The Man in the Middle

A great theological scholar and leader of men once enunciated a universal truth. Not having heard it directly from him, I cannot know if he meant it as a guiding principle in life or if it was an offhand remark. He was, presumably, addressing an issue of either religious devotion or social behavior. This is what he said:

"Everyone thinks he's in the middle."

When I first heard it, it struck me as merely insightful, but on further reflection and after mulling it over a while, I came to regard it as one of the truest, most universally applicable principles ever uttered. It covers a world of disciplines; mental health, criminality, religiosity, humanity, social interaction to name but a few.

No two people think exactly alike so society has, over the years, had to define acceptable and unacceptable in human interactions. What divides "normal" from really "crazy?"

People have an endless capacity for rationalizing their actions. A petty thief can point to Bernie Madoff as a real thief and to honest people as preachers' sons. A whirling dervish in the sands of Sudan can look at Al Qaida or the Ikwan as really extreme and at the Lebanese as functinoally infidels. The term "lunatic fringe" has been applied to organizations of which I am or have been a member but I can point to many other groups that are way more lunatic than mine. The list goes on. Possibly, Bernie Madoff can point to others in history that caused, qualitatively, more damage than he did.

Standards of morality, standards of honesty, standards of piety, standards of ethics, all cover a very broad range. Society has developed yardsticks for truly extreme behavior and most people will subscribe to this benchmark. But the guy out on the edge doesn't really think he's there. He's the man in the middle.

I'm constantly reminded that people see themselves in a mirror of their own making. You wouldn't recognize the person I think I am or the person you think you are if you ever met up with him/her.

The extreme person you see when you meet me is only a figment of your distorted imagination. The same one that imagines yourself as the soul of moderation.

We're all in the middle.

Happy Birthday & Thank You Readers

Only three more days and the Good Doctor will be a year old. Its amazing how time flies and how things can change so quickly in the course of a year. ( geese come, geese leave, geese return, etc.) So as I take a moment and reflect on the past year ( ..... Ok, done.) Soupeater and I would just like to thank all of you who have followed, commented, praised, criticized, challenged and made this part year fun and exciting.

Keep reading and commenting, for if we write and no one reads it, does it make a sound in the blogsphere?

Pyotr Ilyich You've Made it Big

Last night in the 8PM (EDT) hour, 3 of the 6 classical music stations I listen to, one in Minnesota, one in New York and one in Los Angeles were playing works by Tchaikovsky. It wasn't his birthday nor was it his death day and I couldn't find any explanation for the phenomenon. I don't believe in coincidences.

I wish I thought of it....

I heard a truly great expression in court this week. I was talking to a legal aid attorney and he mentioned that he doesn't care for a particular landlord attorney. He gave me an example of a line that the attorney had used on him which indicated the landlord attorney's callousness. The line was,

"You could give aspirin a headache"

Brilliant. I will have to use it. However, to make the legal aid attorney feel a little better, I told him it could have been worse, he could have said

"You could give EXCEDRIN a headache!"

Out, Out, darned snowflake

As the political season heats up, I feel compelled to at least weigh in or certain issues of the day. I will endeavor to be short and entertaining, and promise to get back to the geese and other issues after November.

Last night I heard two very interesting pieces on the news. The first is that there is a new law in New Jersey, courtesy of that failed governor, that it is now illegal to drive with snow on your car. The blurb on the news did not indicate how much snow shall constitute a violation, and knowing the past history about giving New Jersey cops discretion ( pulling over people because they are black) i shudder to think of how this will play out. I can see it now, 50 cars lined up just past the state line on the Palisades Parkway with a bit of snow caught in the groove where the wipers sit. Or hour long backups on the new Jersey bound bridges and tunnels because Fort Lee or Hoboken have to close their budget, and they are pulling over everyone coming over the bridge or out of the tunnel.

Way to go Corzine, keep it up, and you won't be able to get elected to a school board.


The second item is an interview that is being promoted on WCBS with some Israeli author who is touting the wonderful advantages of the Israeli health care system. Now anyone who has ever had to deal with the Israeli health care system knows what an absolute disaster it is. I am convinced that if airfare was around $300 instead of $1,000, every kid in Israel with even the sniffles would come home to be treated.

However, in the days King Obama, I am not surprised that a "news" outlet with a clear liberal bent in its language and reporting like WCBS is pushing this. I am just surprised that WINS hasn't gotten a hold of this yet.

If you value your liberties folks, speak up now or all will be lost.

Gas, Wind, and then, Solid Waste

Here's a copy of a letter I just sent to our State Senator, Thomas P. Morahan.

The Hon. Senator Thomas Morahan
Room 606 Legislative Office Building
Albany, New York 12247

Dear Senator Morahan

I just received my monthly invoice from Orange and Rockland utilities which included a small separately printed notice that the law requires electricity suppliers to inform their customers of the sources of their electricity (solid waste, wind, gas, etc) and the amount of their emissions relative to others in the state.

How can the Senate and the Assembly allow such wasteful and expensive nonsense to prevail as established law?

It costs money to print and to transport these notices, and it costs money to gather the required information. And who do you think is going to pay for all this? The utilities are a business and whatever it costs them to operate will be included in the price to their customers.

And for what purpose? I buy the cheapest electricity I can find, to provide light and comfort for myself and my family and I couldn't care less if the electricity comes from the pristine rays of the sun or from the methane produced by the flatulence of an elephant in the zoo. I am sure about 99% of electricity purchasers in this state feel the same.

Alfred Would Turn Over in his Grave

I guess the good doctor preempted me in commenting on the Nobel committee's latest eye poke to reason and sanity. Here is my take.

At least till now, the committee could only be held up to allegations of cynicism and political meddling, but now they must be held up to public ridicule.

Peace Prize or Booby Prize?

"Scrap the Nobel Peace Prize," foreign affairs commentator Bronwen Maddox wrote in The Times of London. "It's an embarrassment and even an impediment to peace. President Obama, in letting the committee award it to him, has made himself look vain, a fool and dangerously lost in his own mystique."

The above quote pretty much sums it up, folks. I will leave it at that for now.

Please try not to kill the patient

I know that I have been quite remiss in writing lately, but I have been busy with the Holidays ( as surmised at by Soupeater) and have not really had much to rant about ( prescient once again, Soupy!)

Until recently.

As many of you know, I am an EMT who is part of a volunteer EMS organization.

I was in Court last Thursday. As I was meandering the halls trying to track down other lawyers to finish my cases, I saw an older woman being escorted out of a courtroom by an officer and assisted in sitting down outside of the room. She appeared to be having some medical issue that involved the use of an inhaler. I asked the officer if he had called the EMTs and he informed me that everything was under control and I should step away.

So I did, but I didn't go far. I had no equipment on me, and without going into detail, I didn't think it was appropriate at that point for me to step in. Eventually, the officers who are purportedly EMTs did show up, and leisurely went about assessing the patient. I again offered my services to help, but was once again rebuffed. The pace that they were working is not one that I would approve of, and I felt a long time passed from when they got there until they actually put oxygen on the patient, but it was not my scene.

However, it got me thinking.

A few years ago I was asked what the purpose is for the volunteer EMS organization that I am a part of if there is a "perfectly good" EMS system in place. So the quick answer is no one does it the same way as our organization, which uses embedded members of the community. But more importantly, I can prove my point be an example. A call comes out 530 in the morning for difficulty breathing, and within 10 minutes you have three EMTs, two medics and an ambulance, as well as a breathing treatment along with the oxygen already initiated. That's the difference. A level of caring and zeal not seen in the EMS services or by other in house EMTs.

Hopefully, no one should need it, but it is nice to know that the organization is there.