Well, I was pretty sure that I would have something to say about who Obama picked for VP by now, but he still hasn't announced who it is so I'll have to wait. This is despite the rumors I heard that he would announce to his supporters via text message on Tuesday. And then the rumors that he would announce that way today. And now rumors that he'll announce via text tomorrow. So I'm going to stop holding my breath, at least until Saturday when he's announced that he will be speaking WITH his VP candidate, so that should be a little more definite than rumors.
Still, the pick has been pretty much set by now. First off, the short list is down to about three candidates, and two of those have been all but eliminated. First off, senator Evan Bayh from Indiana. Despite being a trendy pick for most of July, and coming from a state that is surprisingly this year an important battleground state, there has been a very dull reaction whenever the Bayh balloon has been floated. Progressives and anti-war groups dislike him for his participation in the Iraq War group that recommended that the senate approve the Iraq War resolution. (Which of course technically wasn't a war authorization, but I don't want to drift off track.) Then there's former governor of Virginia Tim Kaine. Again, someone who would give Obama a boost in a state that typically isn't in play for the democratic candidate, and another crafty pick. However, speculation is that since the VP pick will be speaking Wednesday night, and on Tuesday the current governor of Virginia will be speaking, they won't schedule two Virginians in a row. I know that makes ABSOLUTELY no common sense, but this is politics, and is as over-thought as events get. But the real reason that I believe that neither of these two will be the VP pick is that it's been leaked that both of their surrogate teams have received word from the Obama camp that they will NOT be the pick.
So who does this leave us with? Well, surprisingly, we're lead back to Sen. Joe Biden. I have a lot to say about picking Joe Biden for VP, but I think I'll save it until he's actually the pick, and not just who I speculate will be picked.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
Recognizing the Exhibitionists
When I was younger I was something of a big reader, but ever since TV and the internet atrophied my attention span to near-goldfish status I haven't been going through as many. Lately though the monotony of my job has afforded me plenty of down time to get a lot more reading in. I never used to have to pause at the end of every page to investigate every shiny object stuck in the corner of the room, but I get by. If I ever sit down with a serious literary work though I'll have to order some adderall from Mexico.
Ok, so let me wrest the tangent from my mercurial focus. (SYNONYMS!) I've been reading the book Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut, and I came across a passage that I really enjoyed, and that got me thinking. In this passage the main character of the book is talking about his artistic talents and the sense that he was born to paint. He imagines the feeling of being born to do something is a leftover from a time when people lived in much smaller groups.
"That's what I think. And of course a scheme like that doesn't make sense anymore, because simply moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world's champions.
"The entire planet can get along nicely now with maybe a dozen champion performers in each area of human giftedness. A moderately gifted person has to keep his or her gifts all bottled up until, in a manner of speaking, he or she gets drunk at a wedding and tap-dances on the coffee table like Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. We have a name for him or her. We call him or her an 'exhibitionist.'"
"How do we reward such an exhibitionist? We say to him or her the next morning, 'Wow! Were you ever drunk last night!'"
And there are millions of amateur singers, writers, and athletes out there that feel that same way. It's pretty coincidental that I happened to read this at the time when the Olympics are going on. There are probably a dozen swimmers that are right now thinking "I could sure be something special if it wasn't for that damned Michael Phelps." In a way, I think that the apparent desperation for a glimmer of fame or recognition shown in stories like these is another extension of the exhibitionism Vonnegut writes about in this passage. Of course he (or his character), couldn't have anticipated how much the internet would open up an avenue for these forms of "self-expression".
Although that's not what is happening in this particular case. There's a huge difference between a person who has a talent so unrecognized and pent up that they post themselves on youtube, and a jackass just seeking his 15 seconds of fame. (thanks again to the internet, we can only expect 15 seconds of fame now) Unfortunately the media these days chooses rather to recognize the jackasses. Not that it's their fault, we're the ones that keep clicking on jackass content. But we shouldn't. We should reward people with our attention that deserve it, not people who are willing to prostitute themselves. And so just because I feel like making things a little more right in the world, and since I think we can agree that all of us exhibitionists deserved a little recognition once in a while, and a little recognition should be paid to the fact that we can all do SOMETHING well.... here is a clip of a random guy's talent from you-tube. He may or may not be drunk, we can never be sure.
OK, I admit some selfishness here, this is one of my favorite internet clips of all time. If I wanted to stay true to my point I probably should have posted someone juggling or playing guitar. You know, something marginally more useful.
- Also, I have no understanding at all of copyright law, but just to reiterate, the above quote was from the book Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut, and definitely not something I'm capable of writing myself.
Ok, so let me wrest the tangent from my mercurial focus. (SYNONYMS!) I've been reading the book Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut, and I came across a passage that I really enjoyed, and that got me thinking. In this passage the main character of the book is talking about his artistic talents and the sense that he was born to paint. He imagines the feeling of being born to do something is a leftover from a time when people lived in much smaller groups.
"That's what I think. And of course a scheme like that doesn't make sense anymore, because simply moderate giftedness has been made worthless by the printing press and radio and television and satellites and all that. A moderately gifted person who would have been a community treasure a thousand years ago has to give up, has to go into some other line of work, since modern communications put him or her into daily competition with nothing but world's champions.
"The entire planet can get along nicely now with maybe a dozen champion performers in each area of human giftedness. A moderately gifted person has to keep his or her gifts all bottled up until, in a manner of speaking, he or she gets drunk at a wedding and tap-dances on the coffee table like Fred Astaire or Ginger Rogers. We have a name for him or her. We call him or her an 'exhibitionist.'"
"How do we reward such an exhibitionist? We say to him or her the next morning, 'Wow! Were you ever drunk last night!'"
And there are millions of amateur singers, writers, and athletes out there that feel that same way. It's pretty coincidental that I happened to read this at the time when the Olympics are going on. There are probably a dozen swimmers that are right now thinking "I could sure be something special if it wasn't for that damned Michael Phelps." In a way, I think that the apparent desperation for a glimmer of fame or recognition shown in stories like these is another extension of the exhibitionism Vonnegut writes about in this passage. Of course he (or his character), couldn't have anticipated how much the internet would open up an avenue for these forms of "self-expression".
Although that's not what is happening in this particular case. There's a huge difference between a person who has a talent so unrecognized and pent up that they post themselves on youtube, and a jackass just seeking his 15 seconds of fame. (thanks again to the internet, we can only expect 15 seconds of fame now) Unfortunately the media these days chooses rather to recognize the jackasses. Not that it's their fault, we're the ones that keep clicking on jackass content. But we shouldn't. We should reward people with our attention that deserve it, not people who are willing to prostitute themselves. And so just because I feel like making things a little more right in the world, and since I think we can agree that all of us exhibitionists deserved a little recognition once in a while, and a little recognition should be paid to the fact that we can all do SOMETHING well.... here is a clip of a random guy's talent from you-tube. He may or may not be drunk, we can never be sure.
OK, I admit some selfishness here, this is one of my favorite internet clips of all time. If I wanted to stay true to my point I probably should have posted someone juggling or playing guitar. You know, something marginally more useful.
- Also, I have no understanding at all of copyright law, but just to reiterate, the above quote was from the book Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut, and definitely not something I'm capable of writing myself.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
The beginning of the end of the race
This video may be a bit over the top, but that doesn't make the warnings it presents untrue.
The general election is now only about 11 weeks away. (yes, I had to look that up.) That means no more procrastinating. I'm going to have to use this space to tell anyone who reads this why they should vote for Barack Obama instead of John McCain. The problem is that most people I know are already going to vote for Barack, so hopefully my "reporting" will convince you to be more active in influencing the people that YOU know to vote for Obama. There's much to come, and first I'm going to address the offshore drilling issue since it's just starting to die out of the news cycle. But for now, enjoy the horrific video, it's gonna be a contentious and vitriolic fall, people.
Also, btw, the estimate of iraqi civilians killed in the video is ABSURDLY low. Some estimates have it in the hundreds of thousands, not to mention the several million injured and/or displaced from their homes.
Friday, August 8, 2008
The season
It's really too late into the political season for me to not be updating this blog. I really want to help people stay informed, so now my commitment is to update this thing at least twice a week. I apologize in advance for the fact that I won't be able to provide as much research and as many references, but hopefully you all trust me enough not to make shit up. And hopefully you know better than to take someone at their word when they say something like that, and will do the research on your own :)
That said, since I have no time to write anything now (I have to be at work in 6.5 hours, on a saturday) I've decided to post up a few things I've written while drunk. For drunk ramblings, I actually kinda like them. I can see where Hemingway was coming from. (spelling has not been corrected, for authenticities sake)
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It's been theorized that religion arises from our attempts to interpret the intentions behind acts that had no councious actor. A key step in the evolutionary processes that led to our building bi-planes was the ability to understand the intentions of another conciousness. If you put a two year old in a room with a man who is unable to reach an object, but who looks at the object incessintly, the two year old will recognize that the man wants the object, and offer the object to the man. If you show a two year old a man turning on a light switch with his nose, the child will repeat what they see and turn the light switch on with their nose. If the man turns on the light switch with his nose while his hands are full, the two year old will recognize that the mans intention is to turn on the light switch, not necesarilly with his nose, but since his hands are full he is using his nose, and they will turn on the switch with their hand. Our ancestors saw great actions occuring around them all the time, and because their brains were hard-wired through natural selection to attribute occurances to the intentions of concious actors, they felt that the sun rose and set because someone meant it to rise and set.
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sometimes it's better to just let things go. like when you have to fart but then hold on just long enough to get somewhere you can let one rip without people hearing, but when you get there it's gone. you could get it out if you squeezed hard enough, but nothings worth ruining your new underwear.
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Introspection comes from sources of great inspiration, great jealousy, and great sorrow alike. They awaken yearnings, needs, and convictions that we often ignore for lack of our own ability to satisfy them. Those are not the times that define your life. You can't live your life in those moments. You can't live a life composed of those moments. It's in those moments that you define the laws/ that you live by. The conclusions reached in those moments guide the infinitude of decisions contemplated day by day. The goals, the dreams, the values, the that you live by are decided in those moments. Each new moment is an opportunity for creation, for revision, for new life. These moments, ruined by pragmatism, are nothing less ephereal than inspiration, and can be as inconsequential if not captured. Our lives are not decided in the decisions that we agonize over, but rather in the minutiae that fills our lives, that reveals our character. The momentum we create through habit and through blind chance becomes us, and can only be changed in these self-reflective moments.
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So enjoy these while they're up, there's a 90% chance they'll be taken down due to embarrassment within the week.
That said, since I have no time to write anything now (I have to be at work in 6.5 hours, on a saturday) I've decided to post up a few things I've written while drunk. For drunk ramblings, I actually kinda like them. I can see where Hemingway was coming from. (spelling has not been corrected, for authenticities sake)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
It's been theorized that religion arises from our attempts to interpret the intentions behind acts that had no councious actor. A key step in the evolutionary processes that led to our building bi-planes was the ability to understand the intentions of another conciousness. If you put a two year old in a room with a man who is unable to reach an object, but who looks at the object incessintly, the two year old will recognize that the man wants the object, and offer the object to the man. If you show a two year old a man turning on a light switch with his nose, the child will repeat what they see and turn the light switch on with their nose. If the man turns on the light switch with his nose while his hands are full, the two year old will recognize that the mans intention is to turn on the light switch, not necesarilly with his nose, but since his hands are full he is using his nose, and they will turn on the switch with their hand. Our ancestors saw great actions occuring around them all the time, and because their brains were hard-wired through natural selection to attribute occurances to the intentions of concious actors, they felt that the sun rose and set because someone meant it to rise and set.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
sometimes it's better to just let things go. like when you have to fart but then hold on just long enough to get somewhere you can let one rip without people hearing, but when you get there it's gone. you could get it out if you squeezed hard enough, but nothings worth ruining your new underwear.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Introspection comes from sources of great inspiration, great jealousy, and great sorrow alike. They awaken yearnings, needs, and convictions that we often ignore for lack of our own ability to satisfy them. Those are not the times that define your life. You can't live your life in those moments. You can't live a life composed of those moments. It's in those moments that you define the laws/ that you live by. The conclusions reached in those moments guide the infinitude of decisions contemplated day by day. The goals, the dreams, the values, the that you live by are decided in those moments. Each new moment is an opportunity for creation, for revision, for new life. These moments, ruined by pragmatism, are nothing less ephereal than inspiration, and can be as inconsequential if not captured. Our lives are not decided in the decisions that we agonize over, but rather in the minutiae that fills our lives, that reveals our character. The momentum we create through habit and through blind chance becomes us, and can only be changed in these self-reflective moments.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
So enjoy these while they're up, there's a 90% chance they'll be taken down due to embarrassment within the week.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Debate
Here are a few excerpts from an e-mail exchange I've been having with a pretty successful political cartoonist name Chuck Asay. While I disagree with just about every cartoon the guy puts out, I've had exchanges with him in the past, and he's not only been polite and willing to respond but also very fair about the points I make and more than willing to explain his own points of view. I've always found it fascinating to talk to somebody that views the world so differently, and I thought a few pieces of this particular exchange were interesting in how they show differences between your standard "liberal" vs. "conservative" thought process, even when we agree on the main issue.
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From e-mail #1, me to Mr. Asay:
"Dear Mr. Asay,I find it utterly unbelievable that you would choose to feature Sen. Dodd and Sen. Frank in your latest cartoon about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bail-out when the plan has been enthusiastically endorsed by the president himself! Save for a very small handful of libertarian leaning politicians, the basic idea is agreed upon by EVERYONE. And of course, the reason for the whole crisis, which was increased risky lending, was brought about because of deregulation by REPUBLICANS in congress! Of course whenever you address any problem that arises from congress, ... the blame lies with 'Congress' as a whole entity. It's convenient of course to blame congress now that it's democratically controlled while ignoring the fact that the problem originated in a congress that had a republican majority and was endorsed and facilitated by the president. It amazes me how you can find a way to blame democrats for EVERYTHING."
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E-mail #2, Mr. Asay to me:
"Dear Rich, Thanks for your e-mail. ... I think our basic difference might be found in how we view our government. I see it as a Republic. You might see it as a Democracy. You mention in your e-mail that there is a consensus, including the President himself, that a taxpayer bailout of Fannie and Freddie is in order. It could be. I do understand some institutions are 'too big to fail'. ... I see truth applying to individuals, not groups. If I buy a home or take some other risk, I think the consequences should fall on me not you. I've attached a cartoon I like, which demonstrates this view. I've been reading the Wall Street Journal editorial pages for many years now. They have been sounding the alarm of the risk to taxpayers of Fannie and Freddie for many years now. It has gone unnoticed. As recently as two weeks ago, both Barney Frank and Chris Dodd have been saying the two huge semi-government institutions are sound. Now it appears they need help. ... I think Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are worse than George Bush and John McCain on most issues because they seem to have different world-views. Democrats tend toward collective solutions. Republicans, though flawed, tend toward solutions based on Truth...which is not determined by our collective views, in poll-testing or a vote. That's why you see me being more critical of Democrats than I am of Republicans. ... "
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E-mail #3 - me to Mr. Asay again:
" ... I feel I gave the impression that I think the bail-out is a good thing. Quite the opposite I'm incensed that tax payers have to save these companies from the burden they've brought upon themselves. What I gather from reading your e-mail is that what we disagree about is how to prevent problems like this in the future, or how this should have been prevented. I imagine you would suggest that by letting companies go under when they fail, other companies will be discouraged from taking on too much risk. I believe that in the case of a company whose survival is this important to the American economy, the government must regulate how much risk they can assume. That is the reason that I blame republicans for this crisis, because it was the deregulation of lenders that brought this about. ... As to your point about individuals, I feel that the bail out is also necessary to protect innocent individuals. These institutions are larger than just the decision makers that got them into this mess, and many homeowners have their fortunes tied up in what happens to them. These people aren't the ones that took the risk, and they were misled about how safe their investments were. To me that's what government regulation is all about, protecting people from the greed of others. ... My last point is that while I completely agree with you criticizing the bail-out, I find that you singling out democratic congressmen is unfair because of the reasons I've gone into. While they're certainly not without some blame (in my mind mostly for being complicit), they're not the only ones to blame, and shouldn't be treated as such."
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E-mail #4 - Mr. Asay to me once again:
"Rich, Thanks for your reply. We agree on many things...however, I think "Buyer Beware" is a better rule of thumb to protect people from their folly than the idea that it's the Government's job is to protect us from the greed of others. That's asking Government to do more than it should be doing. I've attached a cartoon here which I sent out yesterday which speaks to that point. I think Government should oversee contracts but when we ask our representatives to define, "greed", that's another matter. Greed if a subjective concept. Paul Gigot has an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal today which gives some background on Freddie and Fannie. If you get a chance to read it, I'd be interested in your take on his view. Thanks again. Chuck"
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This is so far the extent of the exchange and it may be for this issue, though I fully intend to e-mail him with disagreements in the future. Me, I think that this is the kind of exchange that people should be having with each other when it comes to politics. Too often acrimony renders us unable not just to concede any point to another opinion, but even to understand it. That's another reason that I started this blog, I want to have these kinds of conversations more often. Now let's see if I can get back into the swing of things :)
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From e-mail #1, me to Mr. Asay:
"Dear Mr. Asay,I find it utterly unbelievable that you would choose to feature Sen. Dodd and Sen. Frank in your latest cartoon about the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bail-out when the plan has been enthusiastically endorsed by the president himself! Save for a very small handful of libertarian leaning politicians, the basic idea is agreed upon by EVERYONE. And of course, the reason for the whole crisis, which was increased risky lending, was brought about because of deregulation by REPUBLICANS in congress! Of course whenever you address any problem that arises from congress, ... the blame lies with 'Congress' as a whole entity. It's convenient of course to blame congress now that it's democratically controlled while ignoring the fact that the problem originated in a congress that had a republican majority and was endorsed and facilitated by the president. It amazes me how you can find a way to blame democrats for EVERYTHING."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail #2, Mr. Asay to me:
"Dear Rich, Thanks for your e-mail. ... I think our basic difference might be found in how we view our government. I see it as a Republic. You might see it as a Democracy. You mention in your e-mail that there is a consensus, including the President himself, that a taxpayer bailout of Fannie and Freddie is in order. It could be. I do understand some institutions are 'too big to fail'. ... I see truth applying to individuals, not groups. If I buy a home or take some other risk, I think the consequences should fall on me not you. I've attached a cartoon I like, which demonstrates this view. I've been reading the Wall Street Journal editorial pages for many years now. They have been sounding the alarm of the risk to taxpayers of Fannie and Freddie for many years now. It has gone unnoticed. As recently as two weeks ago, both Barney Frank and Chris Dodd have been saying the two huge semi-government institutions are sound. Now it appears they need help. ... I think Barney Frank and Chris Dodd are worse than George Bush and John McCain on most issues because they seem to have different world-views. Democrats tend toward collective solutions. Republicans, though flawed, tend toward solutions based on Truth...which is not determined by our collective views, in poll-testing or a vote. That's why you see me being more critical of Democrats than I am of Republicans. ... "
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail #3 - me to Mr. Asay again:
" ... I feel I gave the impression that I think the bail-out is a good thing. Quite the opposite I'm incensed that tax payers have to save these companies from the burden they've brought upon themselves. What I gather from reading your e-mail is that what we disagree about is how to prevent problems like this in the future, or how this should have been prevented. I imagine you would suggest that by letting companies go under when they fail, other companies will be discouraged from taking on too much risk. I believe that in the case of a company whose survival is this important to the American economy, the government must regulate how much risk they can assume. That is the reason that I blame republicans for this crisis, because it was the deregulation of lenders that brought this about. ... As to your point about individuals, I feel that the bail out is also necessary to protect innocent individuals. These institutions are larger than just the decision makers that got them into this mess, and many homeowners have their fortunes tied up in what happens to them. These people aren't the ones that took the risk, and they were misled about how safe their investments were. To me that's what government regulation is all about, protecting people from the greed of others. ... My last point is that while I completely agree with you criticizing the bail-out, I find that you singling out democratic congressmen is unfair because of the reasons I've gone into. While they're certainly not without some blame (in my mind mostly for being complicit), they're not the only ones to blame, and shouldn't be treated as such."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
E-mail #4 - Mr. Asay to me once again:
"Rich, Thanks for your reply. We agree on many things...however, I think "Buyer Beware" is a better rule of thumb to protect people from their folly than the idea that it's the Government's job is to protect us from the greed of others. That's asking Government to do more than it should be doing. I've attached a cartoon here which I sent out yesterday which speaks to that point. I think Government should oversee contracts but when we ask our representatives to define, "greed", that's another matter. Greed if a subjective concept. Paul Gigot has an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal today which gives some background on Freddie and Fannie. If you get a chance to read it, I'd be interested in your take on his view. Thanks again. Chuck"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is so far the extent of the exchange and it may be for this issue, though I fully intend to e-mail him with disagreements in the future. Me, I think that this is the kind of exchange that people should be having with each other when it comes to politics. Too often acrimony renders us unable not just to concede any point to another opinion, but even to understand it. That's another reason that I started this blog, I want to have these kinds of conversations more often. Now let's see if I can get back into the swing of things :)
Friday, June 6, 2008
End of hiatus celebration
I've been meaning to post again for so long. My hand is working fine again and there's so much I want to write about but I now find myself with so much less than an adequate amount of time to sit down and write something. I figure though that if I just post something it will encourage me to get back in the habit. So here you go, my two favorite things from the internet today. I promise though I'll get back to writing original material soon :)
Bird surfing
toothpastefordinner.com
Bird surfing
toothpastefordinner.com
Saturday, April 12, 2008
news to come...
Old people do not understand the internet...
I know this is seriously random, I do have actual news that's worth writing and I will soon. But the left hand is still slowly on the path to healing so I don't have the patience for it tonight.
I know this is seriously random, I do have actual news that's worth writing and I will soon. But the left hand is still slowly on the path to healing so I don't have the patience for it tonight.
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