The Morning Blog

Some years ago, I decided that I was going to get a degree in psychology. When I told my father this over dinner, he looked at me and said "So you want to be a bartender?" (NOTE: My intention at the time was to go onto medical school and become either a psychiatrist or a neurologist). Anyways, it looks as though had I followed through on my plans, I certainly wouldn't have ended up as a bartender. I'd be a chemist. Interesting article there about the death of talk therapy as offered by psychiatrists. I don't know that it's necessarily a bad thing though it sounds pretty depressing for the doctors...I do believe that many psychiatric issues simply NEED medications. But it seems as though psychiatrists are being pressured by insurance companies to pump out pills a bit willy-nilly. I don't know that I'd want someone prescribing me a drug that's meant to fool with my brain after a mere 15 minute chat. It's a long article. But you should read it.

Everyone wish the Girlfriend a Happy Birthday! Do it now!

However, this guys birthday might be a bit more lavish.

San Francisco's Chinatown is boiling mad over soup!

Wocka. Wocka.

It strikes me that when someone complains that "the world is full of lousy people" or "all women are insane" that...well, when you're talking about the rest of the world or an entire gender it might not be them that's screwing around. It might just be you that has the problem.

This guy is doing a world of good for immigrants. One of his current cases concerns a Bangladeshi man who has lived in the United States since he was three when his father came here seeking asylum. He was studying on a full scholarship at the University of Texas when his fathers petition was denied. At that point, he was deported to Bangladesh. A country whose language he doesn't even speak:

Mr. Nabeel, in a recent interview via Skype, said he tried living with his family in Bangladesh but drew suspicion because he did not speak Bangla. One day he was clubbed by a policeman on the street in Dhaka, the capital, he said, after he came to the defense of a child the policeman was beating. His family decided he had to leave the country. 

In November, Mr. Nabeel enrolled in the International Islamic University of Malaysia. Even his engineering classes were framed in teachings from the Koran, he said. In a course on Islamic theology, he said, a professor sought to justify the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Nabeel said he did not return to that course. 

After Mr. Nabeel announced to some classmates that he had Jewish friends in the United States, they created a Facebook page to attack him that filled with hundreds of insults before it was taken down, apparently by Facebook officials. 

“I told Ralph, ‘You need to get me out of here,’ ” Mr. Nabeel said. “I’m an American in a school that’s trained to hate Americans.”

Kacee Bait: I would go with "Maximum Lasagna".

Why should older generations have all the fun? Rep. Peter King reincarnates McCarthy. Um...Before you ask, I'm talking "Joe" not "Paul".

In case you're wondering, I will be furious, lost and confused on Sundays if football goes on strike. I most certainly

Revolution in 60 seconds.

This is pretty alarming: We may be at the beginning of a sixth mass extinction. As noted in the article though, it is extremely difficult to compare the current rate of extinction with the disappearance of the dinosaurs for example. However, things are vanishing forever at an alarming rate.

Hate to cut things short (and on a pretty depressing note at that), but it's time for the Girlfriend to open her birthday present from me! I look forward to being there from a 1000 miles away. Let's here it for technology!