Octomom at my economic stimulus

Sigh.

Is there any end to the weirdness coming out about Nadya and her never-ending need to birth? When will California's Social Services department take these poor kids away from this grotesque, bizarre, mentally ill woman? When will the State of California take away the medical license of her IVF doc and forbid him from touching any other human being in a medical context for the rest of his life?

Now it seems Nadya wrote creepy letters to Angelina Jolie ... and had plastic surgery to look more like her.

Ewww....

thread at buzzfeed

She now claims that she's receiving death threats via phone and email after putting up a website asking the public to support her kids. Police are investigating.

Oh, and let's not forget, she's $50,000 in debt and on food stamps and a couple of her pre-existing kids were on disability. Some have tallied that the hospital cost for her eight babies will be $1.3 million. The total cost of raising all her kids through age 17 are estimated at between $1.3 million and $2.7 million.

Oh well... there's goes the economic stimulus!

article at HuffPost

The functioning sociopath in business

This piece from the AP wire is fascinating; on the surface, it's about the owner of Peanut Company of America and how he's become a recluse since the firestorm over the salmonella outbreak in his plants.

However, if you dig a little deeper, it paints a picture of something not uncommon in business and the workplace - a functioning sociopath.

These are people who are good at putting on a "good face" and telling people what they want to hear. In public or among superivsors, they seem like the nicest person in the world. In private or in their business practices, they're uncaring, dishonest, irresponsible and reckless.

Managers or business people like that can go far, but leave a big trail of destruction in their wake.

article at AP news wire

Please, make them stop

No doubt you heard about the woman who just gave birth to eight children.

Yes, eight babies in one fell swoop.

Turns out she had sought fertility treatments.

Oh, and by the way, she already had six children.

Now, I'm all for reproductive rights and such, but, I'm sorry, this endless pursuit of popping out babies is bordering on mental illness. If you've got six kids already, why go for fertility treatments? Why can't you be happy with the children you have?

I would urge some researchers in psychological circles to do a study on this - women who want to get pregnant so badly and so often that it becomes an unhealthy obsession.

Jeez - we've got enough people on the planet already!

article at LA Times

The Pervert's Guide to Cinema

In a new documentary, a philosopher looks at the relationship between dreams, desire and movies.

Sounds like a fun piece of work that's "spot on" in the observations.

movie review at NY Times

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The NY Times has an interview with the lead researcher in the 1970's "Stanford Prison Experiment". There is currently a movie in production about the experiment; the researcher reflects on the experiment in the interview and discusses it in the context of the Abu Gareb abuses.

article at NY Times

Psychohistory - Hit the road, Jack

Once in a while, I'll make a few psychohistory-related posts here. Today, I'm wondering why there are two movies featuring bikers going head to head at the box office - Wild Hogs, a comedy about middle-aged men who become bikers and Ghost Rider, which concerns a biker who sells his soul to the devil. Both films were panned by the critics, but seem to be catching on with audiences.

My own theory about biker-themed movies is that they hint at themes of journeys, standing out from normalcy or being an outlaw, and being exposed or vulnerable. There seem to be several news stories making the rounds that seem to fit these themes - police discovering a video of a 2 and 5 year old being taught how to smoke pot, the story about the "giggling bandits" or the baseball team bus crash that has gotten so much play in the news. There's also the numerous stories about the abuses at Walter Reed of vets (and we often think of bikers as men formerly in the military).