this week i

lectured at the bureau of labor statistics on consumer expenditure survey analysis with r in the morning, then at the national institutes of health on medical expenditure panel survey analysis with r in the afternoon.

have come a long way, huh?  the indecision of youth.

scrolled through three months of chuck grassley's twitter feed.  my (1) (2) (3) favorites.

would like to do a song of great social and political import.  happy birthday, janis.

see you yawning, sasha.

wouldn't move to baltimore, but if i did, wouldn't open a bar, but if i did, would name it, "the flask of amontillado" in deference to poe.

watched two more by jordan peterson.  on self-deception..

human health is a matter of moral action, perhaps more than it is a matter of anything else.

we found out..if you took undergraduates into a lab and you sort of motivated them to cheat, if there was a picture of someone staring at them on the wall, they're much less likely to cheat.

the only thing that distinguishes the average person from hitler is that hitler was an organizational genius.  that's the distinction, it's not the bloody motivation, it's the ability.  there's no shortage of tyrants in families.

..and redemption.

what are we doing here?

continual minor adjustments as a consequence of paying attention

why does god want burnt lamb smoke?

if what you're aiming at is of sufficient profundity, it's worth an awful lot of misery to participate in the process of bringing it about.

the redeemer takes on the sins of the world.  what does that mean?  well it means all human beings are nazis, and human beings are the maoist red guard, and human beings are the slaughterers in rwanda.  and you're all human beings.  and so to take on the sins of the world means to realize that all those things that characterize the human capacity to turn earth into hell characterize you.  and that in order to live properly you have to live in a manner that addresses those elements of your nature.  and again, that's a terrible responsibility.  well first of all, who wants to admit that.  second of all, who can stand looking at it.  and third, who's going to take on the burden of solving it.  well it better be all of us, or we're just going to keep doing it.  so redemption, what does it mean?  it means we're not in a state of grace.

i believe that what is outlined in narrative form in the new testament is psychologically correct.  i believe that the idea that endless microdeath and renewal produces a state of proper adaptation to being, and that the prerequisites for that that are laid out in the narrative structure that underlies the new testament are fundamentally correct.  so to be redeemed is to aim at the highest value.  to sacrifice what's no longer useful and valid in yourself.  and to tell the truth.  and the consequence of that is existence in a deep state of meaning that justifies the tragedy of being, and the possibility of transforming your own life in the most beneficial positive direction while simultaneously doing that for the people around you.  and that's redemption.


grew up in this public use microdata area.

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