Saturday Miscellany

First, naturally, as the proprietor of a blog called “Had Enough Therapy?” I was totally intrigued by a New York Times article on therapy ruts.

I have to admit that my concept is largely more concise and articulate than is that of the Times. But, what did you expect?

The Times sums it up:

There are many reasons a rut can happen, the experts said:

• You’ve made as much progress as you can in therapy at this time.

• You would benefit from a different therapist or approach.

• You need a new therapy goal.

• You don’t need sessions as frequently as you did in the past.

• Your expectations aren’t aligned with those of your therapist.

• You’re not ready to explore past trauma or a difficult issue.

According to the army of experts collected by the Times, therapy should teach you new coping skills or give you a better understanding of your problem.

It recommends that you speak up and express your dissatisfaction

But if after three or four sessions you feel like you haven’t learned any new coping skills or gained a better understanding of your problem, then it’s time to speak up, either during the session or in an email.

One remarks that this is clearly directed to relationships between women. How many men do you know who want to develop more coping skills?

Second, from Cillian, remarks by Italy’s Prime Minister, Georgia Meloni:

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni: “The Left predicted that I would destroy Italy, but they were wrong. Employment is at a Record High, our Economy is Growing, Illegal Immigration has decreased by 60%, and we are expanding freedom in every aspect of Italians’ lives.”

Third, just in case you were looking for another reason to hate DEI programs, consider the situation of a high school student by name of Stanley Zhong. The New York Post reports:

Stanley Zhong was a near perfect college applicant.

Out of the more than two million kids who take the SAT annually, he’s one of roughly 2,000 to score a 1590 or higher.

His high school GPA was a 4.42 on a 4.0 scale. He even had an offer in hand to work a PhD level job at Google before graduating high school.

Stanley, who intended to study computer science, also managed his own startup, e-document signature platform Rabbit-Sign, while still a high schooler.

By anyone’s expectations the Palo Alto, Calif., teen should have been Harvard or MIT bound. And yet Stanley, now 19, was met with disappointment after disappointment in 2023 when college admissions letters started trickling in.

In fairness, Zhong was accepted by the University of Texas and the University of Maryland.

But, the story has a happy ending. He might not have been good enough for the nation’s top universities, but Zhong was good enough for Google:

“[Stanley’s admissions] results stand in stark contrast to his receipt of a full-time job offer from Google for a position requiring a PhD degree or equivalent practical experience,” the lawsuit claims. “Stanley’s experience is emblematic of a broader pattern of racial discrimination against highly qualified Asian-American applicants at UC.”

Stanley decided to take up Google’s job offer and has been working as a full-time software engineer since October. Google first tried to recruit him when he was just 13 because his online coding was so advanced the company figured he must be an adult.

Though he hasn’t ruled out college in the future, he’s decided to step back from media attention after facing blowback over his lawsuits on the internet.

“We haven’t seen more cases like Stanley’s, because the kind of open hostility towards Asian students standing up for their rights is unbelievable,” his father said.

Fourth, today’s Democratic Party is circling the drain. It is about to be flushed into oblivion. Think-- the Whigs.

Anyway, Sen. John Fetterman has a few choice remarks, from X, via Newsmax:

A sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance. It only makes [President Donald] Trump look more presidential and restrained.

We're becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to — and it may not be the winning message."

Tuesday, he posted a graphic on his X account showing what he said depicted the increase in illegal immigrant entries into the United States with the comment, "This is when we became the party for chaos. Telling people to invalidate their eyes or experiences and WE LOSE. Equivalent size of Pittsburgh showing up every month at our border was true chaos."

Fifth, Ben Appel reports that the gender cult is trying to make inroads in the mental health profession.

Therapists are being asked to sign a letter telling professional associations to warn “therapy consumers” about a new form of conversion therapy called “Gender Identity Change Efforts (GICEs).”

Now, gender change efforts are being disguised as talk therapy.