Currently Reading The Wolfman and Other Cases. The book takes you back before the jumped the shark Freudian analogies we are wont to make. "At his first encounter with the 'Ratman, Freud asked him what caused him 'to put particular emphasis on information about his sexual life'. The man replied 'that that was what he knows about my theories'. However it turns out that what then particularly drew him to Freud was Freud's work on puns and word association" (Introduction p. xvii). Had a case presentation the other day in which it was said the patient's central complaint was one of concentration which he said was due to a 'suppository Father put up my nose.' This in a person with limited education and intellectual attainment; for me that meant that 'suppository' was on the edge of his word set and the analogy could be, "I suppose it were father and what is coming into my knows."

"This tactic is the only one that allows us to escape from a catastrophic alternative: an Iranian bomb, or the bombing of Iran," so says Nicholas Sarkozy re: diplomatic pressure on Iran.

The two income necessity and rejection of immigration

A couple of recent articles in Volokh contribute to my understanding and explanation of of why America has been reacting as the classical bureaucrat to the issue of Mexican laborers. An article on the two income trap hypothesis explains how the American family is stretched. The review also shows that, because of inflation, where money is going is obscured. I think the anxiety and insecurity in the face of having more but in a sense having fewer options seems, and is, contradictory leading to a tendency to finding security in 'our group.' The Mexican laborer, about who one finds innumerable complaints as to their cost is hypothesized as a cause though their effect on social costs is I don't think so clear. But, 'something has clearly happened,' and they are blamed.

"This site is updated just frequently enough to make you wonder why," as a wag Instapundit linked has in his banner.

A psychiatrist and the 'Our Father'

I suppose it could be looked at in a psychoanalytic way. "Pater noster," it is 'our' father, not 'my.' It was said of art but, sotte voce it might be heard, religion can be a 'regression in the service of the ego.' Here, the individual accepts his participation as an equal in a community of believers and humanity. 'Deuspater', 'Juppiter' he was to the Romans, more distant than 'Paternoster.' 'Qui es in caelis;' who rules beyond the operation of our ego. 'Hallowed be thy name;' we shall accept with love and respect your will/rules. 'On earth as it is in heaven;' we shall accept the rules, prohibitions of our own superego as remodeled by the perception of the Church as binding for proper action and not seek rebellion as instead proper for the (my) ego. 'Give us this day our daily bread;' typically felt to acknowledge An outside agency as being capable for providing the basics of life, it can also mean, in the context of G-d as the superego, 'allow the ego to find attractions and sustenance, or let our rules be not so severe as to destroy the ego.' 'And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;' those who we wished to have an identity in our lives of our choosing but have chosen not to be, in a sense, our property but have 'trespassed,' broken the bounds of our assigned property, let us forgive them as you (have), who have remained here with your wishes for our identity regardless of our non conforming. 'Lead us not into temptation;' let this alliance of ego and superego not be overrun by instinctual forces. 'But deliver us from evil,' the destruction of the self or emotionally sustaining others, ideas/objects. 'Amen;' so be it.

Read 'Venegeance' first to avoid my spoiling the story

Just finished Vengeance. I was busy so, though I was terribly taken with it, I had to read it with some 24 to 36 hour intervals. Thus I read of Avner's early life and his Mossad training and the beginning of the mission and lived, for a while, in the heady success of the hunting of 9 terrorists. Then, like in a Heinrich von Kleist novel, disaster occurs. In the book, the protagonists discuss 'were they sold out by Louis who was proving information and other support.' That focus as primary question seems misplaced. By the time they met ill fate, they had killed in attempting to attack Salameh, the terrorist number one on their list twice. Now Salameh may have been a dog but even a dog it seems would begin to be a mite curious about who was trying to kill him. They were told that Salameh would be in London and that they should wait at the Grosvener hotel in the lobby for 8 hours a day for 3 successive days to meet with the informer. Now Louis operated on the basis of information inputs. Salameh had created information before that 'was a canard.' With this 'information,' he was stationing his enemies in a place that they could be found. Once Avner recognized that he was being followed in this situation, he should have realized that he was not the hunter but the rabbit and acted accordingly. Maybe it's just that my middle name is 'rabbit' in German.

Woman of the Grecian urn

The last time I saw Kathy was when she was waving good-bye to me hand high above the rest of her in the night from her porch. She was going to the University of Paris the next day. She was the most elegant presence in my high school life. Good-by, Kathy.