Facebook Censorship?

Posted Wed Feb 17, 2010 in

This link from the Buckeye Firearms Association came across my desk yesterday.

I sometimes use Facebook when I have time to just play around — which seems more rare as time passes. It’s a place where I can track the activity of people I care about.

However, if this is true, and Facebook decided to pull the page (and the Glock page referenced as well), then I’m done with them. I’ll write a letter of departure and cancel my account. If they are biased against firearms, or don’t have the stomach to combat polictically-correct censorship, then they have no place in the American arena.

Americans love lively, reasoned debate — or they used to…

Comment

Dangerous Citizen

Posted Tue Feb 16, 2010 in

The quote for the day is from Austin Beard.

You need only reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.

Charles Austin Beard
US historian (1874–1948)

That’s a strange thing, because in the climate today I see the same thing. Although I guess it shouldn’t strike me as odd, it does. What a shame. We are losing what those men and women worked so hard to build. I guess that is the nature of things. The law of entropy is strong.

Comment

What's the Buzz?

Posted Mon Feb 15, 2010 in

I now have an earworm1. I’m reminded of the bit in Jesus Christ, Superstar where the disciples are singing “What’s the buzz, tell me what’s-a-happening…”

One thing about my use of “Yahoo!”: as a home page is the news “crawl” in the today box. I see a lot of things there that I would not normally see. I never managed to get my “Google”: homepage working that way. But, I see a headline and my curiosity makes me scan the contents. So, I find myself reading a mix of news and entertainment writing that is featured by Yahoo!.

An article about threats against Johnny Weir because of his fur-wearing was interesting. It’s not whether I care about his wearing fur or faux-fur a bit. I do care, though, that someone would threaten him for his choice of material. I’m disappointed, though, that he caved to the politically-correct no-fur position. That’s a shame.

The interesting part, though, is the amount of buzz generated by the article. When I checked, there were greater than 4,400 comments on the piece. That’s an incredible amount of commentary. Some of it was lively and intelligent, but most of drivel not worth the electrons it cost to send it down the pipe. (I didn’t spend much time reading — I never do because it’s a waste of time.)

The inability of people to reason, or perhaps their unwillingness to think before they post, is a poor testimony to the shape of human society. Maybe I expect too much. The bell curve is certainly in effect. But, I’d hate to measure the intellectual capacity of the median comment. I think it would be shockingly low.

Maybe we are a virus on the planet that should be eliminated. We don’t seem to be earning our keep…

1 An earworm is a bit of music that is “in your head.” I love the word! It’s so descriptive.

Comment

Valentine's Day 2010

Posted Sun Feb 14, 2010 in

I have a few valentines out there. As soon as I finish this and get a cup of coffee, I’ll start working on my e-cards. I have a few to send this morning to my loved ones.

St. Valentine’s Day is a strange celebration. I think it’s great to celebrate love, although I wonder at the choice of this particular day. Regardless, it’s a good thing to celebrate, although I deviate from the original intent of the celebration and remember my loved ones, not just Wife. (Although she deserves a lot of remembering for her care and years of dedication.)

So, I think the coffee pot just finished and I need a cup. I’m going to go get my first cup of the morning, then work through my list of valentines.

Remember someone you love today. It’s a good thing to do regardless of whether you celebrate the Christian tradition or some other.

Comment

On Mandated Healthcare

Posted Sun Feb 7, 2010 in

There is no hiding that I am adamantly opposed to the health care proposition as currently stated in the Congress of the United States. In my opinion, it is a move toward the socialization of medical services and I am opposed to socialism in any form. In fact, I’m afraid that particular cat (socialism) is out of the bag when I wish the sumbitch had been drowned!

But, before I get on a tear (which can happen these days), I thought I would share this link to openmarket.org — an interesting site for those of libertarian philosophy.

There is some good logic in the piece and a solid argument for why it is overreaching for the federal government to require American citizens to buy health insurance. The State of Virginia is drawing a line in the sand and preparing for a challenge to the federal legislation, if it makes it through the process.

There is no doubt in my little pea brain we need healthcare reform. But the current legislation is overreaching. It’s too big and I see the potential for the law of unintended side effects (or consequences) hanging out all over the place. I would suggest a much smaller approach, dealing with one problem at a time1.

A good first step would be the elimination of the pre-existing condition clause present in most policies. There are two ways to accomplish this: 1) An outright ban on the condition or 2) encouragement of competition between companies that would reduce the fiscal benefit to insurers to have the policy.

Another important component is to control costs by developing malpractice reform. Malpractice insurance costs a buttload of money. (I know because my firm carries malpractice insurance — it must.) If the costs associated with malpractice were limited (and perhaps a more direct approach is pulling the license of someone convicted of malpractice), then costs would be reduced. A second important approach is to encourage competition among insurers (again) by opening the market such that it wasn’t bounded by state lines. The states should get involved in this.

There are other issues I’m not so conversant with. But, I think a lot of them should be handled at the state or local level. The funds to pay for the programs should come from the state or local level. The federal government is too big and too involved in the lives of American citizens.

Get out.

1 I firmly believe the unix philosophy of simple, single-purpose tools. This complies with the principle contained in Occam’s Razor.

Comment

Choices… and Changes

Posted Fri Feb 5, 2010 in

I’m up much too early this morning. It happens, especially when I fall asleep at 2030 the night before. I can’t sleep more than about six hours at a time. I don’t know whether my mind activates after six hours or this old body just can’t stay in one place any longer1.

I was reading The Preacher via his RSS feed this morning. I still try to keep up with Atkinson’s writing because his writing does something for me. He recently decided to leave the pastorate (of his church in San Antonio) and turn his energy toward writing full time. I understand the challenge of this decision and the internal tearing after spending a long time (20 years in his case) doing something.

There is a parallel between his life and mine. I spent 14 years at Texas Tech University teaching young civil engineers. It was a good job and something I felt “called” to do. In the beginning, I had a lot of enthusiasm and energy and spent both freely on my academic career. I was never a stellar performer as an academic — I didn’t publish enough of my work. The hassle of the publication process (which is laborious) was never worth the reward.

Then came some family issues followed by several years of clinical depression. The church we’d be part of for years took a nose dive. During this period of time my post-tenure review came up and I garnered poor marks, nearly being put into a “remediation plan.” A personnel issue arose that did not seem to have resolution. Daughter and her family moved far away.

The depression eased (or I found some resolution) but the other struggles remained. I found that I no longer enjoyed the classroom like I had initially. The bad-actors finally wore me down. I no longer wanted to go to work everyday and the only part of my work that I enjoyed was my research program. I suspect I had burned out, but could not find a way to recharge.

Eventually I decided to leave academics. In truth I probably needed a year or two of something else to do — some mechanic to allow me to recharge my intellectual, emotional, and spiritual batteries. I didn’t find that mechanism and when an opportunity to switch directions and work in another part of my field arose, I took it — for better or for worse.

I think that Atkinson’s path parallels my own in some fashions. I know he’s dealt with depression because he writes about it. I know how the ebb of energy can sap the enthusiasm for the work, particularly people-work like pastoring (notice I didn’t say preaching). The time came when he finally realized he couldn’t or shouldn’t do it anymore, so he made a decision. That decision probably didn’t come easily. I suspect it came hard and with a lot of soul-searching and prayer.

In the end I hope this works out for Atkinson. In the same way I hope it works out for me. I don’t know and can’t know if it will because we only move forward in time and our foresight is relatively short. But, we soldier on, which is what we’re tasked to do.

Vaya con Dios, Gordon Atkinson, and may God shine his light on your path.

1 It’s true that I don’t stay put for long periods of time. At work (whether at home or the office) I get up and move around about every half-hour or so. It might just be to hit the head, refresh my coffee (or other drink), or just move about to think. But, I don’t stay planted very long.

Comment

2010 Handbook

Posted Fri Jan 8, 2010 in

From a an old friend, both in terms of years-old and in terms of years-known.

Health:

  1. Drink plenty of water.
  2. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar.
  3. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
  4. Live with the 3 E’s — Energy, Enthusiasm and Empathy.
  5. Make time to pray.
  6. Play more games
  7. Read more books than you did in 2009.
  8. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.
  9. Sleep for 7 hours.
  10. Take a 10–30 minutes walk daily. And while you walk, smile.

    Personality:
  11. Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
  12. Don’t have negative thoughts or things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
  13. Don’t over do. Keep your limits.
  14. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
  15. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip.
  16. Dream more while you are awake.
  17. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
  18. Forget issues of the past. Don’t remind your partner with his/her mistakes of the past. That will ruin your present happiness.
  19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone. Don’t hate others.
  20. Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.
  21. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
  22. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
  23. Smile and laugh more.
  24. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree…

    Society:
  25. Call your family often.
  26. Each day give something good to others.
  27. Forgive everyone for everything.
  28. Spend time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
  29. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
  30. What other people think of you is none of your business.
  31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.

    Life:
  32. Do the right thing!
  33. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
  34. GOD heals everything.
  35. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
  36. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
  37. The best is yet to come.
  38. When you awake alive in the morning, thank GOD for it.
  39. Your Inner most is always happy. So, be happy.

    Last but not the least:
  40. Please Forward this to everyone you care about, I just did.

This list has a lot of wisdom in it, even if it’s a little smarmy. I think one (that means me) would do well to pick a handful of items from this list and put it on the daily to-do list. An interesting exercise would be to assign a score of 1–5 to each topic, add up the results, and compare with the maximum value. The expected value of the result should be about 39*5/2=97.5. Patterns would be interesting (and maybe illuminating).

Care to try this exercise?

Thanks goes to Terry for sending the forward…

Comment [1]

| Next Page