Seven Sundry Bloglettes

If you read this blog, you’re probably one of very few people. Nevertheless, sorry I haven’t been posting regularly. I’ve had an eventful summer with these events (not in the order they occurred):

A) We discovered a tiny parasite in my wife’s belly that I’m sure will one day rise to overthrow me and my wicked ways. Or just become my firstborn. Either one.

B) A short story of mine was published. It is included in an anthology you can purchase from amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Worlds-Undead-Stories-Anthology/dp/1935458213/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1252523984&sr=8-3

C) My CD, Big Rig, which I have very slowly begun to advertise on the net, has been made available, which can also be bought on Amazon (among other places, but that’s the cheapest)
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Rig/dp/B002A6O2TC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1252524441&sr=8-3

So anyway,

Here’s just a few bloglettes, numbered from 1 to 6

1) The Film of 2009
If you only see one film this year, it should be “The boy in the Striped Pajamas.” Just go rent it.

2) Health Care
I don’t feel I read enough to generally comment on domestic politics, but I’ll say a word or two this time.

Thomas Sowell, the economist said yesterday:

“One plain fact should outweigh all the words of Barack Obama and all the impressive trappings of the setting in which he says them: He tried to rush Congress into passing a massive government takeover of the nation's medical care before the August recess-- for a program that would not take effect until 2013!
Whatever President Obama is, he is not stupid. If the urgency to pass the medical care legislation was to deal with a problem immediately, then why postpone the date when the legislation goes into effect for years-- more specifically, until the year after the next Presidential election?
If this is such an urgently needed program, why wait for years to put it into effect? And if the public is going to benefit from this, why not let them experience those benefits before the next Presidential election?
If it is not urgent that the legislation goes into effect immediately, then why don't we have time to go through the normal process of holding Congressional hearings on the pros and cons, accompanied by public discussions of its innumerable provisions? What sense does it make to "hurry up and wait" on something that is literally a matter of life and death?”

3) Chicago Politics

My friend Ken Begg, of Chicago told me that in the summer of 2008 Chicago had the highest gas prices of anywhere in the US, and people complained at the pump. So gas stations began posting how much of the exorbitant price went directly to the state of Illinois and how much were taxes for Chicago (they had ten levels of taxation on the gas), and finally how much went to the actually gas station or gas company. It was the taxes that made the prices so high, gaining the majority of the money from the price. So the city of Chicago passed a law stating that you cannot post, as part of the price of gas, how much of that price was taxes! Hurray for Chicago politics!

4) Super Brains and their problem solving skills

On an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force I recently saw, Meatwad developed a gigantic brain. He devoted his brainpower to hilarious hijinks such as telekinesis. Master Fry chided him and asked why he isn’t devoting his unprecedented brainpower to solving the world’s problems such as war, poverty and starvation. The episode was funny, as usual, but, as almost all tv, displays only platitudes and empty morals.

It is not for lack of some unborn super-genius who can show us the solution we have been blind to that the world has problems such as poverty, starvation and war.
There is enough actual food produced in the world to feed all of its inhabitants. Therefore, the solution is not some as yet unfathomable puzzle.
How about poverty? This is almost philosophical as by definition, unless the entire world is egalitarian (which will never happen even in Marx’s wildest dreams) there will be stratification of all societies and the lowest will be labeled “the poor.” For the real reason this is partially meaningless has to do with the fact that much of the societies of the world today contain virtually zero people who are as poor as those a mere two hundred years ago…i.e. the entire world has been rapidly gaining wealth in the previous century. For my detailed explanation on this point, see the blog entitled “The Greatest Political Issue” on September 22, 2008 (Wow, almost a year ago!)
Could Einstein, instead of fleeing for America, have used a superior logical argument to dissuade Hitler from going forth with the Final Solution? How about the insanity of modern anti-Western Islamic Jihadism? If you read even a little bit of their retarded religious rhetoric you will understand why a sound mind could never convince them of their wicked ways.
Let me rephrase all this. These three issues are complicated problems. However, they are not mathematical or scientifics ones. And it will not be through superior intellectual arguments and revelations that will provide the sorely needed solutions. In short, these problems don’t exist because people are stupid, it is because people are evil.
Wherever there is more goodness, there is naturally less of these kinds of problems.

5) Co-workers

My coworker Terence is from Zimbabwe. Mugabe has always been his president since he was born. He grew up thinking, just like many Zimbabwens, that Mugabe is great. He didn’t know until recently that Mugabe, part of the Shona tribe of Zimbabwe (which represents 90% of the nation), attempted to exterminate the 10% Ndebele tribe. His brother was almost shot by the Zimbabwen army when he and his friends found diamonds and were sifting through them. His brother’s friend was shot in the back.
Another co-worker of mine is named Florian. He is from Romania. He fled in the 80’s to come to America because Romania was a horrible communist dictatorship. He told me he fears we are giving too much power to the government and we might become too socialist before it’s too late, when the government will have so much power on so many issues we can do little about it.

Another co-worker of mine is named Miralem. He is awesome because he named his son Alem and then his daughter Alema. He is a Muslim Croat. He grew up in communist Yugoslavia. He came here for the money, but does not like communism (it seems no one who lives under it does).

Another co-worker of mine is Waqar. He is a Muslim from Pakistan. His wife works for the government issuing visas and other immigration and visiting papers. They tell her that she cannot work overtime (not enough money in their coffers), but she does not have enough time (like all those in her position) to give a full background check on people red-flagged because of their name or background (such as Muslims from the Middle East). She wants to quit because she - and her husband, the Muslim from Pakistan - feel that the government isn’t doing enough on this front to keep out possible terrorists. They are tying the hands of those who issue visas by forcing them to meet quotas even when proper research has not been done for a particular individual.

6) Causes vs Behavior

Both the Israels and Palestinians can make certain convincing cases that their cause is just, or more just than the other. It has ever been tricky to determine who is "right." At least for me, though I devote a good amount of time to reading on the subject.

There are two parts to the issue: The causes being fought for; and the behaviors of the two participants.

Disregarding the rightness of either side's cause, the two have not behaved similarly. Anyone without blinders on their eyes who has studied the history of Israel and Palestine for the past entire century and especially into the new millennium will note that the Palestinians, on the whole, have behaved far worse. They are they who have been far more guilty of breaking the cease fires and the treaties, have engaged in the kidnappings, terror tactics, hateful indoctrination of their children and so forth. They are also the ones who have treated their own people horribly. In other words, this is an attack on the Palestinian leadership, not its people per se.

And because the Palestinians have behaved so poorly over the decades, the people in the world who most agree with their ideology and agenda (i.e. the rest of the middle eastern Muslim world) have begun to stop sending so much money and support. The Muslim world is beginning to see that the Palestinian leadership does not keep their word but that the Israelis do. The Muslim world is beginning to see that the Palestinians break cease fires and rig elections and mismanage the economy terribly and that the Israelis do not. This behavior is starting to matter for those people who agree with the Palestinian cause.

And I would argue that even if the Palestinian's cause is the more just (which I'm not saying it necessarily is), the Palestinians are still in the wrong because of their past and current behavior.

To put it simply in a bad analogy, it would be like a man stole your bike and so you chase him down. But instead of just taking back the bike you killed him. Then you went and killed his wife and kids. Then you even threatened people in his neighborhood and perhaps killed a few of them just so that none of them would even consider stealing your bike. Before you killed anyone your cause was just. The theft of your bike was wrong. But what you did as a consequence put you very much in the wrong.

That analogy is not to be taken literally, obviously the bike should not be considered to be analogous to the actual land of Palestine for example. It is just to illustrate the dichotomy between the rightness of one's cause (such as seeking to get back your bike which was stolen) and your behavior in attempting to accomplish your goals regarding your cause (such as extreme vindication and revenge).

And I'm not letting any ill behavior on the part of Israel be let off the hook either. The Israelis have sins upon their heads too. But theirs are not coterminous to the Palestinians, especially not with the leadership of Gaza - Hamas is blatantly evil to the Palestinians they govern. They use schools and hospitals as headquarters, they steal money and supplies meant for starving and needy citizens for their soldiers and they have created a police state in the Gaza strip.

7) Crime and Punishment determines the value of Human Life

Waiting for my dental checkup today, I read in People magazine about the horrible tragedy of Jaycee Dugard. The article briefly informed about how Phillip Garrido was originally convicted of rape and sentenced to 50 years in prison. He was released 11 years later. After that he kidnapped and raped the very young Jaycee, then held her for 18 years. The article didn’t mention (and I’m sure the author didn’t know) anything about those who made the decision to let the slime-shit Phillip Garrido out after serving a fifth of his sentence. I hope they are filled with horrendous shame and that they modify how they adjudicate over such matters in the future, based upon lessons they learn this time.

It reminds me of the Libyan who murdered over 189 Americans and 81 others in 1988 and was recently released by the UK (a Scottish official) government to die in Libya. He is old and probably won’t commit any other terrorist acts. So?

If a society gives a murderer the maximum penalty (execution), then society is making the statement that human life is so valuable we must deliver the maximum penalty for anyone who willfully takes another’s life. By giving a murderer a lesser punishment, society is ironically making the statement that it does not value human life very highly. It is cheapening the value of life for everybody.

On a side note, the prevalence of abortion in modern civilization is another indication that life is little valued. The supply of those who wish to adopt will always exceed the number of children who need to be adopted. Therefore, if we valued human life we would push for the adoption of children, not their abortion in the womb.