Outside The Asylum

It suddenly struck me, when replying to other people in the last couple of days, what America's real problem is- we have a Culture of Debt. It's so strong that economists are no longer bothered by such problems as trade deficits, the government deficit, or consumer debt; it's just assumed that we'll be able to grow our economy enough to take care of such trivialities. Even after September 2008, I had somebody tell me that a trade deficit was a good thing because we're essentially keeping a high standard of living by printing paper. Do economists not read newspapers? Do they never talk to people who are on unemployment? What's wrong with this picture?

Paul Krugman's blog on the NBER yeild curve brought out a libertarian response that claimed that in the postwar period, a postive yeild curve *always* meant a recovery was coming. I think the good Professor did a great job explaining why this isn't so- New Deal Democrat also pointed out at economic populist that the NBER yeild curve  reports different data under deflationary periods than under inflationary periods. Po stwar predictions are therefore not valid- this is the first *deflationary* recession in the postwar period, so you need to look at PREWAR conditions, not postwar conditions, for any of this to make sense. Thus, at least on the matter of stimulus vs doing nothing, I’m with the good professor. I simply disagree that stimulus *alone* will be enough. A global “free trade” economy is literally an economy without scarcity- anybody can have anything for far cheaper than they could yesterday or last week, and the prices keep falling.  Demand simply cannot keep up with wo...

The American Revolution can be summed up in the argument of Patrick Henry on why Virginia should send troops to aid George Washington: Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me,  give me liberty or give me death! A great slogan for a war of revolution- but not so great an axiom to build a culture on.  And yet, that's what we in America tried to do; we tried to build a culture off of this campaign slogan.  Oh, changes got made over the years- give me liberty became give me profit (for only the independently wealthy can truly have liberty- all else are slaves to the owners of their debt) and give me death became let no human life stand in my way (from abortion of babies so that their teen mothers will stay in school, to the incredible rape of Iraq for profit, to the terminally ill commiting suicide in Oregon so that the next generation won't be burdened ...

The single most physical part of autism for me- migraines.  I wonder how much less my paycheck will be with 60 hours instead of 64?  

Want to really make a difference now that it has become obvious that the Republican Party is anti-life?   Feed the poor.    The #1 cause of abortion in this country isn't teen pregnancy, it's teens that aren't allowed to raise their children due to economic injustice.

The last 50 years have seen a total reversal of popular values in the United States of America.   We went from long term commitments to free love. We went from long range investment to the three month business cycle. We went from valuing the next generation, to valuing our own "quality of life". We went from honoring the previous generation, to killing them off to save health care costs. We went from marriage being about preservation of human life and continuation of the family, to marriage being about the merging of two economic households between people who "love" each other (and sometimes, not even people). What links this all together?   The seven mortal sins , of course.  Somebody in the 1950s finally noticed that freedom includes the freedom to sin.    Actually, the Founding Fathers knew this danger well- they in fact designed a government specifically to encourage it!  That is why they were afraid of the " tyranny of the majority ", because they kne...

Heard about this at Knights of Columbus last night, and I had to check it out.  Apparently Conneticut is threatening Justices of the Peace who refuse to perform gay marriages with losing their license: Klein said that justices of the peace perform duties on behalf of the state and cannot discriminate. "It would be illegal for a  justice of the peace  to  refuse  to provide the same services to a same-sex couple," Klein said. this is from a larger article  on the Supreme Court decision.  The rumor is that a Justice of the Peace has already lost his license.  This is why the Supreme Council gave nearly $1 million to Prop 8 in California- the fear being that soon, Catholic priests won't be able to perform marriages at all (they can't in some parts of Canada now) because they refuse to perform gay marriages. This is the slippery slope of the gay agenda.  Coming up soon, a discussion on the Culture of Death in all of it's forms, and what I think is *really* the link be...

And this, from an autistic, remember. Large numbers of HFA people end up agnostic or atheistic, or at least secular humanist.  I can understand that- it fits the logical, direct evidence mindset, and so much of Christianity seems highly contradictory, especially if you can't understand body language or social hierarchies. Having said that, my Catholicism gives me two things that I value extremely highly in my experience as an autistic: A place to go, once a week, that for an hour, I know *exactly* how to act.  The Catholic Mass is highly liturgical and scripted, and while it does evolve, evolves extremely slowly.  This helps me have at least one place I can have a social experience without being viewed as weird or strange; and the rules are printed in the missal for anybody to read. A highly evolved theology that is self consistent.  This is highly important to an autistic; it's something that is missing from the younger more independent sects.  Catholic (both Roman and Orthod...

My nephew is also diagnosed Asperger's, but he's young enough that his parent's health care insurance is willing to do something about it.  He was tested and found that his body was sequesting mercury, one of several potential causes of Asperger's.  He's been on a GFCF diet for the last 3 years, and has been through Chelation therapy. That is the background.  Over the weekend, I got a chance to observe, up close, his progress.  He's now into art, marine biology, and chess, pretty good for a 10-year-old.  He seems happier, and more willing to at least engage people one on one.  He's also getting better at faking body language.   I think he's going to be much happier with his life- which makes me wonder what would have happened with my life had I been able to access this training and this diet when I was young (not that Asperger's was even considered as a diagnosis for me before 2000, and I would have needed the treatment in the 1970s to avoid warping ...