Today’s Visit to the St. Louis Zoo

From a visit to the St. Louis Zoo today. The convoluted photo is THREE underwater hippos and dozens of cichlids. It was overcast and in the 40s, which made it a perfect day to see animals and avoid crowds. The zoo is always a good option for walking and photography - it's about five miles from my house and admission is free (it is supported with a dedicated tax).  Whenever I sleep, I'm sleeping within five miles of lions, tigers and bears and hippos and many other animals of which I don't know their names. When my daughters were small, we often went to the zoo. It is now clear that I wasn't going there solely for the benefit of my daughters . . .

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British High Court Rules in Favor of Keira Bell: Restricts Use of Puberty Blockers and Cross-Sex Hormones

I applaud this recent decision by the British High Court, reported by The Guardian:

Children under the age of 16 considering gender reassignment are unlikely to be mature enough to give informed consent to be prescribed puberty-blocking drugs, the high court has ruled.

Even in cases involving teenagers under 18 doctors may need to consult the courts for authorisation for medical intervention, three senior judges have ruled in an action brought against the Tavistock and Portman NHS trust, which runs the UK’s main gender identity development service for children.

An NHS spokesperson welcomed the “clarity” the decision had brought, adding: “The Tavistock have immediately suspended new referrals for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the under 16s, which in future will only be permitted where a court specifically authorises it. Dr Hilary Cass is conducting a wider review on the future of gender identity services.”

Now it's time to stop this mass child abuse on this side of the pond too, given that most girls move from "puberty blockers" to taking 10 to 40 times the natural female amount of testosterone, usually leading to infertility. How did it get to the point where the once-vocal anti-clitoridectomy crowd got so quiet when something comparable comes to our own communities? 12, 13, 14 and 15 year old girls have been allowed to make permanent "decisions" of this sort, without the need for any official medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria.

Instead of getting real diagnoses, they are cheer-led into drugs, hormones and surgery through social media, peer pressure and even Planned Parenthood (which supplies testosterone to many of these girls. All of this under the guise of "civil rights." The "decisions" of these girls to use "puberty blockers" are being made without the benefit of long-term studies as to dangers, physical and psychological. It's about time we got real adults into this conversation. There is a LOT of buyer's remorse out there, but it's being suppressed by left-leaning news media (you can find hundreds of cases on Reddit/detransition), It makes me wonder when the lawsuits will start flying over here. [More . . . ]

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About Mozart’s Symphony No. 1 in Eb Major

I just finished listening to Mozart's Symphony No. 1 in Eb Major for the first time. It's a very nice piece of music with some notable flourishes. Oh . . . and perhaps you don't know this (I didn't): Mozart was 8 years old when he wrote this symphony. This leads me to ask myself: "How is this possible?"  I have no answers.  It seems impossible. Here's the first page of the handwritten manuscript written by 8-year old Mozart:

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Sam Harris Explores the Global Epidemic of Child Sexual Abuse

In his introduction to "The Worst Epidemic," Sam Harris warns that the subject matter might be difficult for listeners. The topic is the global epidemic of child sexual abuse involving children as young as one year old. Sam is joined by Gabriel Dance, a NYT reporter who has thoroughly investigated this issue. Until I forced myself to listen, I had assumed that this predatory behavior was relatively rare, but I was shocked to learn that sexual predators have exploited every corner of the Internet. To illustrate, Dance mentions that law enforcement experts estimate that of the 9 million citizens of New Jersey, 400,000 have been exposed to these highly illegal images and videos, some of this exposure being inadvertent, but much of it being intentional. It makes you wonder who we are, as a nation, that so many among us are willing to torture children. The tragedy is widespread, making the technical challenges and law enforcement needs overwhelming.

As a public service, Sam has put this episode in front of his paywall. The topic spirals in many directions, including the misleading concept of “child pornography,” the failure of governments and tech companies to grapple with the problem, the tradeoff between online privacy and protecting children, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, photo DNA, the roles played by specific tech companies, the ethics of encryption, “sextortion,” and the culture of pedophiles.

I am proud to say that I have been a paid subscriber of Making Sense for years. Sam Harris does a great job of exploring complex and oftentimes thorny issues unflinchingly, week after week.  From Sam's About Page:

His writing and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality—but generally focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live.

If you are unfamiliar with the work of Sam Harris, I invite you to listen to this Episode, or any Episodes of Making Sense.

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Where Did That Time Go?

What's a good way to spend an evening? Watching "The Pentagon Papers" (Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks) and discussing the history and legalities of this excellent film with a college student named Charlotte Vieth. Nineteen years ago I was helping baby Charlotte to take her first steps and introducing her to ice cream. Somehow, it has now come to this very different sort of activity. It makes me think of that common lament of parents: "The time goes so fast." Yes, indeed, it has, regarding both of my daughters (Charlotte and her big sister, JuJu Vieth). Luckily, we have lots of photos to prove that those intervening years actually happened, year by year.

Now the passing of time no longer clicks by in seconds, but in semesters and quarters in Chicago and Denver. Whenever I get to welcome home my adult-children after they've put in several months of hard work, these are not merely satisfying times. I don't think life gets any better.

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