Needs a bit of context

An LGBTQ+ group in Kalamazoo is objecting to people wearing the Star of David because.... apparently of the trauma from Israeli military actions.

OK as far as it goes, but in most of Israel's neighbors, being homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual is grounds for being brutally murdered by being thrown off a roof and the like.  So we might infer that among the things LGBTQ+ people have to fear around Israel, the Israeli Army is the least of their worries.

We might also infer that for a lot of LGBTQ+ groups, a general progressive agenda (and not offending Muslims) are more important than the actual rights of LGBTQ+ people, which are (ahem) well protected in Israel.

On those GLP-1s

This article reminds me of how at a graduation party recently, a manager of prescription drug procurement (pharmacist by training) gave a few of us a quick tutorial on how GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic work.  More or less, it slows down digestion so that eating is actually a bit painful--the drug version of a tummy tuck--and he stated that it was actually preferable to stomach surgery because it works longer.   I'm guessing part of that is because one can actually stretch one's stomach, delaying your body's satiation signals.

It is also fun to contemplate what one does if one (like me) does not qualify for Ozempic; there are various ways of slowing down digestion like increasing one's fiber intake and replacing sugar with protein, or even deciding to choose foods that need to be chewed longer.  Double bonus is that these methods don't generally have the common side effects of using GLP-1s like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation.  And if you are on GLP-1s, and are experiencing those side effects, your best option is....to change your diet so that you're getting more fiber, less fat, and the like.

It might not be an option for many Americans with a Wal-Mart physique, but maybe....try the easy, free thing first?

Guilty as charged

Bike Bubba attributes classical music knowledge to watching Bugs Bunny cartoons.  And yes, I'm guilty of learning a lot of cool words (not obscenities!) from Calvin & Hobbes and The Far Side.

If you want to know what the trouble is with the loss of the daily newspaper, you can think about that, as well as cultural references like, yes, "The Bugs Bunny Road Runner Show."  There was something to be gained when we could all gather around the comics, sports section, and the like.

Now I know what they will be drinking in Hell...

It's going to be cold protein coffee.  "Protein coffee?", you ask.  Yes, apparently people have started to add protein powder to their morning beverage, apparently unaware that there are a number of excellent protein sources for breakfast that are actually palatable, like eggs, yogurt, cheese, hummus, and more.  There is actually a picture of this product being used in its natural setting, too!  (thank you Gary Larson)

As Pete Rose spins in his grave....

A judge rules that Brendan Sorsby of Texas Tech can play despite having gambled on his own teams.  So what we have in the NCAA is not only that a college can use "general studies" to keep athletes game players with poor academics eligible, not only that they're going to look the other way as big money schools buy championships, and not only are they going to look the other way when teams with good lawyers get caught cheating, but now they're also going to look the other way when players have obvious huge incentives to throw games.

If they wanted to make big money games into a total farce, worse than pro wrestling, they're doing a great job.  If they want a compelling product, on the other hand, an about face is in order.

A verse of wisdom to the PCUSA

 Apparently there are a number of activists in the PCUSA (Presbyterian Church USA, the liberal branch of Presbyterianism) who object to a proposed rule that all pastors in the CPUSA (oops, I mean PCUSA, easy to get confused) be monogamous.  Beyond the obvious "well, this is where you go when you discard Biblical sexual morality", I'm reminded of how Mark Twain responded to Mormons when he visited Salt Lake City.  They challenged him on how we can know, Biblically speaking, that polygamy is wrong, and Twain is said to have responded with Matthew 6:24:

No man can serve two masters.

OK, to be serious, the verses about how a pastor ought to be a "one woman man", as well as the numerous disasters and offenses which follow polygamy--strife in the homes of Abraham, Jacob, David, and more, the use of murder to reduce competition for women, etc..--ought to penetrate as well, but I think that while Twain was anything but a theologian in his life, he did hit on something wise.  Having a wife takes a bit of work, and I know that there is not a chance I could keep two Mrs. Bubbas happy, let alone multiple wives--and that even if increasing the number of sex partners didn't also greatly increase the odds of "gifts that keep on giving", children with no idea who their fathers are, and the like.  

So if I were in a CPUSA (oops again, PCUSA) church, I'd be praying that I wouldn't let the door hit me where The Lord split me...

MSU lost a good one

Former Michigan State football coach Nick Saban (yes, I know full well he's far more famous with the Tide) testifies before Congress that the current NIL "feeding frenzy" among schools with big money alumni threatens to destroy college athletics (track and field, cross country), sports (wrestling, gymnastics, fencing), and games (football, most everything else).

When I was a young pup, the deal when one got recruited at a college was that in exchange for using one's talents at the school, the coach would not only develop those talents, but also make sure that one grew into a functional adult.  Now that was very often more plausible in theory than reality, to be sure, but for a great portion of athletes, the deal worked out very well.

Now, with many "student-athletes" changing schools multiple times, the counselors can hardly keep up with which classes transfer, and hence any pretense of actually getting an education seems to be gone in many places, like Ann Arbor General Studies College.  I am not quite sure that Congress can fix this, or that they should try, but there needs to be a serious re-adjustment of what's going on, starting with salary caps for athletes.  If they want more, they can go pro.

Another point where I'm not as proud to be a Spartan

See point #10 of the new code of ethics for Michigan State University trustees;  which makes it a punishable offense to "undermine" majority decisions of the board.  

The trouble with this, in my view, is that when a board revokes a bad decision, that move is initiated by a board member who....disagreed with the original decision, and quite frankly, a lot of those bad decisions are revoked due to public pressure.  So what is going on, in my view, is that the majority on the board knows that many of their decisions are going to be very unpopular with a lot of MSU constituents (like this alumnus), and they want to hide their tracks.

Nice try, but this old Spartan concurs with FIRE: the First Amendment rights of elected trustees do not end when they enter the boardroom, period.  And if former MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz disagrees, I have only two things to say:

Don't let the door hit you where The Lord split you, Kevin!

Glad I'm not you, Clemson University. 

I didn't expect this

As an engineer, I admit that I am a rare bird in that I also greatly enjoy literature, and when teaching Sunday School last weekend, I used the picture of Sinbad the Sailor and his seven voyages as a picture of James 4:13-17, where the merchants in the church were cautioned against presuming upon the future and planning for great wealth.  I thought there were great parallels between the voyages of Sinbad and the risks noted by James.

While eventually I was able to explain what I was getting at, I was rather shocked that few, if any, in attendance were really familiar with the story of Sinbad--despite numerous movie and even cartoon adaptations of the story.  Somehow it seems that despite the great literature being available on "Gutenberg Project" and the great movies of the past being available on streaming video, our culture is becoming more and more insulated from the greater cultural and literary conversation.

I guess I should have expected it, though, as I got a rebuke about 20 years ago because many of the literary comments I made on conference calls with colleagues in Asia were not understood by....my American colleagues.  The Asians had been educated in English-inspired schools and got the references and jokes.

Perhaps Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Adhdod, and Gath are actually in the United States.  Just sayin'.  

Now there's an epitaph

Ben Sasse has not yet died, and I hold out hope that the therapy that's already looking powerful bears fruit in his body, but this wish for America is just wonderful: 

I'd like a lot more dinner tables to turn off the devices, put them out of the room, pour a big glass of wine, break bread together, and wrestle with some really grand questions about what you're building for your family and your next generation.

Sounds like a good idea to me.

Interesting change of definitions

Back when I was young, "single" simply meant, for the most part, that a person was not married.  Certainly people did live together outside of marriage--we called it "living in sin" of course--but it was not prevalent enough to warrant saying that those doing so were no longer single.  If one wanted to say that someone was not even dating anyone, one said one was "unattached".  "Dating" meant exactly that, "going steady" was the next step, and so on.

Now, with far greater prevalence of living together (and don't you dare call it "living in sin", or marriage as "making it legal" anymore?), "single" seems to mean "not involved in a relatively permanent or sexual relationship", and the current word for what used to be known as "single" is now "unmarried."

It's an interesting comment on sexual mores today, and it brings to mind the question of how we reach out to the apparently strong majority of young people who see living together as morally acceptable.  The historic ways of doing so are to point to STDs (hard to get them if you're with your first partner for life), the pain of broken relationships and risk of domestic violence, and the likelihood of having children without the protective elements provided by law.

But perhaps what's really going on is that most young people haven't had the protection of married parents throughout their growing up, and as they leave high school, they're told that (a) jobs available to most high school graduates won't pay the bills for a home and (b) getting to that point requires one to get a bachelor's or even master's/doctoral degree.  So what we've got, really, is a perfect storm where opportunities to live well while unmarried and unattached are rare, and at the same time, larger proportions of young people are in college until their late twenties.

Since sex drive doesn't take a break because one is in college, the result is obvious.  We're set up for family disarray.

More inspiration

 The lunch lady at my son's school made a tuna-jalapeno quiche for me.  I am so going to have to take Mrs. Bubba out for Italian--watch out for flying toilets around Rochester.  My son is cringing at the thought of being a graduate of Jerome Horwitz Elementary....

Side note: tuna-jalapeno quiche with sharp cheddar is seriously good.  Now why do I have a weight problem?

Inspirational Quote of the Day

 Whatever you are doing  today, do it with the confidence of a 4 year old in a Batman t-shirt

RIP, David Allan Coe

The man who coined the four greatest lines in country & western has died at age 86.   

Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison

And I went to pick her up in the rain

But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck

She got runned over by a da*ned old train

He lived a rough life, but for the joy that he gave many of us, rest in peace, Mr. Coe.  And on the light side, I really enjoyed those four lines when I lived in Waseca, home of the federal women's correctional facility, which of course should have become the home of Hilliary Clinton.  Waseca, home of about 9000 souls (including the prison if memory serves), had 18 bars, two rail lines, and of course, a prison where Mom could be picked up.

The glories of AI

My son is very eager to break five minutes in the mile, and just for fun, asked ChatGPT what his race plan should be.  It came back with a first 800 in 1:49-1:51, which is just a little bit faster than a pace to break the world record of 3:43.

Thankfully he knows the actual pace to break five minutes--it's 2:30 for the first 800 meters of course--but it strikes me that AI hallucinations can not only infantilize people by doing work that they ought to be doing themselves, but in doing so, can actually endanger people.  Had he actually tried that advice, he'd have come through 400 in about his PR pace (61 seconds), then collapsed in the second quarter.