Benjamin

Ann Althouse has a post on the movie The Curious Life of Benjamin Button. Benjamin is a somewhat popular name now. I think it is so because falls in the category:

I Traditional (Normal)...B. Sectarian...iii antisectarian

It has these characteristics because Benjamin is Jewish as child of Abraham though not so Jewish as to be of Israel (Jacob). Paul mentions in Romans that he is of the tribe of Benjamin so the name becomes Christian but also antisectarian because it is of both sects. Related to the 'Benjamin' associations, the name also tends to want to hold it's 'shape' as the full name to more clearly keep the associations. In our family's case, it is also anitsectarian because it is not a family name. My household prefers the name 'Benners' for a grandson though his brother's mispronunciation 'Jinamen' is fun.

In Responst to Eugene Volokh

Some people are so churlish. I bet you don't appreciate the Spanish Inquisition either. What do we have to do? I think when people say America has a JudeoChristian heritage you should take a clue. Wish your acquaintances 'Happy New Year' on Yom Kippur and suggest to your 'family' there is some public invitation to Yom Kippur or a broadcast of it and not an ersatz one. Maybe you'll then feel liberated and not unhappy when the successors to the Romans wish you Merry Christmas on the day on which it was their tradition to hope, on the darkest day of the year, that the sun would not die be born again.

Chu for Energy Secretary

Megan McArdle brings up a "bad joke that somebody meeds to make: I think our Energy secretary's a great guy and all, but he's no rocket scientist. Oh, wait . . . "

Chu is an exciting choice. One of the reasons I was for McCain was his pronuclear position without which IMHO presidential candidate speeches in 2020 will include 'and when I am elected we will achieve energy independence...' These things have become bridges to nowhere. Chu can calculate the energy returns. In regard to the 'no rocket scientist' jibe which is usually offered as an engaging self (or other) deprecatory remark, I think this comes from the time of our engaging Werner von Braun and a few other of his not so Jewish buddies to build our military rockets. It is really faint praise for the German 1940's autism which included skill in the rocket science area which pragmatism led us to take advantage of.

The Kennedy Assassination

I came to Dallas at age 13 three years before the assassination. I recall an article in the paper about General Walker being fired on, was it a year or so before Kennedy’s assassination, and just missed. ‘He had leaned down to get a closer look at something in his library.’ General Walker was an odd icon of a right wing militarist who I believe ran for Governor. The route that the attempted murderer, took in leaving a vantage point near his property in the area between Oak Lawn and Highland Park was a year or two ago explained again in the paper. Apparently, Oswald attempted the ‘assassination.’ Then there were the incidents of a crowd attacking LBJ and Adlai Stevenson subsequently if I recall correctly. One of the governors of Texas in the fifties, Alan Shivers, had said that Texas needed to bring in more intellectual talent and this happened. But then there was the strange mix of Southern revanchism added in reaction to a growing liberalism. So when I turned on the radio at home midday Nov 23, 1963; we had the day off I believe for the visit, but I was doing my homework, and I heard that the president had been shot, I was not surprised and recalled that I had felt something ‘would happen.’ How strong that feeling was was probably influenced, as in my view the ‘conspirator believers’ are, by a truth that Clausewitz observed when he said ‘that the social importance of a solution did not increase the difficulty of a problem but did increase the merit of a solution.’ And so also was Oswald advanced to his repetition compulsion. Ron Rosenbaum has some other ideas.

Update:

Perhaps in response to comment #44 about the 'mob idea' for the assassination, comment #46 was launched, to which I would reply as follows:

When a person says that somebody has slipped into their apartment and changed a bookmark in a book, I don’t consider that I can prove it didn't happen but might consider that there aren't singular circumstances in their life that make that a reasonable possibility. That isn't a psychoanalysis; I’m not considering why they might be making a false assertion which would be psychoanalysis. In the first instance, people don't decide likelihood of truth on the basis of the logical consistency of a story. There is nothing logically impossible in the 'bookmark' vignette. A psychiatrist does however get used to looking for arguments that connect to an absurd assumption. I am merely offering what to me is a hypothetically ‘absurd’ assumption in the mob theory. People also decide what is worth learning about and what they might stay pragmatically ignorant about. The truth likelihood based on this initial consideration gets the ‘mob theory’ in the category of something I might preserve my present state of rational ignorance about.

Daniel Drezner has the story of the employee killed in the WalMart sale crush. Reflecting on my previous post, at least that was something the Bolsheviks wouldn't have done; but what should be done?

The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia includes a lot of detail some of which can be seen in reflection in our society and leftist movements. I think about the absence of a personal vs. public life, the classless society which became the blue jean society in America. Also much more that is odd, sad and for which one is glad to view from another world.

With the appointment of Geithner at Treasury and Summers at the Council of Economic Advisers, America can move on, in John Kennedy's phrase, to 'a new generation.' Mike Mayo at DB is saying Citi is worth $9 a share. Is the bete noir of banking keeping the wolf from DB? Naw, he probably believes it.

A Volokh conspirator explains why bankruptcy is an option for the Big Three.

I kind of like the way the auto bail-out review went. 'Come back with a good business plan,' Senator Reid said. Sounds like a consligieri spoke to him perhaps from Barack's comment to someone. Cool. You may not agree with them but they seem like a capable group, the people he has chosen so far. As the WSJ said yesterday, it looks like there is going to be a health care plan. Mankiw was pointing out that his choice for OMB is a smart guy (or is that the current head of OMB or both). Whichever he is, he had an interesting slide presentation on health expenses linked through the OMB site.

Is McCain a masochist? Did he choose Palin from that aspect of his personality? McCain-Feingold, recently brought up by Ann Althouse reminds me of a hypothesis of masochism in his actions.

Did Republicans Vote?

Some said they weren't going to vote for McCain because he was a Republican in name only. Zywicki and commentators look at the question 'Did Republicans Vote?' I think in considering that question on an intuitive basis, one has to consider not only McCain but Obama, his opponent. My hypothesis is that the distance between McCain and his opponent was as great as one might imagine between a 'real' Republican and a standard Democratic opponent. Tom Maguire in the blog Just One Minute has innumerable posts about what we don't know about Obama; others in Pajamas Media gave evidence that Obama was in the pocket of Rezko in term an ally of an Iranian billionaire. This perception and others supported McCain as the Republican alternative. Of course, the pick of Sarah Palin reinforced this. Thus the loss of the election indicates that the present Republican party is not a majority.

GM and another narrative

We've heard the screams about bankruptcy as if this is putting Tiny Tim in debtor's prison. Not so. It is a process the airlines have gone through when their product, air travel, went, with deregulation, from a defined demand with oligopolistic tolls carving that demand, business traveler and those wealthy enough to jump into their pool, into a supplier competitive market. I was riding around Oruro Bolivia twenty yeas ago, I imagine a Stalinist state would have had, similary, the almost empty streets and dingy solid buildings. One of the few cars on the street was an early 50's model Ford or Chevy. Aye; those were the good old days for the Big Three. if you wanted an auto, our toll, baby. No mas. And the genie of other suppliers isn't going back in the bottle.

it didn't fit the narrative

This current auto bailout ideas demonstrates why McCain was the sensible choice. He had to go with who he felt comfortable. I wish it had been Bloomberg. With him McCain could've delegated discussion with the House Republicans and had a coherent response to the financial crisis. Palin didn't fit the America original sin/slavery narrative and was butchered; Bloomberg would've to been a more difficult kill.

Discussing Barack's comments on the passing of his grandmother (comment 191).

Read the AP piece about how the McCain supporters are discouraged. The McCain-Palin campaign sent me an email and offered me the opportunity to call some voters. I called some in Ohio, enjoyed the accent, had a variety of reactions. You have to appreciate the people that are neutral. The main thing though in that in doing something you escape the 'discouraged' feeling.

MTP noted that Obama had a favorable rating by 39% on health care policy. Greg Mankiw, the Harvard economist prefers McCain's policy (see his blog). The WSJ had 2 relevant articles on their web site yesterday. Thus is McCain hoisted on the petard of McCain-Feingold. There may be economic interests that would like to clarify the debate but are thus prohibited.

Following comments on 'What would Obama do?' at Volokh. Also Free Exchange has the facts on what happened to set up the 'credit crisis.'

Any last minute money to counter Barack might go to the RNC link, www.GOP.com/RNCVictory2008Phone, as having taken public funding, McCain can't be contributed to directly.

‘McCain has demagogued the issue of the financial crisis more than Obama,’ you all say. “The problem in the financial markets is due to the deregulation of the Bush Administration,” Obama’s statement in response to the first question in the first debate. Conclusion: It’s not demagoguery if you are talking about a true enemy of the people.

Obama is the communist (associate) in the gray flannel suit. He hasn’t done anything to upset any hierarchy. For instance, as the WSJ points out today, he wrote a letter to the Treasury secretary saying subprime was a problem, but when a bill putting restrictions on the FMs needed a Democratic vote in 2005 to get out of committee he was just ‘present.'

Just One Minute has an interesting post about the potential roots of the Obama Ayers connection.

Following Ann Althouse's Desperate Advice for McCain post.

The End of the Campaign

It looks like we can begin to look back at the attempt of the son and grandson of Admirals to achieve the highest military rank, CIC. In a sense, I believe he will have failed because of a thing that is somewhat alien to the military mind, economics. His response to Barack's challenge that the reason for the financial crisis was 'the failed deregulatory policies of the Bush administration' might have been, as the Wall Street Journal said today, 'Name one.' One could go on in details. I do think he came up with a good answer for Treasury Secretary, Warren Buffet. To look at what might have been, had McCain chosen Lawrence Summers for his VP I think he could have received good advice as to how to discuss and address the credit crisis and other economic issues. One objection would be that Doctor Summers is not a Republican and not a suitable replacement. A moot point, but I think a positive lesson could have been taken, surprisingly enough, from the Cheney vice presidency; in Cheney's case the VP job was not to be a step to the presidency.


Update: However an economist gives a great argument for McCain.

The fact that the R ticket has adopted the populist attitutde is the heart of the problem. Obama has taken McCain prisoner with blaming the financial crisis 'on the last 8 years of the Bush administtration which John McCain would continue.' In fact as is well discussed in comments in a succeeding blogpost: 'McCain and lobbyist shame,' the Dems have enormous responsibility due to their GSEs and the CRA. There isn't going to be any glory in JM beng taken prisoner this time. See also Pethokoukis.

Following comments about Obama's ambivalently positive remarks about America at the close of the first debate.

From Instapundit:

So is John Althouse Cohen, and it's hard to argue with this observation:

"I've got a bracelet." "I've got a bracelet too!" Are these serious adults running for president, or is this summer camp?

Yeah, McCain and Obama aren't bad guys, but it's hard to believe that these two are the best that a country of 300 million can produce.

I suppose John didn't like the way the debate was going and so is trivializing it generally. It's unfortunately true that when people are gone what you have is momentos and the ideals of their lives. I suppose he has honored dead, and I would allow it to the mother of this soldier and allow it to us to honor his existential choice.

W asks for spare change

It seems the economy, anyway the investment bankers, need your spare change to get to their next stop. We have a contract economy except when they need your spare change. I kind of thought the AIG deal was fair, but I don't think we should be on the hook for anything that isn't immediately needed to prevent chaos or for which we get nothing. Schumer has a better idea.

Update: Following comments on JOM

William Isaac, former FDIC chairman, says change the accounting rules back to 'true economic value,' (a discounted cash value analysis), from the present 'mark to market.' This was in the wsj Friday.

The Bank of China cut it's interest rate 27 basis points (o.27) today; it is now 7.2% for the 1 year rate.

Palin as a female politician. The Template above from enjointhis at a Palin Haiku contest.

Laugh on the lipstick
Sly, misogynistic cat
Navy mon slap shot

Haiku or sernyu(?sp) line syllables are to be:
5
7
5

Barack's wintry words
cannot chill the warmth within,
my new palinquin.

A great book on how the world got into WWI, The Pity of War. The Germans felt that their relative power vs. Russia was slipping so they needed to fight against the coalition before winning was out of reach. The French Russian coalition was buoyed up by the British who were afraid of it becoming a Teutonic Europe (against them). From my point of view (which includes seeing answers to several of the exercises in the back of the book of history as it were), a better policy for the Germans would have been to maintain their sting; yet appease the stronger combination powers one at at time. As and if their relative position declined, Britain would have supported them out of balance of power considerations. I was glad to see that Deutschebank directors were against the war. There was no need to go after Serbia officially. They could have sought out the murderers as the Israelis are reported to have done in Vengeance.

Today is perhaps the moment of truth for McCain's VP selection being Palin. She would formlly accept the nomination tonight. Bristol being pregnant is perhaps reflective of the task her mother set for her, abstinence, being a task too far, a task over which mother did not accept the independence of the daughter. David Brooks, NY Times, has perhaps a surprising insight into McCain's government view. He mentions the alternative pick of Robert Gates, the current Defense Secretary who has shown an ability which would be complimentary to McCain's. How it would fit administratively is less clear.

Attorney Dyer has a good review of posts about Palin.

Ms. McArdle has some good thoughts on Biden as VP nominee.

The Structure of Street Logic

Freddie, if I recall correctly, the racist complaint arose in the following context. McCain made a criticism of Obama’s position; Obama responded that ‘they’re going to criticize me for not looking like the presidents on the dollar bill.’ It went on further as you suggested. This exchange was something like the recent exchange where McCain said Obama had said the surge was wrong, had voted against funding it, now recognizes violence is down (implication: it succeeded) but still won’t recognize the error. Obama responded that ‘it’s improper to question his patriotism.’

In my practice experience ‘street’ logic or argument goes as follows:

I. ‘I like you and sure wouldn’t want to see aggression (which would be detrimental to you) happen.’

II. ‘My arguments a1, a2, a3 lead to my desired result b.’

III. ‘Not b however will result in the aggression referred to in I above.’

IV. ‘So grant me b and we’ll allow that it was due to the sequence of a arguments above.’

This is the formal structure of what Obama has been telling us and McCain.

Orin Kerr graciously shares some Jewish mother jokes. The explanation for 'Sitting Shiva' is in his second linked here. 'Why don't Jewish mothers drink?' Because alcohol would interfere with their suffering. 'Ha, ha, ha,' as Pinky used to say.

Constantine's Sword is a wonderful book in spite of the fact James Carroll starts off with Rabbi Heschel's opposition to the VN War. This brings up the overtones of 'stabbed in the back' and the Jewish connection to, particularly, Russian communism. In sorrow over the past, I would forgive the Jews their mistake but, at the point when it mattered, some of the past had not yet happened. I am inclined to think of their actions in terms of a Texas boss who would say, 'I don't know that I'd do that.' The sweep of his book is amazing though as it takes off from there into the kerygma after Christ's death. So much is posed fresh: an explanation for the feeling of the Resurrection, an idea of 'prophecy historicized' in the Gospels, just bulls eye confirmation in the Gospel of John, the competing diversity of narratives with little rancor, the Roman toleration of diversity and accommodating the Jews after the fall of the Temple. Then Constantine, murderer of son and wife, and the one who insisted on a single dogma leading to killing of pagans who didn't convert, heresy instead of diversity, wage and price controls, having to stay in your father's profession. Enough to wonder why Christianity isn't seen as a reason for the fall of the Roman Empire. Perhaps I shall say more, a book wonderful in its challenges.

I agree with Ilya Solmin at Volokh that Georgia seems to have come out surprisingly well in the recent war with Russia over it's (former) territories. I don't have any trouble with the Ossetians being Russians if that is there decision. 'Secession' brought up our civil War. Over slavery or not; my thoughts of the South are part of the comments on a Volokh blog post on the subject.

Glenn Reynolds is concerned about drug resistant bacteria. Merck appears to be making progress, viz. a phase 1 trial, apparently related characterization here.

Volokh has a post on Solzhenitsyn with comments that give a good critique of AS work. Suggestion regarding his works and those of other Russian authors and movies about the communist era are also there.

Over at Volokh Conspiracy, several posts take on the significance of the decision overturning the Louisiana law on a death penalty for child rape and the significance in a case based system of the decision. It brings to mind the issue of cased based systems in psychiatry. Psychoanalysis is a cased based system as least as started by Freud. The dynamic of repressed homosexuality as essential in paranoia is a result of the Schreber case. The idea, not really so useful, that depression is 'anger turned against the self' arises from a case where a woman was said to be depressed and accused herself of being a robber when actually it was her father, who had recently died, who was a robber. One could elaborate this. One thing it 'solves' for me is the fact that it is an English lawyer, Roger Bacon, who, apparently correctly, is given much credit for our cultural evolution toward science. Case law suggested an impetus for finding derivative patterns in nature.

Ann Althouse has just the best post on Obama at university of Chicago law.

Commenting on McCain falling behind Obama in the polls.

The Sacramento Bee suggests that the deficit would go up more under the tax plan of McCain than that of Obama, probably doesn't include spending though.

The Border Patrol caught 77 smugglers with 100,000 lb. of marijuana who were trying to move in the chaos of fleeing from hurricane Dolly.

Megan McArdle blogs about the silliness of Al Gore. The Republicans could use a gift of him being added to the Obama ticket. I'd like to see Larry Summers on the Republican side. His recent comments on the economy, linked by the Economist blog as 'articles for the day,' were quite good, and I think he'd make an excellent running mate for McCain.

In the context of Carthago delenda est.

Following the n-word discussion, started, on my part, here. The Mac & Cheese was a different idea of Ms. McArdle's which was fun.

A profound thought on abortion.

A presidential contest is like a heavyweight championship fight. The champ wins the draw; the challenger has to beat the champ. This metaphor is perhaps a little harder to apply than usual this year. Who is the champ? McCain; ever heard of Bush III; he is also the senior man in experience. The 'Champ' however starts out behind because of the low approval rating of the champion he is replacing, Bush. Nevertheless, Obama needs to beat the Champ on the latter's issue, military security. The Champ may also enfeeble the blows of the challenger if he can win the battle over 'change' and the economy, e.g. Free Trade as a first principle, fiscal restraint, contra crony capitalism as represented by the former Fannie Mae chariman and Obama's VP selection committe chairman Larry(?) Johnson.

Comment on the Fannie Mae debacle.

You know when a bull like DeBakey dies it is the natural order of things. Not that I know either well, but I found him reminding me in his aggression of Dr. Donald Seldin of UT Southwestern Medical School. I thought of Dr. Seldin's reputation for a painful level of aggression. One hears such stories about people but unremarked, and really why the story is enjoyed, is because, in part, of the virtuosity of their professional conduct. I can still recall Dr. Seldin's lecture to our new sophomore medical school class, the pathos of the situation of the middle aged black man who had renal failure probably from having had strep impetigo and from one of the antigens of the staph leading to the development an attack on the man's kidney. Dr. Seldin was dry in the interview but then told us how the 'Present Illness' should be organized with historical factors and symptoms appropriate to our ultimate diagnosis and also pertinent negatives. He developed a differential diagnosis and invited our opinions. For some reason I spoke up in favor of a syphilitic kidney; it's useful as a teacher apparently to allow a little participatory idiocy. I have thought of it subsequently when I see a nurse practitioner try to develop a present illness or I have read other evaluations. It was virtuosic, like Stern playing the violin and then teaching us.

The issue of racism and how to deal with continues to be of interest at Megan McArdle's blog; yours truly here.

Following some views on the physician's reimbursement vote re: Medicare.

Totem and Taboo points out that it is taboo to harm the totem of the tribe. Judaism has a history of what might be called the error of the Golden Calf. This is a rejected step in its tradition; yet Kosher rules prohibit the eating of the 'calf in it's mother's milk' and the eating of meat and a milk product together is forbidden; it is a taboo. Another officially rejected practice in the Bible is the sacrifice of first born children. Yet the abortion of a foetus is permitted as a prehuman. So in some sense the recognition of the taboo animal and the offering of a first (not yet) born may be carried on. From our Western or Greek perspective, Euripides did bring to the fore empathy, this attitude may seem Eastern, foreign, Oriental in an old sense as I commented.

Now that the nominations have been decided, bicyling and car trafffic is a hot topic.

Ending racism as I know it. And re: hippies and their point in a McCain ad (8:07 PM down a ways.

Reverberations from the Civil War

Megan McArdle has a great post. To say it is about war of aggression and the Civil War doesn't do it justice. To append my comment:

worth pondering when considering a war of aggression. Unless a conquered population is exiled or annihilated, you create enemies for your grandchildren to deal with.

Thus was the Union "preserved." As is obvious but also sometimes profoundly learned in romantic relationships, sometimes to love someone means having to let them go. One of the ironies of the Civil War is that Lincoln fought the war because the Southerners 'wouldn't let the slaves go.' He should have led by example and let the Southerners go.

Becker Posner has a blogpost on the decline of newspapers. This led one commenter to say that what's bearing on national politics in the dominant papers is a lie until proven otherwise. One is reminded of Maliki's defeat in Basra, followed by the collapse of an Iraqi Company in Sadr City but finally there is David Brooks article in the NYTimes on the success of the surge. Sometimes I think it's like reading of the defeat of the Allied forces in WWII by German Arms in hypothetical German newspapers. You'd have articles with headlines like 'German Army takes Stalingrad but communication tenuous,' and 'AngloAmerican Army destroyed at Normandy' but then 'German Army Quits Paris to Save Vichy Government' and, finally, 'Hitler Spurns Russian Immigrants, prefers Early Sainthood.' All of these articles could go in a book 'Disasters of American and Allied Arms' to kind of go with the current reports of disasters in Iraq. Of course going along with this kind of reporting is, for instance, the Dallas Morning News (sorry, registration required) saying that McCain's aide shouldn't say that a terrorist attack would highlight his bosses advantage as a candidate. It's impolite I guess to think of how things could really go wrong.

Michael Weiss says Bloomberg is overrated and gets confirmation from the commenters.

Bill Gates made billions and brief and engaging transition remarks.

The departing Air Force secretary who had been in a dispute re: plans, 'philosophy,' with his boss says, in such a circumstance, 'When you have a difference of philosophy with your boss, "He owns the philosophy and you own the difference."' Well put. There's more at the link though a WSJ subscription is required to go very far.

"Why Iraqi's back McCain" in the Wall Street today.

Update: Some however seem invested in defeat for the Iraqis.

Update: Change you can take to the bank.

Candide, a story written by Voltaire, presented an attractive girl who was schemed against and said of things that were disasters, 'All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.' Candide was naive about aggressive intentions of others, essentially saying I'll be innocent, optimistic and that will win. It seems to me Bush has taken the role of Candide in spite of his image as BushHitler. In part he has gotten this image from not taking appropriately into account the aggression that others were up to.

Was just listening to Fox News Sunday's program from last Sunday, June 8, on podcast. I was surprised by the views of several of the panelists that 'the election is about Obama.' McCain is really the alternative candidate if Obama can't close the deal. Also Chris Wallace had the criticism that he was surprised McCain didn't have any more of an economic plan in his Tuesday night speech. In my view, McCain needs to bring economic ideas into his plans that show more detailed insight into what might be done. All the more reason that he needs Bloomberg as part of his ticket to be competitive. An analogy might be that the Cowboys can't rely on the NY Giants stumbling; they need to bring speed to the team. Some people may not like it but you've got to have the capability to be competitive. OTOH, Beldar has some nice photos and things say about Palin.

Senator Obama is confirmed as the Democratic nominee and Rasmussen has him ahead of McCain and oil goes up over $10 a barrel in the week. Irrational or an Obama risk premium? Megan McArdle got me thinking about this.

Will Obama say, 'Bye, bye, Israel?'

The Trojan Women by Euripides reviewed. The experience of a Marine in VN is in my comment. The Gospel for June 8 might be seen as taking up the idea of empathy (it is verse 9-13 in the link). Jesus' comments could be seen as reflecting Euripedes' views if embodied in Greek culture brought to Judea.

Thoughts on Clinton for VP; mine at 12:10 PM

Megan Mcardle puts up a blogpost that gets comments instructive about guns in defense.

How, cf. Occam's Beard, to make blockquotes and yours truly comments on McClellan.

Ghostbuster notes, "I sold a lot of the bonds that were used to finance the DFW airport back in the 70s. I was surprised to learn at the time that most of the land the airport was built upon was purchased from Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson. Guess they were just exceptional real estate investors, ya think." Apparently this was Johnson's MO for laundering political payoffs. I was told that the bridge from New Orleans across Lake Pontchatrain didn't go to the closest spot but rather to, wouldya believe, property owned by those Johnson folks.

An Atlanic blog has a discussion of free trade.

Obama and the judiciary. Also I think of 2 young men I never knew; Lt. Fresques didn't want to be in debt; we are in his.

In 'Hagee on Hagee' at Volokh I got into a short view of religion.

Been enjoying The German Way of War. This comes from a recommendation from the ChicagoBoyz noted below, May 9, 2008.

My take on Bloomberg for VP. It's a unique situation; the presidential candidate of either party could win with Bloomberg. I think Obama and Clinton will make great candidates for a Democratic base. OTOH, I think it really gets too cute, sort of like it would, for the Republicans, if it were a McCain-Condi Rice ticket against Obama.

Orin Kerr of Volokh Conspiracy has a great link to an article on the limitations of George Bush. Volokh takes up the issue of Hagee and McCain; yours truly comments here.

Consistent with the report of Vogels et al., 1997, I have seen a patient's hepatic encephalopathy ameliorated by Namenda 5 mg a day. Where the patient can't take meds orally the cholinesterse inhibitor approach, supported by the experiment of Kabatnik et al., might be tried with an Exelon patch.

A You tube of Mayor Bloomberg.

Scientific articles (co)authored by the blogger

My scientific articles; obtained by going to PubMed and typing Brophy MH in the search field 'for' and clicking on 'Go.'

Items 1 - 9 of 9One page.
1: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH.

A different mechanism to understand activation/sedation side effects of ziprasidone.
J Clin Psychiatry. 2007 Jun;68(6):974; author reply 975-6. No abstract available.
PMID: 17592932 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]2: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH.

Cyproheptadine for combat nightmares in post-traumatic stress disorder and dream anxiety disorder.
Mil Med. 1991 Feb;156(2):100-1.
PMID: 1900585 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]3: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH.

Zinc, preeclampsia, and gamma-aminobutyric acid.
Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1990 Jul;163(1 Pt 1):242-3. No abstract available.
PMID: 2375350 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]4: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH.

Zinc and childhood hyperactivity.
Biol Psychiatry. 1986 Jun;21(7):704-5. No abstract available.
PMID: 3708042 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]5: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH, Kiser SR, Rubin L.

Nonsuppression of ACTH in lung cancer.
Biol Psychiatry. 1985 May;20(5):584. No abstract available.
PMID: 2985132 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]6: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH, Harris NF, Crawford IL.

Elevated copper and lowered zinc in the placentae of pre-eclamptics.
Clin Chim Acta. 1985 Jan 15;145(1):107-11.
PMID: 3978817 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]7: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH, Rush AJ, Crowley G.

Cortisol, estradiol, and androgens in acutely ill paranoid schizophrenics.
Biol Psychiatry. 1983 May;18(5):583-90. No abstract available.
PMID: 6222771 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]8: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH.

Vitamin B-6 and plasma PLP in pregnancy, lactation.
J Nutr. 1981 Mar;111(3):579-80. No abstract available.
PMID: 7205411 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]9: Related Articles, LinksBrophy MH, Siiteri PK.

Pyridoxal phosphate and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.
Am J Obstet Gynecol. 1975 Apr 15;121(8):1075-9.

you, With your fresh thougths care for, can you?

Ann Althouse reads a letter from 'Obama.' I comment with a quote of a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins and link to a professor form the national Univ. of Ireland with a great insight into the method of his poetry. As seniors at Jesuit in Dallas, we were presented with the poem Spring and Fall . It was disorienting, comprehended in part but frightening. I love it more now.

Professor Zywicki cites a 'new,' different ranking of colleges than USN&WR. I recall in Science some years ago a discussion the colleges who graduated a higher number of people who won grants; it seemed like a useful perspective.

ChicagoBoyz has good links to books on military history.

Instapundit linked to a blog asking about the value of a college education. I broke my hand in a fight, did other stupid stuff; so, although there were some intellectual value to UT Austin, a different loco parentis was probably called for. Medical school, Psychiatry residency, psychoanalysis with Clarence Parker, working for effective men at the VA and meeting the veterans yielded though a broadening education and socialization.

Money supply growing too fast

Is the old M3 really growing at 28.7% per annum so far this year? So a Spengler commentator says says.

An ex Guantanamo detainee blew himself up in Iraq killing civilians there. Linking my comment on Volokh.

What Obama Might Say. There's a funny Jewish Mother joke in the comments, appropriate of what I don't know.

An article from UT Southwestern on Zyprexa (0lanzapine) treatment of corticosteroid or prednisone induced mania.

Senator O is a 'bargainer' in Shelby Steele lingo. So, for those of us 'typical whites' that are afraid of black anger (and America's original sin), that's nice. This is like an experince of the Messiah. Was it March he said, 'I don't think my Church is all that controversial (he's like one of us);' in early April, 'I can more disown Rev. Wright that I can disown the black community [heh, I'm the real deal (black, you know)].' Monday, a mild disagreement with the idea of Rev. Wright's remarks or maybe the distraction. Tuesday, after seeing 'his gestures' (like you know he expected him to stand without moving his arms like Senator Biden), "I denounce those remarks; they no more reflect me.." What a weatherman.

James Fallows of Atlantic points out two good speeches by SECDEF Gates to officers on track to rise in the Air Force and Army recently. The Air Force speech tells of someone who significanly contributed to or air superiority and his 'You can be somebody or do something attitude.' The latter is moe humorous but gives perspective on America at war and living with political constraints very well.

A question in reference to the origin of WWI

Megan McArdle compares 'our torture policy' to the bombing of Dresden. My comment was to posit a 'commonality between the Dresden bombings and 'our torture policy' would seem to accept more innuendo than, well, fact to include for starters that the people affected by the bombing had next to nothing to do with WWII and the 'tortured' had an arguable likelihood of causing the kind of civilian killings visited us on 9/11 which was more like the Dresden bombing than anything else you have brought up. The laws of war, per my earlier comment, would seem to provide a legalistic 'war crimes' defense for Bomber Harris of Great Britain but that doesn't mean that what was done wasn't criminal in a humanistic sense. The Dresden bombing raises for me a sort of murderous sibling rivalry hypothesis with regard to the relation of Great Britain to Germany. This goes back to WWI and the diplomatic efforts of Britain to block Germany's rise. As I understand it, Britain was committed to defend Belgium should Germany invade; so war on the western front was Germany's choice by it's activation of the Schlieffen plan. Germany could have 'just' confronted Russia over its mobilization to aid the Serbs who were being attacked by the Austrians for supporting the anarchist killing of the Austrian Grand Duke. British action would seem justified there but, not knowing my history well enough, I wonder if there wasn't something more to the precipitation of conflict between Britain and Germany?' Anyone one who has further perspective on a diplomatic bind that Germany might or might not have been in, I would appreciate your comment.

What Rove reads.

David Gergen on what the superdelegates are thinking: "This is not just a question of who can win in the fall. They have to also make sure they held their party together. If at the end of this, the math is against her, she winds up with fewer delegates, fewer votes, and fewer states, if they turn it over to her, they run the very real risk they will drive African Americans out of the party for a generation. And they will drive away young voters. There're some things worse than losing an election in trying to build a party."

Weatherman, will the wind blow you into a man?

Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman asked rhetorically, 'Why doesn't the Bible say, in the Commandments, Love your children.' Appropriately dumbfounded, I found his answer more cogent. It was, 'The Bible doesn't tell us to do what comes naturally.' 'We love our children.' I am reminded of this in the controversy over the Weatherman Ayers. Aye, there was a time in American student history when the Weathermen were 'like Wow.' Faced with the arduous complexity of adapting to America's involvement in VN, it was, I think, easiest for us to think, 'OK, I give up. I'll be superior to the President and the Generals. I'll settle for the happy solution that their picking on me too.' That's where the 'like Wow' comes in in relation to the Weathermen. The usual title of this blog 'A Psychiatrist who learned from Veterans' suggests my evolution in relation to this issue.

So the child gets mad at the parents, the country, and yet still accepts that the parents, the country love him. That's what I see in the Weathermen.

A nice analysis of the Iraq wars and a comparison to Afghanistan.

Re: Obama leaving his heart in San Francisco

The general appeal of Obama is perhaps to masochism. Morally 'we' need this for all that we, and 'they' who 'deserve it less,' have. Who better to punish us than a black man, a symbol of our, psychologically useful to justify our masochism, created victims. And Obama, so smooth and gentle in appearance, has been the perfect director of our punishment, punitive tax proposals, disgraceful turning from our allies in Iraq and toward failure. The secret need of the masochist is to control the sadist. His insulting comments and contradictory statements diminish our 'clinging to him' thankfully before the bondage of election.

As a commenter on the Volokh conspiracy said in a blogpost about Obama's San Francisco remarks, "He's the most collectivist, high tax, government control candidate that's ever run for president. Anything that can be done to stop him must and will be done. All's fair in politics and war. By the way, Hillary "we will take things away from you for your own good" isn't far behind." Religion typically offers a better way to deal with the person's psychological contradictions than the masochistic proposals for individuals and the country Obama offers. An April 12 roundup of reactions to Obama's remarks.

Listened to General Petraeus on NPR today. I was impressed by his opening statement. Apparently, he has the support of his soldiers; the 3rd Infantry Division, our original and, I believe, surge deployed troops in Baghdad had met their yearly reenlistment target already, cf. Instapundit. The counterinsurgency has worked very well. Baghdad and environs are much more secure. Ted Kennedy had a list of complaints which started with the idea that we alone were the security force in Iraq. The General pointed out that recently there have been 3 times as many Iraqi KIA in the Army and additionally 3 times as many in the Sons of Iraq local forces. So Petraeus was like Lot in the Torah looking for 5 liberal Senators who would honestly accept that people allied with us for the betterment of their communities and country and a humanistic liberty. Iraqi money is taking over the redevelopment efforts. Senator McCain modestly asked some questions about Al Quieda in Iraq and their retreat to Mosul, the ancient capital, and closed with saying he would like to discuss more about the Iranian efforts to destabilize the country 'but his time had expired.' Senator Webb who rudely had refused to discuss how his son was doing as a Marine in Iraq when he met the president after the induction of the new Senators, said that 'combat was the most apolitical environment he had ever been in' but from his son's experience the Anbar awakening was taking place before the surge, and he, the Senator, was concerned about the strain on the forces.

Obama really comes across well in this video of a white guy harassing him for a picture.

Kind of got involved in the comments, 3/30/08 09:25 AM, on the question of what kind of a person Barack Obama is. In researching my comment, I came upon a reference to an author who has written on Heinz Kohut, the foremost philosopher of narcissism if you will, and also, noted later in the reference, to Lincoln, a book called 'Lincoln's Quest for Union.' That's interesting because Barack does bring up the question of Lincoln and his actions.

Senator McCain apparently has said 'the issue of economics is something I've understood as well as I should.' When I was in New york recently, I was impressed by Michal Bloomberg, New York's curent mayor, in his press conference about the tragedy of the fallen crane somewhat near St. Patrick's Cathedral. Michael Bloomberg has made a fortune building a business that provides financial information. He has to have a great grasp of business and markets, would seem to be a good complement to the Senator. I hope they'll run together. It looks like Bloomberg has a chance with either party.

Jerome Weeks has an interesting literary reference, Measure for Measure, to apply to the Spitzer scandal. Speaking, as Jerome does, of trying to correlate perhaps seemingly loosely related events, I'm disappointed no one to my knowledge has remarked on how the House Democrats put on the dirge of Greek tragedy over how the government or AT&T may have abused privacy in trying to trace terrorist links and then did not find a similar lesson in Spitzer being caught. Riddle me this. Why is it wrong to find if a man is talking to foreign terrorists by finding patterns in phone calls and appropriate to find that he is paying for prostitutes by following how he spends his money?

Got Virginity?

Obama made a good psychological point that people who experience shame may relieve it by demonizing others, and 'Anglos' have gotten used to accepting this. Oddly enough, my family has a history of experiencing the anger of black people in Chicago; my grandfather Hubert was mugged for his WWI bonus money as he was passing through Chicago. The demonizing anger may be a kind of narcissistic manipulation. As an example of narcissistic manipulation, Jack Kerouac wrote of riding on a bus across America that a 'young virgin started talking to me, and I didn't talk to her for 2 hours until I had her and then I began to tell her about herself,' and she was eager to yield herself to him. In his method, he made himself unapproachable until her neediness and his grandness was accepted. This is how the 'racist' is to deal with the anger celebrated and institutionalized by Jeremiah Wright.

Neurontin (gabapentin) 600 mg at night improves sleep architecture.

I'll admit I've been pessimistic about economic chances if Obama is elected but the families of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern might be busy. Obama is an engaging sort and it seems he likes to keep friends who might not feel they are being included by sending emissaries. First it was Austin Goolsbee to the Canadians and now it is 'los gringos' to FARC.

The Roman invention of Jurored courts

Glenn Reynolds taking up the subject of jury nullification cites his paper which includes the origin of the jury. Our law, as tradition has it, is of Roman origin. This is evidenced in the early history of the jury, from the book This Was Cicero by H.J. Haskell 1942 Fawcett/Alfred A Knopf, p. 64

... As litigation increased, it was necessary to create additional courts. By the time Cicero was practicing, there were 2 civil and 6 criminal courts in Rome with elective judges...
The jury wheel was prepared by the presiding judge. The names of the prospective jurors we inscribed in an Album, or White Book... In Roman procedure, all the Senators on duty in Rome were regarded as law lords and their names were inscribed in the Album. Early in Cicero's career the 400 hundred senatorial jurors were supplemented by an equal number drawn from two other divisions of the upper classes: the wealthier business men and perhaps business men of lesser means. The wheel usually included over a thousand names.
Jurors for any particular case were selected form the Album by lot. Challenges were allowed to both sides and the ordinary jury in a criminal case included from 50 to 75 men. It is evident that the large Roman jury more nearly approached a public meeting than the modern jury of 12 men, so that oratorical training was emphasized in the education of an aspirant to the Roman bar.

Life imitates Three Stooges. "OPEC blames Bush for high oil prices."

A good article on Obama as a uniter.

The Wall Street has what I thought was an informative article on why the Texas economy has done well and the Ohio economy poorly. I believe it's a free article.

When I hear some news, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. The Vatican announced recently, somewhat in defense of the Inquisition, that it killed only 1.8% of of it's prisoners of conscience or accused witches. There is kind of an asterisk that reduces the percentage in that the Church largely excludes figures from the Spanish Inquisition which it notices, mostly belatedly I assume, was an independent operation. 'Take that, Trotsky,' I guess since the communist figures are worse.

"Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, who was at the news conference where the study was presented, said that the lessons of history never come to an end.

Acknowledging the past was all the more relevant given the continued use of torture in the 21st Century, most notably by US troops against prisoners held in Iraq, he said" which just goes to show that things haven't really changed too much. Reality testing and humility are both still optional in princes of the Church. Perhaps the suggested defensiveness of the cardinal relates to being associated with a trespass, Church language for psychosexual aggression. When the Church had control of things, its prelates may have felt that the existence of the targets of its Inquisition implied some agreement with their trespass which is why we had the Inquisition to begin with.

Seroquel is useful in weaning from a ventilator.

My letter is the second in the this list of today's Dallas Morning News Letters to the Editor. This was Ms. Allison's recent op-ed.

Obama's 'Patriot' industrial plan would harm U.S competitiveness.

Tom Maguire has a great blog post on Obama. He also has all the news that didn't fit an anti-McCain conclusion in the continuing gossip barrage of the NY Times.

Wellbutrin (bupropion)

Ron Rosenbaum has a post on the baseball steroid issue. A commenter talked about how Wellbutrin helped him but not so much the generic; which leads to some thoughts on Wellbutrin (bupropion). In the late eighties, a patient and I were considering his using Wellbutrin. "Is it a new drug?" he said. "Yes," I replied. "It must be better then," he said. Some truth to that. Another favorite patient story is about Wellbutrin. An older, wiry black man came for an appointment at the VA. "Doc, I usually don't take your medicine, but when I do it sure does make me feel peppy!" Some medications have deficiencies that, addressed, are useful to the manufacturer because they allow for a new formulation that works in the marketplace (and have patent exclusivity); such is the case here. Because of a slight increase in seizure risk, the drug is supposed to be taken multiples times a day at intervals; I hope God has better luck with his rule on adultery because these intervals and maximum individual doses were never followed by anyone coming to me on the drug, not that it seemed to matter. I have a patient who, when I was going to renew the drug as the SR (sustained release) told me to give him the IR, the immediate release or just the original formulation. The IR was available in generic but the patient wasn't concerned with price. Subsequently I was at a lecture sponsored by a rival, Forrest, and the presenter said that the registration trials for the SR and XL were not positive, in other words the drugs didn't 'work' but the FDA gave them licenses since the original Wellbutrin was allowed. These statements were consistent with my patient's claim. It is also likely that the brand name manufacturers original SR and XL products come closer to being likely effective than the subsequent generics which only have to demonstrate delivering within 20% of the branded product over a certain interval. In practice this usually means you get 80% of the amount of drug. So I would wonder if the commenter could do well on generic original Wellbutrin or the IR bupropion taken (more or less) under the original rules. Wellbutrin is a useful drug on the psychiatry consultation service. It helps older people who may be grieving over the loss of loved ones or their own health. There it may work at 150 mg a day and one needn't go to the usual 300 mg a day. Low Na+ from the SRIs in older people is often seen in psychiatry consultation and Wellbutrin does not have this side effect. It shouldn't however be used where there is end stage renal disease because the metabolism of the drug is prolonged.

Was interested running into 'trespass' as the action of Adam in the Garden of Eve noted in Genesis. Currently this is in the litpress.org presentation; the Bible passage is part of the liturgy for the First Sunday of Lent. 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us' finally has a suitable context. Freud proposed an idea in Totem and Taboo which I imagine as like something out of 2001 A Space Odyssey: that the original human groups were like a monkey colony in which the father kept the sons from the females until the brothers would rise up and kill the father and then have the possibility of 'satisfaction.' The law of talion for this would of necessity be death for the perpetrator, the punishment specified in the Bible. Interestingly (to me), the ages of the first fathers noted in Genesis run into the 900s as if to say, 'We didn't kill them. Look how long they lived.' More generally a 'trespass' would be any stage, e.g. oral or phallic, psychosexual satisfaction of necessity accompanied by aggression, for instance the oral aggression of an infant who bites to destroy an object who frustrates him. The residue of the initial hypothetical murder is suggested to be religion which carries forward the laws of the father. No wonder 'Forgive us our trespasses' is so relevant to family life as it would deal with psychosexual urges both real and imagined.

Professor Volokh, linked left, with his fellow bloggers has been covering the case where a gun owner, or wishes to be a gun owner, is challenging Washington D.C.'s ban on gun ownership, D.C vs. Heller. The arguments for gun ownership and, even perhaps more, in clarifying the meaning of the Second Amendment are fascinating. If you can only read one, I recommend Lund's which is linked in this Volokh post. The JFPO, Jews for the Preservation of Gun Ownership amicus curae brief linked in a Volokh post is also fascinating. I believe you can see the related posts by going to 'related posts' at the foot of a blogpost.

This really rankles. Echostar bid for DirecTV but Powell's FCC blocked the deal and I didn't get diddly for my stock in DirecTV. Now News Corp is 'soured on DirecTV' and Echostar has done much beter than News Corp stock.

Becker and Posner prove they're smarter than me on illegal immigration. I do think there needs to be a status of guest worker though additionally. A brief overview of how Mexican immigration came to be the way it is: In the thirties (the Depression), the Border Patrol would shoot to kill illegal immigrants. After WWII, we had a bracero program where farm workers could be registered legally to come here temporarily. That was shut off by the Democrats at the behest of unions. Texas culture being antiunion, we just continued the practice without the documentation; in a related practice see 55 MPH speed limit. Then voila'.

Today's Gospel reading, the Sermon on the Mount, is perhaps the soul of Catholicism. At some link through Yahoo, there was the comment that the 'revolution' in Kenya started, as revolutions do, when economic fortunes are rising. The model is the French revolution. Why was that more violent, more destructive than the turmoil with Cromwell in England? There were some 223 Cistercian monasteries in France before the revolution. All were lost. Perhaps the difference is that in England Henry VIII had already revolted against the Catholic Church in the matter of sexual or marital morality. The English of Shakespeare's time were sexually liberal; so they didn't have that to rebel against. I suppose a current 'proof' of my hypothesis is how much more people are celebrating Mardi Gras or Carnival than Lent. (Extra credit for wondering what all of this has to do with Kenya).

My primary vote lines up based on this and this.

Not really. I'll let them as is Democrats make their choice.

The Dallas Morning News has a review of a 'funny' Irish writer whose works are densely written (sounding a bit less impenetrable than Ulysses). Though Flann O'Brien, nom de plume of Brian O'Nolan, was a contemporary of Joyce, his work until a recent compendium was apparently hard to get. The review is fun partially because of a pretty sprinkle of Gaelic. Surviving with Wolves, 'a children's view of the Holocaust,' reviewed in Haaretz, would be amazing in a different way.

In the tradition of his English ancestors, GW Bush has muddled forward sticking to his ideals and changing his assessment and strategy. How he decided on the surge. As to how we got there, I understand that the first chapter of Fiasco is instructive.

Volokh conspiracy brings a culture war offensive it seems to patient and therapist sex. I had to comment form Edmund Pellegrino's great narrative, part of the meetings of the President's Commission on Bioethics. Other reports on the site, by the way, give some thoughtful perspective to the 'national health insurance' debate.

Orin Kerr has a good discussion of the President's economic stimulus proposal, see also the comments, e.g. Bader's. Mankiw's blog post is informative. The Economist blog, linked left, gets into a link derivative of a discussion of useful infrastructure endorsing intercity train travel.

Fred Thompson and the South Carolina primary

Fred made a good point that he’s held up a mirror to the Republican Party. He has appreciated the values of our first president; the party has had other preferences. I think he’ll be inclined to follow George Washington’s lead after finding a lack of support for his position immediately after winning against the British and depart, trusting to Providence. Mr. Thompson said ‘it has been for the country,' and I think he may wonder if continuing fragmentation is positive or not in the Republican primaries. So many Republicans have said you wouldn’t vote for McCain and he may think that conceding thus to the Democrats may not be in the best interest of the country. He may think it better that the Republicans have a winner in the primaries. If Fred withdraws, the animus against McCain can be measured in votes. If it is sufficient, McCain will not win. If it is not, those who have preferred someone else may feel they have had their say and lost fairly.

Health care blog post by a Nobel Prize winner in economics and a federal judge.

Po' McCain

Instapundit has a lot of nice references to what Fred Thompson represents and links to the problems of McCain over Free Speech and overregulation in relation to global warming etc. And I'd be delighted to see President 'po boy' Thompson. OTOH, I don't know that any candidate other than McCain has attacked the ethanol subsidies of the corn farmers. He favors free trade and imports from Brazil of cane sugar based ethanol which would capture a large part of our market in ethanol. To me, on economics, McCain walks the walk while others talk the talk. Maybe there is an advantage in cutting taxes in part because the deficits which might occur restrain future entitlements, but that is the easy part. Being for or against immigration or to some extent criticizing the McCain Feingold law is the easy part. The Republicans the last 8 years have been, from the point of view of Republicans criticizing him, great in economic theory, but McCain has been the only one who actually seemed to practice not wasting our money.

Ran into a fun read on the remainder table at Border's for $5.99, Intelligence in War. The first chapter shows how close Napoleon was to being destroyed by Nelson before he ever got to Egypt at the beginning of his deadly imperial career. I had a German teacher at Texas from Berlin who was personable offer that 'Hitler was like Napoleon' in a kind of historical shrug. The second recounts Stonewall Jackson's Shenandoah Valley campaign, an impressive military feat. The third chapter shows the value of entrepreneurial technical progress as in Marconi's example in developing wireless for the British Navy as well as showing you the deadly thrill of sea battles with the background the hubris of the Kaiser's regime.

Michael Barone had a column January 4 in the Wall Street Journal on how voters tend to show changes in what's important to them after 4 presidential elections, every 16 years, reflecting the median voter being 45 and his/her view reflecting what they've like and/or don't in their American experience and in part discounting the dangers that have been avoided by the overhang of the previous trend. I don't know if that can be freely linked.

To paraphrase Janis Joplin, after the Iowas caucus, 'Conservative is just another word for something left to lose.' Just to show me that my schadenfreude isn't what it used to be, even the fact that it was an ABC, anybody but Clinton, election didn't send me. Instapundit had a nice link though to something on Obama.

A really towering paper in the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder literature is that regarding the month long use of Cortisol (Cortef) 10 mg a day, this is a low dose of glucocorticoid, by Amanda Aerni. R. Greene at the Dallas VA has a nice paper using rats in a related paper; impressive statistics with that one.

A fun exegesis of the oxen, other animals at the Christmas manger scene.