.
Don Brash said that funding (for public health and education) should be based on 'need not on race'. he was opposed to this capitated funding model where schools or clinics got more money for having more Maaori (as opposed to poor, for example) kids enrolled.
apparently this is racist because it fails to acknowledge the burden of being maaori - which is over and above the burden of being poor.
and of course it would be racist if health insurance companies didn't charge higher premiums on health insuring Maaori. i mean... if you are talking about distributing the risk of being maaori in a way that's non-racist you need to have some version of capitation - right?
the whole thing makes no sense.
I have been reading about the Tuskagee study which observed African Americans natural Syphilis progression in the name of 'free healthcare'. Something something about how hospitals for poor people make poor hospitals.
I think about how we enrol people (Pacific Islanders, preferentially) in clinics in the name of 'cheap healthcare' in order to observe the natural progression of their rheumatic fever (without antibiotics), faulty heart valves, heart failure.
and so on... so very many cases of it. the miniorities and poor people bearing the brunt of... rich people's stupid kids going gung ho (because their own people won't let them anywhere near them).
I joined this clinic and it looked legit. A non-church alternative that was friendly for Maaori and poor people...
Only now the former dean of med admissions turns out to have a lot to do with it. He got a bunch of extra money, you see, for enrolling however many Maaori patients.
I think of the forms I've been asked to fill out in virtue of enrolling in there... Most of them don't have anything to do with my healthcare. It's just data collecting... Data collecting... In the name of cheap healthcare...
pressure for cervical smears and so on and do forth screenign programs.. collecting blood and biopsy samples to oberve...
For the good of???
Are any of these people given treatment (as opposed to being randomised into groups)?
Do any of these people ever give informed consent (or are they told they can take what they are offered -- or leave it)?
NZ doesn't have a health system.
Just a bunch of psychopathic bullies.
Sigh.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 10, 2018, at 23:03:21
In reply to Re: Paul Jay » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on August 10, 2018, at 22:53:54
i can't decide if the biggest threat to us is from within, or without.
i was worried, before, about our computer software being largely foreign. all the health administration records. all the administration records around patients and problems and prescriptions. all the administration records around financial details for start-up companies (so they can be undermined swiftly so they never become genuine alternatives / competitors).
i was thinking it was a way of foreign interests keeping us down and kicked back.
but not i'm starting to think actually the biggest threat is closer to home. seeing some of the new zealand developed software and it's just awful. you have decision tree structures that prevent you filling in the forms honestly (and if you are found to lie you null and void whatever it is you have applied for). ones that will not progress until they judge you have filled out fields correctly. basically forms where you can't say what you want or what you need or what you are looking for...
i do feel i need to be a refugee from nz. nz will not give me the things i need in order to have a life i consider worth living. it never has done so. i see why i've felt so much guilt and shame throughout my life. i've been targeted precisely because i was easy to control in that way.
i'm fed up with the nasty. the incompetent / psychopathic who have been given positions of power... the ones who saw fit to give them power.
i read the newspaper and people seem incapable of... what i know with my own experience sufficiently mature 16 year olds are capable of... basic empathy and ethics...
i know people are laughing themselves all the way to the bank. managers and executives and chairpeople and the like...
i don't understand what they do. except take most of the resources for themselves.
if you can't get sufficiently away from them...
i see that's why they keep the prisons full. so there is no room for them... the true criminals.
Posted by alexandra_k on August 10, 2018, at 23:12:28
In reply to Re: Paul Jay » sigismund, posted by alexandra_k on August 10, 2018, at 22:53:54
protests at university. students not letting people speak because of some outcry that the speaker is racist.
not in a hate speech against anyone who is not aryan...
i mean...
in upsidedown and backtofront land...
when someone expressed concerns about a treaty grievance industry that genuinely was getting to the point of first born son of tribal chief says give us xxx amount of dollars to lift the mythical monster ban on the site before you can build here obstruction to development...
when someone expressed concerns about that...
concerns about the idea of capitation (which puts a dollar figure on the burden of being Maaori)...
where these ideas are written off as 'racist' without any attempt, at all, to understand the points of concern.
what people simply will not acknowledge is that Maaori are people, too. people with human rights, I mean.
I think the law thing he said wasn't quite fair because the job of the lawyers is to press the judges by bring forth tricky cases (well, i don't think we quite say it like that)... But the job of the judges was to make wise rulings. to have sensible things to say about where we should draw the line on fair payment vs extortion and on acknowledging and respecting spiritual beleifs vs being held hostage to what chiefs say spiritual beliefs are in a way that is expedient for them with little other basis...
But we can't discuss these things like intelligent people when the level of dialogue is 'that's racist!' and name calling and yelling and not letting people speak...
thats the point of things like fetal alcohol effects (which we don't believe in - it's 'normal') and so on...
keep the people stupid...
universities are just... not even what high schools used to be.
horrible... horrible... horrible...
bass thumping for quite a lot of today. doesn't bother other people, apparently.
thinking of how many millions of dollars i need to live in a suburb where people are just bothered by it and where it doesn't happen / where it gets shut down quickly if it does.
i didn't ask to be born.
Posted by sigismund on August 11, 2018, at 1:59:35
In reply to Re: Paul Jay, posted by alexandra_k on August 10, 2018, at 23:12:28
>i didn't ask to be born.
Maybe that is what Eliot meant?
'Let us go then, you and I'.
No. I liked what Frieda Kahlo said in the movie, 'I hope when I die it will be joyful, and I hope I don't come back'.
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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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