When I was a kid, I was a frequent victim of bullying. You could say that I graduated from the school of bullying (on the wrong end of the lessons). That’s not too surprising, given that I was a a skinny runt (still am, only weigh 130 lbs.), the town was a working-class blue-collar suburb, and I was (and still am) a bit of an “Aspie” (a person with a certain lack of human relationship facility). I had to endure a goodly amount of scoffing and even some physical abuse from the guys who were bigger, cooler and meaner, right through junior year of high school. It got to the point where I couldn’t ride the bus to high school; I walked the mile and a half each way, whatever the weather. For whatever reason, I had a pretty good senior year (and I had a car too; no more walking in the snow).

As an aside, I remember that the bullying ran in cycles. I could go three, four or even five months and be left alone, then it would start up for a string of days, sometimes weeks or even months (on-and-off). It sort-of reminds me of what I had read about the Roman Empire’s persecution of the early Christian communities in the Second and Third Centuries CE. For whatever reason, the Emperors would give the Christians a streak of martyrdom years, and then ignore them for awhile. But in the long run, the Christians survived. I’m not saying that my cause as a young student was quite as noble, but like the early Christians, I also survived my own little persecutions.

However, a female high school student in the white affluent suburb of South Hadley, Massachusetts was not so lucky.  »  continue reading …

It’s a workday but I’m staying home because of the big snowstorm over the New York metro area. The birdfeeder outside my window is extremely popular this morning, attracting birds that usually don’t want to get close to human territory. These include juncos, which are also known as “snowbirds”. Over evolutionary history, birds evolved from reptiles; their feathers are really just modified lizard scales. So, those juncos, like all the other birds jumping around in the feeder box out there, are in effect ‘flying lizards’.

This storm is being called a “blizzard” by some of the more flamboyant local news reporters (I don’t think it really meets the technical qualifications for very low temperature and high wind). So if it takes a blizzard to bring juncos to my window birdfeeder, perhaps I should think of them as “blizzard lizards”.

Yea, I know, that’s kind of stupid. But that’s what cabin fever will do to you.  »  continue reading …

Last night I got up around 3:30 AM, and I knew that I wasn’t going to get back to sleep. I wasn’t upset about anything; every few weeks my sleep cycle just gets out of whack, and I have a few bad nights (and zombie days). I usually try to lay still and get as much rest as possible, but sometimes that really isn’t possible. So I got up last night and turned on the little plastic radio near my bedside. I tuned into the local station airing the national “Coast to Coast AM” talk show by George Noory, out of Los Angeles. I had recently read up on Noory in The Atlantic, and this was my chance to hear what he and his show were all about.

In a nutshell, Noory and “C2C” are about paranoia and the paranormal. His 4-hour overnight talk show has burgeoned in popularity over the past few years. Basically he’s the biggest thing on the conspiracy-theory market since the X-Files came to an end back in 2002. (Coincidence? I don’t think so. The X-Files gave the paranormal/paranoia crowd a rallying point, a cultural respectability; you would expect someone to eventually fill the vacuum left by it). I listened for about 30 minutes, and heard a handful of callers discussing President Obama’s recent cancellation of the Constellation space program, which was started under G.W. Bush so as to get the USA back on the moon and headed eventually for Mars. They were all defending the notion, against Noory’s very weak “devil’s advocate” posturing, that there are bigger reasons behind the cancellation than those given by the President.

According to these people, President Obama is not in charge; he’s mostly a puppet of  »  continue reading …