Heroes and Asians DOMINATE!

Holy Cow....just finished watching Heroes. Very impressive. I think I'll have to keep track of this one. BTW, I'm not a fan of Survivor...never have been. But I have to admit, the gimmick used on the current rotation got me to watch it...and I'm hooked. THE ASIANS CANNOT LOSE!! GO ASIANS!! We DOMINATE!! I've gotten a bit carried away. Also watched the series premiere of Jericho...some scenes were a bit to preachy for my tastes but I love post-apocalyptic stories and this one had me at go. Re. post-apocalyptic novels, I highly recommend Earth Abides by George Stewart and Lucifers Hammer by Larry Niven. The Discourser, my fellow blogger, might have a few more very well crafted P.A. novels to recommend as well.

Work politics and the S4

So my car is on the fritz. Anyone who knows me knows I love my car,...and cars in general. But when they act up, the love affair can quickly wane. I begin to eye other newer and more capable cars but then find myself quickly apologizing to the "S" promising to fix whatever ails her. Symptom: difficult to start, dies at stop signs, but only within the first 5 minutes of starting her up. Diagnosis: Battery? Good, Alternator? Good, Starter? Good, Intake plumbing? All 12 hoses look good, Clutch sensor? Good, Fuses? all in good order, and no error codes at all. So after talking with Stasis Engineering, the pre-eminent Audi tuners on the west coast, it looks as if I might have a sensor problem....the bottom line being it's flooding my engine. I'll be dropping her off sometime this week...I'm crossing my fingers it won't cost me a paycheck to fix.

This past week was much like the last. One thing to add, when you work within a system the size of the city I work for, you discover quite quickly that you need to develop a particular language. Let me elaborate; the city has some 11,000 employees with layer upon layer of management strata with separate departments in place to provide oversight to each level, and furthermore other agencies providing oversight to the oversighters, etc. etc. Nearly all the employees are strongly represented by various unions, with each department and subdepartment vying for expanded funding and generally looking out to justify it's existence. Though it's nearly impossible to get fired, it is quite easy to develop a bad rep...word travels quickly. Of the three other clinicians in my sub-unit (with a combined 70 some years of clinical experience as well as experience in this heavily stratified management heirarchy) 2 are quite adept at laying low, doing their job, and looking very good when the situation lends itself: ie. big staff meetings, case conferences. My other colleage, however, doesn't mind sticking his neck out....a trait not conducive to laying low in the service of surviving mass re-organization. The problem is, I feel quite the same way at times and ready and eager to transform this unit into "a shining beacon of clinical expertise".

So this language I'm talking about...it's about being able to point out errors in the system without either implicating yourself or your fellow employees...a very diplomatic language where no one is made to feel accountable..where you appear objective but not critical. Ultimately, it's all politics...and I'm not being completely cynical. It's rather a truism of any highly stratified system. So, I've decided to exert myself a bit more,...put this language I've learned to use...to provide the best possible service/treatment to our clients. In civil service, at least, it's quite easy to lose perspective on who you ultimately serve, especially when the truth is best heard, or tolerated, only after processed through some contrived political filter. Unfortunately, its the nature of the beast. I haven't yet been brought into some office up at headquarters to be reprimanded....so I'll continue my course.

My first Rant...

Hmm, the weekend was jam-packed. Goober gaming on Friday...which went well BTW, a local art and wine festival Saturday, a buddies B-day party that night, built and put together a planter box and mostly yard work on Sunday, and the Raiders suck bad that afternoon...no complaints here.

On a total tangent and without a proper segue way : Woke up this morning to hear that they've found yet another 25 mostly tortured and decaptitated bodies in and around Bahgdad. Last Thursday morning they found 65, Friday another 35, this weekend there were 2 suicide bombers, one targeting worshippers, and the other a car bomb exploding in a marketplace. The left characterize these actions as Hateful, and the right, Evil. To me, the political discourse on this matter, as an means to provide a way to conceptualize these events, is completely useless...and generally depressing to me. Plainly, the reality of this kind of violence transcends our common western ideologies...it comes from a place of generational indoctrination and theologic canabalism....where the murder of innocents are openly celebrated, where mutilation and torture is explicitly promoted, where mass-murder and suicide is spiritually rewarded.

We can go on and on about the need for religious/political reformation and the establishment of secular institutions, at least within the most radical elements, as a means to wrench political and legal power from the hands of their religious leaders. The clinical reality of the nature of the psychology of killing and murder in the middle east, however, shows a wholly different picture.

Killing and murder, for the most part, is a statistical aberation. For example, at least in this country, rates of suicide far outpace the murder rate. Furthermore, murder of innocents is almost universally recognized as, according to jurisprudence, a Natural Law. Evolutionary psychologists/physiologists describe entire constellations of intrapsychic mechanisms which work to suppress homocidality within the individual and across communities. The literature on this matter suggest a number of factors which contribute to an individual's increased capacity to act on homocidal impulses/desires/cognitions, which are as varied as the following:
1. Damage or defect to the frontal cortex and/or prefrontal lobes due to brain injury, genetic defect, or prolonged exposure to toxic substance.
2. Acute substance-induced episodes impacting normal frontal lobe functioning, disinhibiting typically inhibited behaviors.
3. Particular style of parenting and/or type of relationship with a primary caregiver which is marked with traumas that have been improperly integrated into the individual's psyche: ie identification with the aggressor, perverted moral development, underdeveloped and/or suppressed superego functioning.
4. Psychopathy related to Axis II personality disorders, typically seen as disorders of attachment, and characterized by grandiosity and narcissism.
5. Coersion
6. Self defense

However, when entire communities and/or institutions condone, promote, and celebrate the killing of innocents, now we're dealing with dynamic layers of social mechanisms working together to subvert our fundamental human nature. Oops!! I've completely run out of time. I need to interview several psychotic patients and will have to pick this diatribe up tommorrow.

So it begins...

So I've started my own blog. My personal ground rules are simple. I will not disclose any incriminating information nor implicate any personal aquaintances...nor will I make a complete fool of myself unless I've made a complete fool of myself.

So why don't I go ahead and hit the ground running. I was shaving cheese on Sunday with a hyper sharp Bed Bath and Beyond cheese shaver and managed to shave off the tip of my thumb. It, along with a nice slice of monterey jack, fell into the sink as blood began to drip onto its white porcelain surface. After calling for my wife, my brain began to produce and flood massive amounts of endorphines into my blood stream. Searing pain quickly shifted to naseau. I laid on the floor until my light headedness subsided. Our cat saw it as an oppurtunity to lay on my chest. We managed to bandage it up and I eventually headed to our local drugstore for some bandage supplies. The pharmacist behind the counter urged me to see a doctor immediately so I went ahead and dropped by our local hospital ER. The ER Doc gave me a tetnus shot and told me to see my doctor this week to have it examined for possible infection. So yesterday, thats what I did. Hooked up with a new doc, nice guy, very thorough. At one point, he grabbed my finger and said "This is going to hurt" and proceeded to rub the center of the open wound with an alchohol patch. LUDICROUS pain.

So that's where I am today...on my lunch break in front of the computer. My finger over-bandaged and completely useless. I'm eating food provided by a pharmaceutical company; it's one the perks of working at a mental health clinic. I have a few ethical issues about being catered to by an industry who specifically hires and sends young attractive female phamaceutical reps to flirt with clinicians all in service of brand recognition. I'll blog about that another time. Opps, I forgot to remind my wife of a co-worker's retirement dinner tonight. Its going to be quite a shin-dig; Venezuelan food and Salsa dancing. He and his wife are moving back to Venezuela and I'd like to say goodbye. Perhaps I can convince my wife to swing by for a bit. I'll let you know tomorrow.

As for Friday, I am having a bunch of fellow goobers over for a night of abject nerdocity. I am the Master Goober Host, MGH, for the evening. I've planned the festivities for over a week and am quite anxious and excited about how it will go down.

So, hows that for my first blog.