Affirmative Consent

In response to 'Affirmative Consent'  by Dr. Paul R. Abramson (x)

"..a person's approach to sexual behavior and relationships is often already firmly established by the time he or she reaches college ..ameliorative measures at the college level might come years too late. If we want to get it right, we must begin educating them in junior high school about the necessity of affirmative consent. The [best way] to do that is to make it part of the mandatory sex education curriculum."  - Dr. Paul R. Abramson

I agree. Our approach to sexual relationships is established well before college, however, I'm not sure classroom instruction is the answer. We're reared in a culture of 'intoxicated sex'. There are few opportunities for young people to meet without ingesting intoxicants to help ease the anxiety of social interaction. I think the Boy's and Girl's club is a better place than sex ed class .. and could be greatly expanded. It's a place where young people can go to meet while doing something other than drinking. I mean activities like video games, dance ..and even ping-pong are far less stressful than High School parties. Classroom instruction often goes out the window in the face of social anxiety. Engaging with others in a more natural setting while learning first-hand the consequences of disrespect and offensive behavior is, in my opinion, a step toward healthier relations ..and possibly away from a culture of intoxicated sex.

Media and consciousness

A reply from Dr Jenkins re.Age of Inception (posted below)

Bill – Keep in mind that the quotes for the interview are necessarily a simplification of my arguments about the film, though I have been pleased by the discussion they have generated. I would agree totally with you that the film's perspective on reality and perception also has a generational slant. It's interesting though that the films and television shows which take on some of this philosophical/spiritual argument are often associated with games and other digital media -- so I would see The Matrix, the final episode of Lost, and Inception, as all part of the same conversation about our relationship with the real world. We may as a culture be more open to such ideas because of our experience of the digital, just as people in the industrial age were more apt to think of a clockmaker god, or people in the early 20th century started to understand repetition compulsion in terms of a phonograph record in their heads. As Sherry Turkle suggests, we use technologies as tools to think with and a key question we use them to consider is our consciousness. – Henry Jenkins

A reply

to my post
‘Coherent curriculum’

Overhauling No Child Left Behind might be one of the worst ideas President Obama has had. Being a student, I understand more than many people that teachers have very little to do with how students succeed. I have had great teachers who made the class compelling and interesting -- and there were still students who didn't pass. To put all the responsibility on the teachers is a huge mistake. Changing a student's mind about doing well in school takes everyone in their lives -- from their friends to their parents. We should stop trying to blame the teachers for a low pass rate in high school.

Emily Jones
Rancho Santa Margarita

Letter to the editor

Written in response to an article about ~~>marijuana dispensaries

It sounds like District Attorney Steve Cooley has either an outdated, or conveniently narrow interpretation of the English language. It’s no wonder he has chosen to go to war with the City Council, its constituents, the Attorney General’s Office and the voters of the State of California. Although State laws governing marijuana dispensaries do not explicitly say that it’s OK to ‘sell’ marijuana ..they do allow for ‘cost-reimbursements’ by its members. Now, in business terms, when cost-reimbursements are received they are generally considered a ‘sale’. Sort of a modern-day convenience since we live in a mostly cash-based economy. If District Attorney Cooley has problems with money changing hands, perhaps we should revert back to earlier times and reimburse dispensaries with topsoil, seeds and fertilizer.

Microsoft's grip

In response to an article in the LA Times ~~>Microsoft’s grip

I don’t think dispensing with “backward compatibility” will do Microsoft any harm; these days you don't find many vendors releasing software that runs on anything earlier than Windows 2000. They (the Times) got it right though, cloud computing will loosen Microsoft’s grip. Microsoft doesn't have a record of success developing applications for the Internet. They tried to be a player with the Vista operating system, but people are sufficiently dissatisfied with it that they’d rather reload Windows XP even if it means losing all the bogus Internet features of Vista. Then, on top of that , they generally switch from Microsoft’s Internet explorer to the more reliable Firefox browser by Mozilla (formerly Netscape ..which they thought they'd buried). I’m not sure Microsoft with ever have the Internet presence of companies like Google or Yahoo.

Grand Junction

Written in response to an article in the LA Times ~~> microcosm

I wonder how the patient-doctor ratio in Grand Junction compares with Los Angeles. I suspect it’s lower, meaning there are more doctors to go around. That’s probably why they are able to collectively agree on a pricing strategy that benefits all. One of the major factors contributing to healthcare costs in this country is a shortage of doctors. Medical schools don’t admit and graduate a sufficient supply, even though there are more than enough qualified candidates. I believe they do this purposely in order to keep the profession lucrative.

Fear of stem cells

Written in response to an article in today's LA Times ~~>[link]

In general, I am not in favor of passing laws that block harmless activities simply because there’s a ‘possibility’ they may lead to more dangerous, and rightfully unlawful activities later on. That’s why I am definitely against banning stem-cell research, which has very real potential for doing good, out of fear of the unlikely event they lead to something you read about in science fiction magazines. I prefer that we set the boundary a little closer to the heinous outcome we fear, than to block genuine advances in medical science. Blocking progress in relieving human suffering would be the real crime here.

Medical marijuana

Written in response to an article in today's LA Times ~~>[link]

There have not been enough controlled studies of marijuana to make definitive claims about its harmful effects. The study, that you (the LATimes) report, cites evidence of tissue-loss in areas of the brain that, among other things, play a role in learning and memory. However, there is no mention of test results showing that memory-loss had, in fact, occurred. Without better information, reports chronicling the overall effects of marijuana can, at best, only suggest the possibility of harmful effects. Because marijuana is still classified as a controlled substance, it is not approved for medical research. As a result, there is still going to be a lot more smoke out there than science.

The case against Sotomayor

In hundreds of cases that Sotomayor has decided; no one has found that she was either racially or ethnically biased. So now Republicans are taking a less-informed approach and saying that what she did in the past is not a good indication of what she’ll do in the future. Republican Senator Jeff Sessions says that her past record has no bearing on how she’ll do because the cases she decided are not like the one’s that the Supreme Court decides. Instead, they think a better indication of how she’ll do is that one remark she made about ‘wise Latinas’ ..as though this instance is representative of all instances ..and proves that her decision-making has been, and always will be ..‘experienced-based and biased’. I’m sorry, but what this tells me about our Republican leaders is that their judgment making is seriously flawed. Apparently, their horizon only goes as far as people who agree with Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito ..or Rush Limbaugh.

Letter to the editor

This is my letter in response to the LA Times article ~~>Two sides to Sonia Sotomayor

It sounds to me like you’re asking the question: Will judge Sotomayor’s college experience, advocating greater Latino representation, weigh more than 30 years of unbiased decision-making as a prosecutor and federal judge. It seems to me as though she has experience enough to know that the US Supreme Court is not Princeton University. However, she also has the experience and empathy required to be human as well as Supreme Court Judge. They're inseparable.

Letter to the editor

The Los Angeles Times printed my letter today. It's a response to an article written by economist Dan Ariely, titled ‘Deconstructing confidence’ [link].

Letter:  Dr. Ariely, If exposure to uncontrollable events leads to helplessness ..I’m not sure government regulation is the proper antidote. It seems like this would reduce our sense of control even further. I agree that we’ve experienced an alarming sequence of disasters over the last decade. But, I also believe it’s the experience of overcoming events like these that bolsters confidence ..not relying on ‘government planners’ to circumnavigate them for us. Besides, no one is ever going to eliminate unpredictable events and setbacks. The best we can do is prepare for them by fostering a sense of resilience. That seems like a far better antidote to feelings of helplessness than government regulation.

State of mind

Re: Suspect’s state of mind

LATimes ~ Anyone who tells you they are suffering from ‘paranoid delusions’ is probably not. It shows a degree of lucidity not commonly found among sufferers. However, it is the type of fabrication commonly used by sociopaths ~ someone pursuing profits without concern for the harm they’re doing others. Bruce Ivins clearly had a financial interest in the hoax he was perpetrating ..and a sociopath’s disregard for the consequences. I believe his erratic behavior was engineered ..perhaps as a pretext in the event he was caught.

A letter to the LATimes

Getting inside voter’s minds

[This was my ‘letter to the editor’ of the LA Times ..in response to an article which talks about the way neuroscience can be used to predict election outcomes. I have just enough background to detect overblown claims such as these]

The techniques used by neuroscience to observe mental activity are so new; they’re like trying to envision life on another planet with nautical charts created before the days of Columbus. That’s why I’m doubtful about the claims made by ‘Neuro-marketers’ who say they can tell a person's reaction to a campaign slogan by looking at their EEG. It’s a matter of interpretation. A good example is the study mentioned at the beginning of the article. ‘Neuro-pollsters’ detect a burst of brain wave activity in response to the phrase “..people in need will never be invisible to me” ..taken from a speech given by Hillary Clinton. They take it as a signal of “subconscious fear” on the part of the listener. However, someone else may interpret it as a response to a double-negative .. requiring a little extra attention to understand. In other words, I wonder what they would have seen had Clinton said: “..people in need will always be visible to me” instead.