What I learned in Sawyer School was that people don't always practice what they preach. I think that most people learn that sooner or later but, when faced with a conflict between practicing and preaching, many people will believe the practicing rather than the preaching. I've often wondered why I turned out to be the opposite. In the Blue Jeans Incident, I immediately concluded that it was the teacher's practicing that was wrong because her original preaching had obviously been correct. Well actually, the practicing was not done by the same teacher who had done the preaching, but everybody knows that those people are all in it together. The point is that I believed what they had taught me about democracy without question, so it was obvious to me that the fault was in the practicing.
I might have gotten my sense of right and wrong from the folks at Elsdon, except that those people didn't always practice what they preached either. It just now occurred to me who was my most significant role model in those days. It was the Lone Ranger! I knew that he was a fictitious character, but that didn't mean he was wrong about anything. Indeed, the fact that he was fictitious meant that somebody had envisioned him as the ultimate good guy. It would be difficult to find a real person who was that good of a guy, so they made one up. I didn't realize at the time that the Lone Ranger was affecting me all that much but, decades later, I bought some of his old shows on DVD. Viewing them again after all those years reminded me how much I wanted to be like the Lone Ranger when I grew up. Of course I could never be as good as the Lone Ranger but, as somebody famous once said, "Man's reach must always be beyond his grasp. Else what's a Heaven for?"
If I hadn't quit going to bars before the smoking ban went into effect, that would have made me quit going to bars. I didn't mind not smoking in stores and restaurants but, if you can't smoke in a bar, where can you smoke? When I open a beer, the next thing I want to do is light up a cigarette, they just seem to go together. I have tried drinking half a beer, then going outside to smoke a cigarette, then coming back in to drink the other half, but it's just not the same. I only drink two beers a day now, and I drink them in my garage where I can smoke at the same time.
Friday, September 30, 2016
the crap I learned in grade school
Gallup is also a town in New Mexico. It was running through my brain that it had something to do with early tv, but the google machine tells me that what I was thinking of was Truth Or Consequences. What was I thinking?
I don't know where Beagles got that idealistic idea about elections. Possibly in Sawyer School. One of my favorite lines is from Paul Simon, When I think back to all the crap I learned in high school. Although in this case it would be grade school. Still I would think that the Blue Jeans Incident would have propelled him down a proper road of cynicism. Myself, whenever they trotted out the guys with wigs who wrote with feathers, my eyeballs ran like the balls in roulette wheels.
There is talk about people jumping on the bandwagon of a guy whose polls are high, but I don't think that happens much, and guys with high polls, especially around election day, will downplay them because they don't want their voters to be complacent and stay home;
I guess they are run for people like me, who want to know how it is going. Who doesn't want to know what is going on? A lot of us do so the media serves them up to us. We know they are indicators and not hard facts and that's fine. If I went by people I know I would be surprised if Dumbo got a single vote.
I don't think it is a good thing that people vote for who they think will serve them the biggest slice of the pie (something for nothing), and that they are easily misled by slicksters who are competing with other slicksters. I suppose it's a bad thing, but we are flawed little carbon units so what do you expect of us? Why cling to an abstract model that has little to do with what is really going on when what is really going on is right there before you?
But maybe three weeks ago Old Dog alluded to an article in The Atlantic that I didn't get around to reading until last week,the import of which was, that all this common knowledge of how to win elections may be full of shit, and the evidence for that is Dumbo's campaign, which has gone against most rules and still was tied with the big girl up to last week. Incidentally though she appears to be getting a bump from the debate. If you believe the polls that is.
What did the polls get wrong about Ford and Carter and Romney and Obama? I don't remember the former, but I remember the polls being very accurate about Romney and Obama.
What did the polls have to do with forcing us smokers out of the bars for our cigs? But I do agree that what had at first seemed an imposition is now a refreshing little break in the hard work of sitting on a stool and drinking beer. Even on those science fiction wind chill days, when you come back in with apple cheeks and frost clinging to your beard, don't all the heads of the hot babes turn towards the ruggedly handsome he-man from the blizzard? Probably but I can't tell because my glasses ae all frosted over.
I don't know where Beagles got that idealistic idea about elections. Possibly in Sawyer School. One of my favorite lines is from Paul Simon, When I think back to all the crap I learned in high school. Although in this case it would be grade school. Still I would think that the Blue Jeans Incident would have propelled him down a proper road of cynicism. Myself, whenever they trotted out the guys with wigs who wrote with feathers, my eyeballs ran like the balls in roulette wheels.
There is talk about people jumping on the bandwagon of a guy whose polls are high, but I don't think that happens much, and guys with high polls, especially around election day, will downplay them because they don't want their voters to be complacent and stay home;
I guess they are run for people like me, who want to know how it is going. Who doesn't want to know what is going on? A lot of us do so the media serves them up to us. We know they are indicators and not hard facts and that's fine. If I went by people I know I would be surprised if Dumbo got a single vote.
I don't think it is a good thing that people vote for who they think will serve them the biggest slice of the pie (something for nothing), and that they are easily misled by slicksters who are competing with other slicksters. I suppose it's a bad thing, but we are flawed little carbon units so what do you expect of us? Why cling to an abstract model that has little to do with what is really going on when what is really going on is right there before you?
But maybe three weeks ago Old Dog alluded to an article in The Atlantic that I didn't get around to reading until last week,the import of which was, that all this common knowledge of how to win elections may be full of shit, and the evidence for that is Dumbo's campaign, which has gone against most rules and still was tied with the big girl up to last week. Incidentally though she appears to be getting a bump from the debate. If you believe the polls that is.
What did the polls get wrong about Ford and Carter and Romney and Obama? I don't remember the former, but I remember the polls being very accurate about Romney and Obama.
What did the polls have to do with forcing us smokers out of the bars for our cigs? But I do agree that what had at first seemed an imposition is now a refreshing little break in the hard work of sitting on a stool and drinking beer. Even on those science fiction wind chill days, when you come back in with apple cheeks and frost clinging to your beard, don't all the heads of the hot babes turn towards the ruggedly handsome he-man from the blizzard? Probably but I can't tell because my glasses ae all frosted over.
Thursday, September 29, 2016
Gallup is a Person?
I don't know where I got the idea that Gallup was a town in New Mexico. Sometimes my mind soaks up things like a sponge. Then, when somebody squeezes it, everything comes running out in no particular order. Maybe the stuff that's in there combines with other stuff and makes whole new compounds that I don't even know are there. If I waited till I knew what I was talking about, I probably would talk a lot less than I do which, I have been told, would be an improvement. People!What do they know?
I always thought that polls were intended to persuade us to go along with the majority, but they often have the opposite effect on me. Now Ken tells me that the primary value of polls is that they tell the politicians what kind of lies will best fool more people into voting for them. Ken seems to think that's a good thing, but I think it's a bad thing. The way it should work is that each politician tells us the truth about what he wants to accomplish. If we agree with his agenda, we vote for him and, if we don't agree with his agenda, we vote for the other guy. If we don't agree with the other guy either, there should be more than two choices, enough choices that everybody can find a candidate with whom he agrees. If nobody gets a majority, they could have a run-off contest between the top two. Another alternative would be to allow us to vote for "none of the above" and, if that gets a majority, then don't fill the office. After the office has been vacant for one term, they could try again and, if "none of the above" still wins, they should permanently abolish the position. The position could be reinstated later by an act of Congress, if we still have a congress by then.
I know that you guys, especially Ken think of politics as entertainment like sports. What I don't like about politics is the same thing I don't like about real life, it's all about personalities instead of substance. In a way, it's kind of like a beauty pageant. In addition to their good looks, the contestants are judged on how well they present themselves to the public. You know, poise, charm, and stuff like that. They get to make speeches about things like ending war and hunger in the world, but the content of their speech is not so important as the skill of their presentation. It's like a dog and pony show, except that dogs and ponies are good for something. I don't like sports either, but not for the same reasons that I don't like politics. I find sports to be just plain boring.
I always thought that polls were intended to persuade us to go along with the majority, but they often have the opposite effect on me. Now Ken tells me that the primary value of polls is that they tell the politicians what kind of lies will best fool more people into voting for them. Ken seems to think that's a good thing, but I think it's a bad thing. The way it should work is that each politician tells us the truth about what he wants to accomplish. If we agree with his agenda, we vote for him and, if we don't agree with his agenda, we vote for the other guy. If we don't agree with the other guy either, there should be more than two choices, enough choices that everybody can find a candidate with whom he agrees. If nobody gets a majority, they could have a run-off contest between the top two. Another alternative would be to allow us to vote for "none of the above" and, if that gets a majority, then don't fill the office. After the office has been vacant for one term, they could try again and, if "none of the above" still wins, they should permanently abolish the position. The position could be reinstated later by an act of Congress, if we still have a congress by then.
I know that you guys, especially Ken think of politics as entertainment like sports. What I don't like about politics is the same thing I don't like about real life, it's all about personalities instead of substance. In a way, it's kind of like a beauty pageant. In addition to their good looks, the contestants are judged on how well they present themselves to the public. You know, poise, charm, and stuff like that. They get to make speeches about things like ending war and hunger in the world, but the content of their speech is not so important as the skill of their presentation. It's like a dog and pony show, except that dogs and ponies are good for something. I don't like sports either, but not for the same reasons that I don't like politics. I find sports to be just plain boring.
Too close for comfort
Properly conducted polls can be invaluable but there comes a time when leadership requires decisions being made for the right reasons, regardless of the poll results. For the future of us all we must sometimes swallow the bitter pill.
As a weak example, I wasn't happy when indoor smoking was banned, but it is something that I can willingly accept, as do all the other tobacco fiends of my acquaintance. Reasonable people can (and should) accept certain levels of self-sacrifice for the greater good. The sticking point is that the definition of greater good, and how to implement it, is often open to debate.
-----
I was misinformed about the nature of the pro-Chump polls...seems they were gamed by the good hackers at 4chan, who may have been miffed about the wisecrack regarding 400lb hackers sitting on their beds.
Which begs the question, how is it possible that at this point in time there are still undecided voters? Who are these people, and why aren't they paying attention? Not all media have a liberal bias, yet there are very few positive statements of support for the Bilious Blob; it's not quite unanimous, but getting close.
-----
George Gallup may have lived in New Mexico, don't know for sure. Gallup polls have interesting methodology, relying mostly on phone calls, both cell and land-line. See Wikipedia for details, but don't forget the Tribune headline "Dewey Defeats Truman." Gallup got that one wrong, along with Ford over Carter and Romney over Obama. Nobody's perfect.
-----
I'm close to the point where I don't care who wins the presidential election, as long as the Chump suffers a humiliating defeat. This campaign is draining and it saddens me to know that humans of such low character may be in a position of pushing the big red button; even sadder is the fact that such people have so many supporters. Future historians will puzzle over this for years, in the worst case, and wonder why the American voter failed to avoid a catastrophe that was plain to see. The whole world is watching...
Sales of anti-depressants should be trending upwards, soon, if they aren't already.
As a weak example, I wasn't happy when indoor smoking was banned, but it is something that I can willingly accept, as do all the other tobacco fiends of my acquaintance. Reasonable people can (and should) accept certain levels of self-sacrifice for the greater good. The sticking point is that the definition of greater good, and how to implement it, is often open to debate.
-----
I was misinformed about the nature of the pro-Chump polls...seems they were gamed by the good hackers at 4chan, who may have been miffed about the wisecrack regarding 400lb hackers sitting on their beds.
Which begs the question, how is it possible that at this point in time there are still undecided voters? Who are these people, and why aren't they paying attention? Not all media have a liberal bias, yet there are very few positive statements of support for the Bilious Blob; it's not quite unanimous, but getting close.
-----
George Gallup may have lived in New Mexico, don't know for sure. Gallup polls have interesting methodology, relying mostly on phone calls, both cell and land-line. See Wikipedia for details, but don't forget the Tribune headline "Dewey Defeats Truman." Gallup got that one wrong, along with Ford over Carter and Romney over Obama. Nobody's perfect.
-----
I'm close to the point where I don't care who wins the presidential election, as long as the Chump suffers a humiliating defeat. This campaign is draining and it saddens me to know that humans of such low character may be in a position of pushing the big red button; even sadder is the fact that such people have so many supporters. Future historians will puzzle over this for years, in the worst case, and wonder why the American voter failed to avoid a catastrophe that was plain to see. The whole world is watching...
Sales of anti-depressants should be trending upwards, soon, if they aren't already.
defending polls
There's a burger joint on Wabash that has a Hilary and a Trump burger. I think the Hilary is a little healthier and the Trump is more on the junk food side. Outside they have a sign listing how many of each burger they sold the day before. The big girl is leading two to one. Well it is a blue state after all, though personally I might go for the Trump since as long as I am going burger I might as well go full bore junk food.
But I am going to defend polls. There are rules to doing a poll, and the major polls have professional people doing them. I am talking presidential polls here, there are other polls that pop up from time to time, what do you think about guns, abortion, Nicki Minaj's butt (back for a swan song)? Often these are sponsored by a group who has a strong opinion and they can indeed word it to slant it,
I'm just talking about presidential polls which I have been watching like a hawk, and they are not all over the place, they move up and down but generally they all move together. If the big girl drops points in one poll she probably will also drop points in another taken the same day. There are also state polls which are mainly conducted in swing states. The best way to watch these is to notice which way that same poll went the last time they took it.
What good are they? Well they are good for the politicians to indicate which way they should trim their sails, which is looked down on so they deny that they do it, but of course they do.
Hilary certainly, Trump probably not very much since he doesn't know what he is going to say until after he says it. And Uncle Ken and political junkies love them because we love the whole game of politics and it is a way of seeing how things are going, a point jump or two is like hearing that that utility infielder beat out a ground ball and is now standing on first with only one out.
It has nothing to do with how you believe. It tells you what other people probably believe at a specific time, but I don't see what that has to do with what you think,. I suppose it could change a vote for instance if you hated the two but were voting for one as the lesser of two evils and you discovered that the guy who can't spell Aleppo was rising in the polls you might decide to vote for him.
What Beagles said about the cold war reminds me of what I said about the sixties as an era of moral clarity, you knew where you stood and you knew where your enemy stood.
When I was in high school I was in the debate club. There were rules and judges and you won or you lost on points. Of course the presidential debates are not Marquis of Queensbury affairs. The sole object is to turn heads and get votes The lighting and blah blah blah are the same for both candidates, it's part of the game and it is something they have to deal with. Some say the better they navigate all these obstacles the sharper they are and therefore will be a better president. I'm not so sure of that, but everybody knows that is how the game is played, and if you don't want to play it don't run for president.
And using a photo of your opponent that makes him look crazy or stupid is a time honored campaign tactic. Since the Cubs were getting killed by the hapless buckos I tuned into Fox and there was that Trumpette honcho with the kewpie doll voice whining about Hilary putting up attack ads on Dumbo, and Megan Kelly, who can be pretty sharp when she chooses to be, was all like, well what did you think she was going to do.
I don't know about reading the transcript. There is so much more in the live action. Were you eating a bowl of stale popcorn while reading it?
But I am going to defend polls. There are rules to doing a poll, and the major polls have professional people doing them. I am talking presidential polls here, there are other polls that pop up from time to time, what do you think about guns, abortion, Nicki Minaj's butt (back for a swan song)? Often these are sponsored by a group who has a strong opinion and they can indeed word it to slant it,
I'm just talking about presidential polls which I have been watching like a hawk, and they are not all over the place, they move up and down but generally they all move together. If the big girl drops points in one poll she probably will also drop points in another taken the same day. There are also state polls which are mainly conducted in swing states. The best way to watch these is to notice which way that same poll went the last time they took it.
What good are they? Well they are good for the politicians to indicate which way they should trim their sails, which is looked down on so they deny that they do it, but of course they do.
Hilary certainly, Trump probably not very much since he doesn't know what he is going to say until after he says it. And Uncle Ken and political junkies love them because we love the whole game of politics and it is a way of seeing how things are going, a point jump or two is like hearing that that utility infielder beat out a ground ball and is now standing on first with only one out.
It has nothing to do with how you believe. It tells you what other people probably believe at a specific time, but I don't see what that has to do with what you think,. I suppose it could change a vote for instance if you hated the two but were voting for one as the lesser of two evils and you discovered that the guy who can't spell Aleppo was rising in the polls you might decide to vote for him.
What Beagles said about the cold war reminds me of what I said about the sixties as an era of moral clarity, you knew where you stood and you knew where your enemy stood.
When I was in high school I was in the debate club. There were rules and judges and you won or you lost on points. Of course the presidential debates are not Marquis of Queensbury affairs. The sole object is to turn heads and get votes The lighting and blah blah blah are the same for both candidates, it's part of the game and it is something they have to deal with. Some say the better they navigate all these obstacles the sharper they are and therefore will be a better president. I'm not so sure of that, but everybody knows that is how the game is played, and if you don't want to play it don't run for president.
And using a photo of your opponent that makes him look crazy or stupid is a time honored campaign tactic. Since the Cubs were getting killed by the hapless buckos I tuned into Fox and there was that Trumpette honcho with the kewpie doll voice whining about Hilary putting up attack ads on Dumbo, and Megan Kelly, who can be pretty sharp when she chooses to be, was all like, well what did you think she was going to do.
I don't know about reading the transcript. There is so much more in the live action. Were you eating a bowl of stale popcorn while reading it?
Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Polls? Polls? We Don't Need No Stinking Polls!
I don't remember a time when there were no polls, but I do remember when there was just one, the Gallup Poll. I think it was named after the town that spawned it, Gallup, New Mexico. What kind of a name is that for a town? I'll have to look it up one of these days. I don't know the origin of all those other polls, but they should go back where they came from. We don't need them. Who cares what all those other people think anyway? If I want to know what to think, I just sit out in the garage with a beer and a cigarette and talk to myself. I'm usually unanimous, but I occasionally do disagree with myself. When that happens, I let the guys at the Institute settle the issue. If everybody was like me, those stupid polls would go out of business, and the country would be the better for it.
Then there was Jimmy the Greek. He was known as an "odds maker", which I think had something to do with sports. He got so good at predicting sports that they asked him to predicting other things like elections. I don't remember if any of his predictions ever came true, but it seems like they must have because he was so famous for it. I suppose old Jimmy is dead by now because, the last I heard, somebody had an octopus in a tank that was predicting sports. They would drop two team emblems in the tank and, whichever one the octopus grabbed first, was predicted to be the winner of the next game. I haven't heard about that octopus lately, so maybe he's dead too. Why don't they use that groundhog in Pennsylvania to predict things? Maybe he wouldn't be so fat and lazy if he had to work more than one day a year.
It occurred to me today that I might be all wrong about Trump. Maybe they want Trump to win, and the only way to make that happen is to run somebody like Hillary against him. I didn't know about Trump's connection to the Mafia, but it doesn't surprise me. You know, I kind of miss the Cold War era. It was a lot easier to figure things out in those days. Everything was the Russians' fault, and any Americans who did something wrong were in league with the Russians. I guess that's a sign of old age, when you yearn for the simpler life of the good old days.
Then there was Jimmy the Greek. He was known as an "odds maker", which I think had something to do with sports. He got so good at predicting sports that they asked him to predicting other things like elections. I don't remember if any of his predictions ever came true, but it seems like they must have because he was so famous for it. I suppose old Jimmy is dead by now because, the last I heard, somebody had an octopus in a tank that was predicting sports. They would drop two team emblems in the tank and, whichever one the octopus grabbed first, was predicted to be the winner of the next game. I haven't heard about that octopus lately, so maybe he's dead too. Why don't they use that groundhog in Pennsylvania to predict things? Maybe he wouldn't be so fat and lazy if he had to work more than one day a year.
It occurred to me today that I might be all wrong about Trump. Maybe they want Trump to win, and the only way to make that happen is to run somebody like Hillary against him. I didn't know about Trump's connection to the Mafia, but it doesn't surprise me. You know, I kind of miss the Cold War era. It was a lot easier to figure things out in those days. Everything was the Russians' fault, and any Americans who did something wrong were in league with the Russians. I guess that's a sign of old age, when you yearn for the simpler life of the good old days.
Debate this
Ah, the Great Debate! One down, two to go. I'm still reading about it, at leisure; it is what it is. Or is it?
There is something very strange going on, we are not witnessing the democratic process in action. This is some kind of manipulative theater, directed by forces unknown.
Consider the polls. Legitimate polling used to reflect what has already occurred, but now they are used to affect future action and are no longer passive observations. You can design a poll to give whatever result you want by juggling sample size, target demographic, method of contact to the pollee (is that even a word?), or any other kind of variable. Once you get the result you want you can jump on your soapbox and proclaim the wonderfulness of your endeavors. Uncle Ken has stated that the Big Girl is polling higher, but there are many other polls (of questionable validity, to be sure) that state otherwise. You can believe what you want to believe, as there will be plenty of evidence to back you up regardless of your point of view.
-----
How we receive information can be just as important as the information itself. After the first televised debate in 1960, folks that watched the debate thought Kennedy won but those that heard it on the radio thought that Nixon won. This is why I don't trust the validity of televised debates. Too many things can manipulate the outcome; lighting, camera angles, and audio mixing are hidden persuaders. The goal seems to be good television as opposed to good public service.
It get worse once the debate is over. Little snippets can be edited to reflect whatever message you want to send. A freeze-frame at the proper moment can show the candidate as a dignified statesman or a slack jawed mope. Look at all the images of Hillary as a crazed, wild-eyed loon...a quick freeze-frame, taken out of context, but that's the image that will stick in your head.
It's enough to drive one to drink, and make it a double, my good sirs.
-----
Since I didn't watch the main show on Monday night, I thought the best way to learn about it would be to read the transcript, which I did, for the most part. The NPR site did a fine job, with many fact-checking annotations.
It started normally enough, with coherent statements from both sides. But as it progressed, one candidate's ramblings devolved into near jibberish, as if two thoughts couldn't be linked in an intelligent manner. I need not say who it was...
-----
Much has been speculated about possible Russian links to the Fat Boy, and I would not discount it all out of hand. But what about his links to organized crime in the New York construction trades? Is that his driving force, was he made an offer he couldn't refuse?
There is something very strange going on, we are not witnessing the democratic process in action. This is some kind of manipulative theater, directed by forces unknown.
Consider the polls. Legitimate polling used to reflect what has already occurred, but now they are used to affect future action and are no longer passive observations. You can design a poll to give whatever result you want by juggling sample size, target demographic, method of contact to the pollee (is that even a word?), or any other kind of variable. Once you get the result you want you can jump on your soapbox and proclaim the wonderfulness of your endeavors. Uncle Ken has stated that the Big Girl is polling higher, but there are many other polls (of questionable validity, to be sure) that state otherwise. You can believe what you want to believe, as there will be plenty of evidence to back you up regardless of your point of view.
-----
How we receive information can be just as important as the information itself. After the first televised debate in 1960, folks that watched the debate thought Kennedy won but those that heard it on the radio thought that Nixon won. This is why I don't trust the validity of televised debates. Too many things can manipulate the outcome; lighting, camera angles, and audio mixing are hidden persuaders. The goal seems to be good television as opposed to good public service.
It get worse once the debate is over. Little snippets can be edited to reflect whatever message you want to send. A freeze-frame at the proper moment can show the candidate as a dignified statesman or a slack jawed mope. Look at all the images of Hillary as a crazed, wild-eyed loon...a quick freeze-frame, taken out of context, but that's the image that will stick in your head.
It's enough to drive one to drink, and make it a double, my good sirs.
-----
Since I didn't watch the main show on Monday night, I thought the best way to learn about it would be to read the transcript, which I did, for the most part. The NPR site did a fine job, with many fact-checking annotations.
It started normally enough, with coherent statements from both sides. But as it progressed, one candidate's ramblings devolved into near jibberish, as if two thoughts couldn't be linked in an intelligent manner. I need not say who it was...
-----
Much has been speculated about possible Russian links to the Fat Boy, and I would not discount it all out of hand. But what about his links to organized crime in the New York construction trades? Is that his driving force, was he made an offer he couldn't refuse?
two days after the big debate
That shouting over the other guy is a Fox thing. Before Fox the Sunday talking head shows were polite affairs with nobody interrupting each other and calling the other guy names. They had a lot more talk from cynical reporters, rather than the candidates themselves, and I think they were a bit more inclined to hold the candidate's feet to the fire than they are now. They didn't have that awful concoction that fills the airwaves today: political surrogates. If the candidate didn't want to appear on the show then they couldn't send somebody else to tell their lies.
I think almost from the beginning the Foxies were yelling over each other. At the beginning of their broadcasting they would invite a token liberal, but then they would shout over him because who the hell wanted to hear what he had to say. I remember subbing sometimes I would get the kids in a discussion, but soon it was just a who can holler louder. I would patiently explain, that it wasn't enough to disagree with somebody, you had to explain the reasons why you disagreed and they looked at me like I was nuts.
Eventually the Foxies forced the politer and thoughtful (except for Old George) off the air, so then the lame stream media had to invite the Foxies on their shows and they continued to yell and insult, and the liberals adopted the same tactic just to keep even, and I fear that some rather enjoyed it, because as my student kids knew, it's fun to yell. Of course no Beaglestonian would condone that sort of behavior. I imagine if we ever have our fabled seminar at Club 27, the owners won't have to send over the cocktail waitress to tell us to pipe down.
A word about the surrogates, Hilary's are at least liberals and established figures who you have heard of before, Trump surrogates are the guys they picked up in the Club 27 parking lot where they went after the owner kicked them out of the club for making a ruckus.
So Trump was just doing what the Foxies were doing and the Republican primary debates have been raucous for some time. Did you notice his sneers and sniffing on the rare occasions when he was silent and let the big girl talk?
Outside of Beagles' Occam's-Razor-hating conspiracy theories, there is no reason to think Trump is some kind of Putin plant. I don't think he was born in Kenya. There is some speculation though that he favors Trump in this election. There are those mysterious internet raids on the DNC's computer, that are widely believed to come from across the sea, though nobody really knows about that, Trump is a might makes right guy like Putin, also Trump is susceptible to flattery, and then there are his pro-
Russian views on the Ukraine,.
But nobody really knows what a Trump presidency will be like. Some think he will choose competent leaders and they will actually run things while he rants, but I think they are living in fantasy land. What will probably happen is that he will be surrounded by sycophants who will try to do things the way they think he wants them run, but then he changes his mind all the time so the county will likely lurch like a drunkard and nothing much will get done, which will probably please Beagles, but then there is that worrisome reality of the nuclear codes.
I think Beagles' talk about Hillary ruining the country is the usual hyperbole. We have had eight years of Reagan, eight years of The Worst President Ever, eight years of Slick Willie, eight years of Obama, and we're still here, and as far as I can tell none of those guys who claimed to be leaving the country if the other party's candidate got elected, ever has.
If you keep a sharp eye out you can spot Gary. Actually I think the lame stream media gives him quite a bit of attention for a guy with less than ten percent who doesn't have a snowball's chance. I think they like to have a candidate on that isn't hated so much. But then you have to ask, if the other candidates are hated so much, how come he only gets ten percent, but I think the answer to that is that if you really hate the big girl you are going to vote for somebody with a chance of beating her`and likewise for Trump.
Polls so far have most people thinking Hilary won the debate. How that figures in the race we will have to wait to see where the latest polls put the candidates. .
I think almost from the beginning the Foxies were yelling over each other. At the beginning of their broadcasting they would invite a token liberal, but then they would shout over him because who the hell wanted to hear what he had to say. I remember subbing sometimes I would get the kids in a discussion, but soon it was just a who can holler louder. I would patiently explain, that it wasn't enough to disagree with somebody, you had to explain the reasons why you disagreed and they looked at me like I was nuts.
Eventually the Foxies forced the politer and thoughtful (except for Old George) off the air, so then the lame stream media had to invite the Foxies on their shows and they continued to yell and insult, and the liberals adopted the same tactic just to keep even, and I fear that some rather enjoyed it, because as my student kids knew, it's fun to yell. Of course no Beaglestonian would condone that sort of behavior. I imagine if we ever have our fabled seminar at Club 27, the owners won't have to send over the cocktail waitress to tell us to pipe down.
A word about the surrogates, Hilary's are at least liberals and established figures who you have heard of before, Trump surrogates are the guys they picked up in the Club 27 parking lot where they went after the owner kicked them out of the club for making a ruckus.
So Trump was just doing what the Foxies were doing and the Republican primary debates have been raucous for some time. Did you notice his sneers and sniffing on the rare occasions when he was silent and let the big girl talk?
Outside of Beagles' Occam's-Razor-hating conspiracy theories, there is no reason to think Trump is some kind of Putin plant. I don't think he was born in Kenya. There is some speculation though that he favors Trump in this election. There are those mysterious internet raids on the DNC's computer, that are widely believed to come from across the sea, though nobody really knows about that, Trump is a might makes right guy like Putin, also Trump is susceptible to flattery, and then there are his pro-
Russian views on the Ukraine,.
But nobody really knows what a Trump presidency will be like. Some think he will choose competent leaders and they will actually run things while he rants, but I think they are living in fantasy land. What will probably happen is that he will be surrounded by sycophants who will try to do things the way they think he wants them run, but then he changes his mind all the time so the county will likely lurch like a drunkard and nothing much will get done, which will probably please Beagles, but then there is that worrisome reality of the nuclear codes.
I think Beagles' talk about Hillary ruining the country is the usual hyperbole. We have had eight years of Reagan, eight years of The Worst President Ever, eight years of Slick Willie, eight years of Obama, and we're still here, and as far as I can tell none of those guys who claimed to be leaving the country if the other party's candidate got elected, ever has.
If you keep a sharp eye out you can spot Gary. Actually I think the lame stream media gives him quite a bit of attention for a guy with less than ten percent who doesn't have a snowball's chance. I think they like to have a candidate on that isn't hated so much. But then you have to ask, if the other candidates are hated so much, how come he only gets ten percent, but I think the answer to that is that if you really hate the big girl you are going to vote for somebody with a chance of beating her`and likewise for Trump.
Polls so far have most people thinking Hilary won the debate. How that figures in the race we will have to wait to see where the latest polls put the candidates. .
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Comrade Trump
I saw a short clip from the debate on the 11:00 o'clock news last night when my hypothetical wife had it on to check the weather forecast. Hillary was speaking and Trump interrupted and talked right over her. I seem to remember that you aren't supposed to do that in a debate. Each debater gets so many minutes to talk, then the other guy gets so many minutes to respond, and they aren't supposed to interrupt each other. I think Trump started that crap when all those Republicans were debating before the primaries. The others must have picked it up from him, and now it has become standard practice. Why was he allowed to do that, don't they have teachers or somebody supervising those debates?
I still maintain that Trump is not on the level. I used to think that he was sent to help Hillary win and maybe wreck the Republican Party in the process. It occurred to me this morning that Trump's mission might be more extensive than that. You know what I think? I think Trump was sent here to wreck the whole United States Government. Think about it, if he gets elected, he won't know how to run the government, so he will have to rely on his handlers to tell him what to do. I have read more than once that Trump is a good friend of that Putin guy who is currently running Russia. As I understand it, Putin is an old fashioned kind of guy who wants to bring Communism back to Russia, not Marxist Communism, more like Stalinist Communism. When Trump realizes that he is in over his head, who's he gonnna call to come bail him out? Why Putin, of course, and there goes the U.S. of A. right down the drain! Then again, if Hillary wins, she won't need Putin's help to wreck the country, so she might be the better choice after all. Like Uncle Ken says, people are more comfortable being oppressed by their own kind than by foreigners.
On a lighter note, I saw Gary Johnson being interviewed on the lame stream the other day, I think it was NBC. What's up with that? I tuned in right at the end of it, so I don't know what all Johnson said, but I did hear him say that 70% of the voters don't even know that he exists. While that may be true, it won't be true for long if the lame stream keeps giving him free publicity. I wonder what their agenda is? Of course, if more people know about the Libertarians, that doesn't necessarily mean that more people will vote for them. Still it doesn't hurt to have your name bandied about, either by supporters or opponents. Like somebody famous once said, "There is no such thing as bad publicity." Well, it seems to be working for Comrade Trump.
I still maintain that Trump is not on the level. I used to think that he was sent to help Hillary win and maybe wreck the Republican Party in the process. It occurred to me this morning that Trump's mission might be more extensive than that. You know what I think? I think Trump was sent here to wreck the whole United States Government. Think about it, if he gets elected, he won't know how to run the government, so he will have to rely on his handlers to tell him what to do. I have read more than once that Trump is a good friend of that Putin guy who is currently running Russia. As I understand it, Putin is an old fashioned kind of guy who wants to bring Communism back to Russia, not Marxist Communism, more like Stalinist Communism. When Trump realizes that he is in over his head, who's he gonnna call to come bail him out? Why Putin, of course, and there goes the U.S. of A. right down the drain! Then again, if Hillary wins, she won't need Putin's help to wreck the country, so she might be the better choice after all. Like Uncle Ken says, people are more comfortable being oppressed by their own kind than by foreigners.
On a lighter note, I saw Gary Johnson being interviewed on the lame stream the other day, I think it was NBC. What's up with that? I tuned in right at the end of it, so I don't know what all Johnson said, but I did hear him say that 70% of the voters don't even know that he exists. While that may be true, it won't be true for long if the lame stream keeps giving him free publicity. I wonder what their agenda is? Of course, if more people know about the Libertarians, that doesn't necessarily mean that more people will vote for them. Still it doesn't hurt to have your name bandied about, either by supporters or opponents. Like somebody famous once said, "There is no such thing as bad publicity." Well, it seems to be working for Comrade Trump.
the big debate
Stayed up past my bedtime, and I wasn't disappointed, As I am sure you have heard the big girl did extensive preparation, the amber asshole not so much, or to be more exact nada. It showed.
The split screen was deadly AA was all scorn and spite and couldn't sit still like a bad kid in the principal's office. For her part she was all that phony smile and a bit smug, but overall she looked civilized next to the snarling beast,
The guy that actually wrote The Art of the Deal has been in the press a lot lately, had an article in the New Yorker, has become a big enemy of Trump, he says he's atoning for his sins in making Trump look good. When he did the book he could never get Trump to sit still long enough to go through an interview, finally he had to just follow him around and jot stuff down. He says that Trump has no attention span.
He didn't respond well to the questions, veering off to other subjects, getting lost in rabbit holes, asserting things that are generally known not to be true. He went down peculiar rabbit holes, spending a lot of time talking about some conversations he had with Hannity that would prove he was against the Iraq war. He had a hard time explaining the birther thing and not revealing his tax returns.
He was easily baited by the big girl and never had the concentration to mount attacks that could have hurt the big girl.
I would give Clinton the win and so did the CNN talking heads, and listening to NPR this morning so do they, but of course we have all been wrong about Trump on everything else so far, so we'll have to see what the polls say in a few days.
I think the situation of the peasants has gone up and down, probably, as Beagles observed they got better deals as time went on, probably as trade became more important and agriculture less. There were a few peasant uprisings but they were all crushed brutally. The king may have worried about some of his lords, but never about the peasants. Mostly they were chattel. I don't know about their having committed a crime before they ran off. Anything that they did that the lord didn't like would be a crime
Machiavelli was writing during the renaissance when the peasants were probably a little elevated. He was writing about the peculiar situation of the city states of northern Italy, and what he is saying is just common sense. What was so sensational about his book was that nobody said things that openly at the time. He was hoping to get a job as advisor to a prince
The split screen was deadly AA was all scorn and spite and couldn't sit still like a bad kid in the principal's office. For her part she was all that phony smile and a bit smug, but overall she looked civilized next to the snarling beast,
The guy that actually wrote The Art of the Deal has been in the press a lot lately, had an article in the New Yorker, has become a big enemy of Trump, he says he's atoning for his sins in making Trump look good. When he did the book he could never get Trump to sit still long enough to go through an interview, finally he had to just follow him around and jot stuff down. He says that Trump has no attention span.
He didn't respond well to the questions, veering off to other subjects, getting lost in rabbit holes, asserting things that are generally known not to be true. He went down peculiar rabbit holes, spending a lot of time talking about some conversations he had with Hannity that would prove he was against the Iraq war. He had a hard time explaining the birther thing and not revealing his tax returns.
He was easily baited by the big girl and never had the concentration to mount attacks that could have hurt the big girl.
I would give Clinton the win and so did the CNN talking heads, and listening to NPR this morning so do they, but of course we have all been wrong about Trump on everything else so far, so we'll have to see what the polls say in a few days.
I think the situation of the peasants has gone up and down, probably, as Beagles observed they got better deals as time went on, probably as trade became more important and agriculture less. There were a few peasant uprisings but they were all crushed brutally. The king may have worried about some of his lords, but never about the peasants. Mostly they were chattel. I don't know about their having committed a crime before they ran off. Anything that they did that the lord didn't like would be a crime
Machiavelli was writing during the renaissance when the peasants were probably a little elevated. He was writing about the peculiar situation of the city states of northern Italy, and what he is saying is just common sense. What was so sensational about his book was that nobody said things that openly at the time. He was hoping to get a job as advisor to a prince
Monday, September 26, 2016
Old Dog's Right About Rights
When I said "rights", that's what I meant, legally protected rights. Without legal protection, the only rights you have are the ones you can physically defend with force. In a manner of speaking, those aren't really rights, they are just something you get away with unless somebody tries to stop you, and then it becomes a case of "might makes right". I suppose the only difference is that, with legal rights, you can call on the police power of the state to protect your rights, so it's still "might makes right", in a manner of speaking. It's the same only different. Ken brought up a good point about equal rights. Earlier civilizations may have guaranteed rights to certain individuals or classes of people, but the concept of equal rights is relatively new. Indeed, it's so new that we haven't worked all the bugs out of it yet.
Peasants were farmers who didn't own property, they were tenant farmers or sharecroppers. Slaves, on the other hand, were property. I don't know if you can classify migrant farm workers as peasants because they are working for wages and are not tied to any particular farm. Peasants were usually in debt to their landowners because, in a bad crop year, the landowner would forego the rent payments and put them on a tab. After several years of that, the peasants would be so far in debt that they would never dig themselves out, and the debt would pass on to their descendants. Peasants usually could leave the land, but they didn't because they had no place to go. Escaped slaves would likely be pursued, but runaway peasants usually were not, unless they had committed some crime before they left, which might be why they left.
One thing that kept the peasants on the land was that the landlord was supposed to protect them from robbers, vandals, and other landlords. The peasants in turn were supposed to warn their landlords when some other landlord made an incursion and was marching towards the castle. In his book "The Prince", Niccolo Machiavelli advised that landlords should take good care of their peasants because, if they became dissatisfied, all they had to do to get even was to fail to warn the landlord of an approaching invasion force. Conversely, Machiavelli said that, if you are a landlord looking to expand your holdings, target a place where the peasants have been abused by their landlord.
I don't think that animals understand rights the way we do. Their social orders, far from being egalitarian, are based on dominance and submission. The farther back you go in human history, the more human social orders resembled the ones that animals maintain even unto this day.
Peasants were farmers who didn't own property, they were tenant farmers or sharecroppers. Slaves, on the other hand, were property. I don't know if you can classify migrant farm workers as peasants because they are working for wages and are not tied to any particular farm. Peasants were usually in debt to their landowners because, in a bad crop year, the landowner would forego the rent payments and put them on a tab. After several years of that, the peasants would be so far in debt that they would never dig themselves out, and the debt would pass on to their descendants. Peasants usually could leave the land, but they didn't because they had no place to go. Escaped slaves would likely be pursued, but runaway peasants usually were not, unless they had committed some crime before they left, which might be why they left.
One thing that kept the peasants on the land was that the landlord was supposed to protect them from robbers, vandals, and other landlords. The peasants in turn were supposed to warn their landlords when some other landlord made an incursion and was marching towards the castle. In his book "The Prince", Niccolo Machiavelli advised that landlords should take good care of their peasants because, if they became dissatisfied, all they had to do to get even was to fail to warn the landlord of an approaching invasion force. Conversely, Machiavelli said that, if you are a landlord looking to expand your holdings, target a place where the peasants have been abused by their landlord.
I don't think that animals understand rights the way we do. Their social orders, far from being egalitarian, are based on dominance and submission. The farther back you go in human history, the more human social orders resembled the ones that animals maintain even unto this day.
Rights are left to us
Uh, oh! I have to disagree with Uncle Ken on this one: "For most of history nobody gave a second thought to the peasants."
By definition, peasants were farmers (I had to look it up). Maybe historians haven't given them a second thought, but the local rulers certainly did. Peasants may have been at the bottom of the social order but without them the society/kingdom would starve, as they did all the farming. King Larry, for example, may have been cruel and oppressive but not to the extent that the peasants would revolt or pack up and leave. The Church helped a lot with this, assuring the peasants of a better life in the hereafter, if they would only have the proper beliefs. We have plenty of peasants in the US today, except we call them seasonal migrant workers.
-----
Don't human rights exist solely because we humans say they do? Do our fellow primates, with their complex social structures, have similar notions of "chimp or gorilla rights?"
Human rights as we understand them today are historically recent, only a few hundred years old, probably originating with England's Bill of Rights in 1689, followed by our own Declaration of Independence. The French came up with the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" a few years later, and is good reading.
Do international and cultural differences preclude agreement on human rights? If that is the case, then the global madness may never end.
-----
Many millions of people will be witness to tonight's political hoopla, and I shall not be one of them. It will bring me no pleasure to watch these two distasteful exemplars of the body politic. There will be plenty to read about tomorrow with, perhaps, some lucid analysis. A pox on both their houses.
By definition, peasants were farmers (I had to look it up). Maybe historians haven't given them a second thought, but the local rulers certainly did. Peasants may have been at the bottom of the social order but without them the society/kingdom would starve, as they did all the farming. King Larry, for example, may have been cruel and oppressive but not to the extent that the peasants would revolt or pack up and leave. The Church helped a lot with this, assuring the peasants of a better life in the hereafter, if they would only have the proper beliefs. We have plenty of peasants in the US today, except we call them seasonal migrant workers.
-----
Don't human rights exist solely because we humans say they do? Do our fellow primates, with their complex social structures, have similar notions of "chimp or gorilla rights?"
Human rights as we understand them today are historically recent, only a few hundred years old, probably originating with England's Bill of Rights in 1689, followed by our own Declaration of Independence. The French came up with the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" a few years later, and is good reading.
Do international and cultural differences preclude agreement on human rights? If that is the case, then the global madness may never end.
-----
Many millions of people will be witness to tonight's political hoopla, and I shall not be one of them. It will bring me no pleasure to watch these two distasteful exemplars of the body politic. There will be plenty to read about tomorrow with, perhaps, some lucid analysis. A pox on both their houses.
the big event
When i was speaking about the progress of rights through the ages, I wasn't thinking about peasants or slaves. The Romans were bad about slavery, One thing I read lately is that when they had them on the farms they kept them locked up in barracks, it wasn't until the empire began to crumble that this became economically unfeasible and they allowed them to fend a bit more for themselves and then they at least had some sort of family life.
Well how do you measure human rights? It depends on which segment of the population you are talking about. For most of history nobody gave a second thought to the peasants. Maybe it was the industrial revolution that gave the peasants their break. Sure they had to spend long hours in awful factories but it gave some of them a chance to get ahead. Outside of North America and Europe I think there are still a lot of peasants, Maybe not South America, who knows what goes on in South America?
It's kind of odd how you never hear much about South America. If you go to the history section of the bookstore there is almost nothing about South America.
Since I don't believe in a creator, I don't think he endowed us with any inalienable rights, But it does seem intuitive that there are ways that you can and cannot treat people, I imagine you could offer them a low-paying job and they could take it or leave it, but you couldn't make him work for you for free by the use of force. There are those republican measures to make it harder for people to vote, but outside of that most everybody gets the right to vote. We expect all of us to be treated fairly by the law, but of course the richer you are the better lawyer you can hire. Do we have an equal right to education or to medical care? Should there be? How about a right to housing, to own a car?
Beagles is right about Nicki's butt just being another one of those goofy things celebs do, and if my point was that we pay too much attention to them, than it was trivial because don't we all believe that anyway? I saw her on a tv commercial for internet service and I was thinking she was a hot babe, but then she turned around and there was that huge thing. Then I went to the google machine, and holy shit. Oh well, just another thing to divert us from the coming attraction.
Which is tonight of course. I will be glued to the tube because who knows how it will go.
Well how do you measure human rights? It depends on which segment of the population you are talking about. For most of history nobody gave a second thought to the peasants. Maybe it was the industrial revolution that gave the peasants their break. Sure they had to spend long hours in awful factories but it gave some of them a chance to get ahead. Outside of North America and Europe I think there are still a lot of peasants, Maybe not South America, who knows what goes on in South America?
It's kind of odd how you never hear much about South America. If you go to the history section of the bookstore there is almost nothing about South America.
Since I don't believe in a creator, I don't think he endowed us with any inalienable rights, But it does seem intuitive that there are ways that you can and cannot treat people, I imagine you could offer them a low-paying job and they could take it or leave it, but you couldn't make him work for you for free by the use of force. There are those republican measures to make it harder for people to vote, but outside of that most everybody gets the right to vote. We expect all of us to be treated fairly by the law, but of course the richer you are the better lawyer you can hire. Do we have an equal right to education or to medical care? Should there be? How about a right to housing, to own a car?
Beagles is right about Nicki's butt just being another one of those goofy things celebs do, and if my point was that we pay too much attention to them, than it was trivial because don't we all believe that anyway? I saw her on a tv commercial for internet service and I was thinking she was a hot babe, but then she turned around and there was that huge thing. Then I went to the google machine, and holy shit. Oh well, just another thing to divert us from the coming attraction.
Which is tonight of course. I will be glued to the tube because who knows how it will go.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Where Have I Been All My Life?
By the time I hear about something famous, it's usually long gone. The first time I heard Janis Joplin's version of "Me and Bobby McGee" on a barroom jukebox, she had been dead for a long time. Indeed, the first time I ever heard of Joplin was when she died. Suicide, wasn't it? I don't know where I got the idea that Dylan wrote that song, but I figured that, since he was a male, and the song seemed to be about a former girlfriend, that Bobby would have been spelled "Bobbi" in the original version. Now that you mention it, it does sound more like Kristofferson's style than Dylan's.
I looked up Nikki Minaj's butt, and I fail to see the significance of it. She sounds like just another goofy celebrity doing yet another goofy thing to impress her goofy fans. Maybe that was Ken's point, that the public pays too much attention to crap like that when they should be concentrating on more important news, like the latest outrageous statement from Donald Trump.
I looked up Nikki Minaj's butt, and I fail to see the significance of it. She sounds like just another goofy celebrity doing yet another goofy thing to impress her goofy fans. Maybe that was Ken's point, that the public pays too much attention to crap like that when they should be concentrating on more important news, like the latest outrageous statement from Donald Trump.
Other versions
It almost seems a bit disruptive to post on the weekend, what with Uncle Ken taking the few days off; any subtle continuity may be lost. But what the hell, a little digression shouldn't hurt.
It wasn't Dylan but Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster who wrote "Me and Bobby McGee," and it was originally performed by Roger Miller, a version inferior to Janis Joplin's interpretation. There must be other versions, as the song itself is one of our modern classics. I should dig around and listen to Kristofferson's original; it's probably pretty good.
I like listening to different versions of the same song; they often bring something new to the ear. Consider "It Ain't Me Babe" by Dylan and the versions by the Turtles or Johnny Cash. All good, all different. Or "Proud Mary" by The Creedence Clearwater Revival. The original is good, but Ike and Tina Turner's version blows it out of the water, especially the live recordings. There is none better.
I saw Tina Turner at a college concert shortly after Ike quit (or was thrown out of) the band. Our folding chairs were first row (I had clout), less than ten feet from the stage. At one point she left the stage and was strutting and singing, almost in touching distance, and there was a quick flash of eye contact...electric is the only word to describe it. And then she moved on, and I was forgotten. What a dame!
-----
There may have been some idle chitchat during Friday's seminar about the butt of Nicky Minaj, but it didn't go far. Not much can be said or understood about the concept of gluteal implants. I did ask something though: wasn't there a time when a woman would ask her significant other "These jeans don't make my ass look big, do they?" The unspoken answer was usually "No, dear. It's the Big Macs, ice cream, and sitting on your butt all day that makes your ass look big." But a gentleman does not speak of such things.
,
It wasn't Dylan but Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster who wrote "Me and Bobby McGee," and it was originally performed by Roger Miller, a version inferior to Janis Joplin's interpretation. There must be other versions, as the song itself is one of our modern classics. I should dig around and listen to Kristofferson's original; it's probably pretty good.
I like listening to different versions of the same song; they often bring something new to the ear. Consider "It Ain't Me Babe" by Dylan and the versions by the Turtles or Johnny Cash. All good, all different. Or "Proud Mary" by The Creedence Clearwater Revival. The original is good, but Ike and Tina Turner's version blows it out of the water, especially the live recordings. There is none better.
I saw Tina Turner at a college concert shortly after Ike quit (or was thrown out of) the band. Our folding chairs were first row (I had clout), less than ten feet from the stage. At one point she left the stage and was strutting and singing, almost in touching distance, and there was a quick flash of eye contact...electric is the only word to describe it. And then she moved on, and I was forgotten. What a dame!
-----
There may have been some idle chitchat during Friday's seminar about the butt of Nicky Minaj, but it didn't go far. Not much can be said or understood about the concept of gluteal implants. I did ask something though: wasn't there a time when a woman would ask her significant other "These jeans don't make my ass look big, do they?" The unspoken answer was usually "No, dear. It's the Big Macs, ice cream, and sitting on your butt all day that makes your ass look big." But a gentleman does not speak of such things.
,
Friday, September 23, 2016
Freedom and Rights
I am reminded of a couple of lines from the song "Me and Bobbi McGhee" by Bob Dylan:
"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.
Nothin' ain't worth nothin', but it's free."
While primitive hunter gatherers may have had more freedom than anybody since, that's not exactly the same as saying they had more rights. The reason they had more freedom was that there were so few of them and so much vacant land around them, but the only rights they had were those they could defend with their spears. As the Declaration of Independence says, "they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights", but then it says, "to secure these rights, governments were instituted among men". If the rights are God given and inalienable, then why do we need a government to secure them? I think it means that God, or Nature, gives us our rights, but it is up to us to defend them from those who would deprive us of them. Man must have discovered early on that, when it comes to defending rights, two spears are better than one, and he became a social animal.
Roman citizens probably had more defendable rights than anybody previous because they had the rule of law, and a big army with which to enforce it. Medieval Europe represented a regression in that respect, with a bunch of petty warlords squabbling over who had the right to exploit the peasants. We've been climbing out of that hole ever since. While it's true that the Western World is running ahead of the Third World in that respect, it's because we are improving faster than they are. A thousand years ago, there was no Western World, and everybody lived like the Third World lives today. Well, not exactly, the Third World has since traded their spears for guns. What a big improvement that was!
It's true that robots can't do everything, at least not yet, and human labor can still compete with them for cost effectiveness in many fields, but those fields are shrinking as we speak. If present trends continue, there might come a day when human labor is no longer necessary. Assuming that humans are still in control of robots instead of the other way around, what will we do with ourselves? I suppose we will still have our hobbies, but they are becoming more automated as well. Also, somebody is going to have to decide how the resources are allocated. Will we turn that task over to our machines as well? Will the machines fight among themselves trying to secure a bigger share for their own people? Will their people pull the plugs on the robots if they are dissatisfied with their performance, and transfer their loyalty to a machine that promises them more of everything? You know, I think that Old dog may be right, economy and government are inseparable.
The reason I have not responded to Ken's comments about Nikki Minaj's butt is because I have no idea what he is talking about. I suppose I will have to look it up this weekend so I will be able to intelligently discuss what might turn out to be an interesting subject.
"Freedom's just another word for nothin' left to lose.
Nothin' ain't worth nothin', but it's free."
While primitive hunter gatherers may have had more freedom than anybody since, that's not exactly the same as saying they had more rights. The reason they had more freedom was that there were so few of them and so much vacant land around them, but the only rights they had were those they could defend with their spears. As the Declaration of Independence says, "they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights", but then it says, "to secure these rights, governments were instituted among men". If the rights are God given and inalienable, then why do we need a government to secure them? I think it means that God, or Nature, gives us our rights, but it is up to us to defend them from those who would deprive us of them. Man must have discovered early on that, when it comes to defending rights, two spears are better than one, and he became a social animal.
Roman citizens probably had more defendable rights than anybody previous because they had the rule of law, and a big army with which to enforce it. Medieval Europe represented a regression in that respect, with a bunch of petty warlords squabbling over who had the right to exploit the peasants. We've been climbing out of that hole ever since. While it's true that the Western World is running ahead of the Third World in that respect, it's because we are improving faster than they are. A thousand years ago, there was no Western World, and everybody lived like the Third World lives today. Well, not exactly, the Third World has since traded their spears for guns. What a big improvement that was!
It's true that robots can't do everything, at least not yet, and human labor can still compete with them for cost effectiveness in many fields, but those fields are shrinking as we speak. If present trends continue, there might come a day when human labor is no longer necessary. Assuming that humans are still in control of robots instead of the other way around, what will we do with ourselves? I suppose we will still have our hobbies, but they are becoming more automated as well. Also, somebody is going to have to decide how the resources are allocated. Will we turn that task over to our machines as well? Will the machines fight among themselves trying to secure a bigger share for their own people? Will their people pull the plugs on the robots if they are dissatisfied with their performance, and transfer their loyalty to a machine that promises them more of everything? You know, I think that Old dog may be right, economy and government are inseparable.
The reason I have not responded to Ken's comments about Nikki Minaj's butt is because I have no idea what he is talking about. I suppose I will have to look it up this weekend so I will be able to intelligently discuss what might turn out to be an interesting subject.
Subjective objectivity
Apologies to all,but I'm still having trouble grappling with the concepts regarding objective reality. As a dull-witted clod, I can't go any further until someone explains to me the difference between truth and facts; they are not the same.
If there is a knife on the table, Uncle Ken may see a tool, I may see a weapon, and Mr. Beagles may see an objet d'art. All possibilities can be true, but the only fact is that it is a knife and not a banana.
-----
Mr. Beagles brought up an interesting point: "...what I would like to address here is the future of economy, not the future of government."
Hmmm...aren't they inextricably linked, at least in the Western capital-driven world? I'm no expert on the ins and outs of Capitalism, but doesn't a lot of it depend on continuous growth? I get the impression that unless the stock market grows we are doomed, and the economy is stagnant and sure to collapse. Yeah, I don't know much about the markets, interest rates, inflation/deflation, either. But there are limits to growth; nothing can grow forever.
There are some small businesses that choose to remain small because growth would be more trouble than it's worth. They are more than satisfied making a modest living.
"Making a living" can be a slippery concept; we are conditioned and pressured to want more and bigger and newer everything. We don't need much, but we want a lot and the free market is doing a dandy job of fulfilling those wants. To what end, I don't know.
-----
Automation has it's limits, too. Robots can't do everything and there are some things they will never do well, or at all. All those fancy machines and robots are very expensive and they are not cost effective unless they are running constantly. Human labor can be cheaper and more productive, but that's a topic for another day.
-----
Hey, it's been another election-free Friday! Kind of gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. How about you?
If there is a knife on the table, Uncle Ken may see a tool, I may see a weapon, and Mr. Beagles may see an objet d'art. All possibilities can be true, but the only fact is that it is a knife and not a banana.
-----
Mr. Beagles brought up an interesting point: "...what I would like to address here is the future of economy, not the future of government."
Hmmm...aren't they inextricably linked, at least in the Western capital-driven world? I'm no expert on the ins and outs of Capitalism, but doesn't a lot of it depend on continuous growth? I get the impression that unless the stock market grows we are doomed, and the economy is stagnant and sure to collapse. Yeah, I don't know much about the markets, interest rates, inflation/deflation, either. But there are limits to growth; nothing can grow forever.
There are some small businesses that choose to remain small because growth would be more trouble than it's worth. They are more than satisfied making a modest living.
"Making a living" can be a slippery concept; we are conditioned and pressured to want more and bigger and newer everything. We don't need much, but we want a lot and the free market is doing a dandy job of fulfilling those wants. To what end, I don't know.
-----
Automation has it's limits, too. Robots can't do everything and there are some things they will never do well, or at all. All those fancy machines and robots are very expensive and they are not cost effective unless they are running constantly. Human labor can be cheaper and more productive, but that's a topic for another day.
-----
Hey, it's been another election-free Friday! Kind of gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling. How about you?
The Hidden Persuaders
I think I will take issue with Beagles' idea that history seems to be marching towards people having more rights, A couple weeks ago I had laid out my idea of an objective physical reality, I'm pretty sure that was it, but it could have been anything really, and the next morning I saw where Old Dog had disagreed with me on almost every point, and I was all like, fer Chrissake. It looks like he just went over everything I said and disagreed with me. And then I gave myself pause. Isn't this what I always do? Why yes it is. Well so it goes then. If you can't take the heat get out of the Beaglesonian kitchen,
As for whether we are moving towards more rights for individuals depends on when and where you put your starting point at. Certainly as hunter gatherers we had more rights than we did once we discovered agriculture. Probably we had more rights in the Roman Empire than in medieval Europe. Western civ is probably doing okay now, but the rest of the world not so much. Here in America we have broadened out our rights to people who don't own property, women, blacks, and now gays, that's all a good thing, But the trend of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer bodes ill since power flows towards money, and then there is the idea that the current all-enveloping media is manipulating us.
I think we're all of an age where we remember The Hidden Persuaders. One of the ideas there was that there were white-coated scientists in our universities peering over their clipboards at rats running mazes, jotting down data and taking it to their huge clanking and blinking computers and figuring out every last thing there was to know about human beings, and using it, not to better the human race, but to help Wrigley peddle chewing gum.
Fifty years later we really haven't gotten much closer to understanding the human mind, in the sense of having a set of axioms like in geometry to figure out theories. We seem to have moved more towards the use of focus groups. I believe I have told my focus group stories, but it has been some time ago so I will repeat them, but at a later date
The villains of The Hidden Persuaders were television, the new all-pervasive monster and advertising. Nowadays we have the much more pervasive internet, and again advertisers.
I was going to extend this to politics, but here we are at the end of the week so I will let that ferment over the weekend.
I see that my attempts to drag the blog into the internet sewer ala Nicki's backside have failed because Old Dog and Beagles seem to be made of sterner stuff than myself. Very well, I salute you.
As for whether we are moving towards more rights for individuals depends on when and where you put your starting point at. Certainly as hunter gatherers we had more rights than we did once we discovered agriculture. Probably we had more rights in the Roman Empire than in medieval Europe. Western civ is probably doing okay now, but the rest of the world not so much. Here in America we have broadened out our rights to people who don't own property, women, blacks, and now gays, that's all a good thing, But the trend of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer bodes ill since power flows towards money, and then there is the idea that the current all-enveloping media is manipulating us.
I think we're all of an age where we remember The Hidden Persuaders. One of the ideas there was that there were white-coated scientists in our universities peering over their clipboards at rats running mazes, jotting down data and taking it to their huge clanking and blinking computers and figuring out every last thing there was to know about human beings, and using it, not to better the human race, but to help Wrigley peddle chewing gum.
Fifty years later we really haven't gotten much closer to understanding the human mind, in the sense of having a set of axioms like in geometry to figure out theories. We seem to have moved more towards the use of focus groups. I believe I have told my focus group stories, but it has been some time ago so I will repeat them, but at a later date
The villains of The Hidden Persuaders were television, the new all-pervasive monster and advertising. Nowadays we have the much more pervasive internet, and again advertisers.
I was going to extend this to politics, but here we are at the end of the week so I will let that ferment over the weekend.
I see that my attempts to drag the blog into the internet sewer ala Nicki's backside have failed because Old Dog and Beagles seem to be made of sterner stuff than myself. Very well, I salute you.
Thursday, September 22, 2016
The Jobless Economy
All kidding aside, I think we're on to something here. If automation continues along it's present track, will there come a time when nobody has to work for a living? I suppose that some people will always be employed in some kind of supervisory role, but those won't be jobs, they will be positions. So how will the rest of us make a living?
Most of the dystopian scenarios are about autocratic dictatorships, but history actually seems to be marching in the opposite direction, with people having more rights rather than less. Sure there are still places in the world where the few dominate the many but, the farther back you go in history, the more of that sort of thing you find. Be that as it may, what I would like to address here is the future of economy, not the future of government.
One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is the specialization of labor. Well, some other animals do that too, but not nearly to the extent that we do. The earliest specialization among humans was undoubtedly the male and female roles. Then there were the tool and weapon makers and the tool and weapon users. At some point the middle men, the traders, became involved. Along the way, we picked up headmen, healers, shamans, and entertainers. As each specialty developed, a way had to be found to compensate people for their contributions. Many early societies were probably communal, but I doubt that they all practiced "from each according to his ability to each according to his need". In certain trades where the demand exceeded the supply, maybe recognition and adulation were sufficient inducements. At some point it became competitive, with people fighting over the more prestigious jobs, and groups of people fighting over access to resources. Until recently, it was all about how to get the work done. If the time ever comes when work is no longer necessary, what kind of economic structures might be expected to develop?
My browser uses Bing instead of Google, so I guess you could say that I Binged the Institute. I typed "The Beaglesonian Institute" in the search bar, and we were at the top of the list. I clicked on it, and it brought me right here.
Most of the dystopian scenarios are about autocratic dictatorships, but history actually seems to be marching in the opposite direction, with people having more rights rather than less. Sure there are still places in the world where the few dominate the many but, the farther back you go in history, the more of that sort of thing you find. Be that as it may, what I would like to address here is the future of economy, not the future of government.
One of the things that distinguishes man from the other animals is the specialization of labor. Well, some other animals do that too, but not nearly to the extent that we do. The earliest specialization among humans was undoubtedly the male and female roles. Then there were the tool and weapon makers and the tool and weapon users. At some point the middle men, the traders, became involved. Along the way, we picked up headmen, healers, shamans, and entertainers. As each specialty developed, a way had to be found to compensate people for their contributions. Many early societies were probably communal, but I doubt that they all practiced "from each according to his ability to each according to his need". In certain trades where the demand exceeded the supply, maybe recognition and adulation were sufficient inducements. At some point it became competitive, with people fighting over the more prestigious jobs, and groups of people fighting over access to resources. Until recently, it was all about how to get the work done. If the time ever comes when work is no longer necessary, what kind of economic structures might be expected to develop?
My browser uses Bing instead of Google, so I guess you could say that I Binged the Institute. I typed "The Beaglesonian Institute" in the search bar, and we were at the top of the list. I clicked on it, and it brought me right here.
Think before you search
I haven't had any ads on this blog thus far; the austere beauty remains unsullied. It remains a hidden gem, witnessed by the fact that a Google search on another computer revealed nothing for the term "Beaglesonian." There is hope for us human beings now that the mighty Google has been shown to be fallible...
-----
I remember those ads for the fake butts (Frederick's of Hollywood!), usually very small ads in the back of some of the magazines Mom used to subscribe to; the dark side of Lady's Home Journal. Those ads were something, sure to inspire impure thoughts in the minds of young lads. The ad I recall most vividly was for the "Blumette Bra," now referred to as a "shelf" bra. You can picture it's function precisely, and it probably spiced up the lives of many a midwestern housewife. Plain brown wrapper, naturally, don't want the postman to get any funny ideas.
-----
In some ways we should be mentally prepared for our miserable plights in a bleak future. Vonnegut was only one of many with an uncanny prescience. Bits and pieces of many older works have shown possible scenarios of future life. Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Norman Jewison's Rollerball, Huxley's Brave New World, Mike Judge's Idiocracy, Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy...the list seems endless.
It's too late to worry about any technology falling into the wrong hands; it's already in everyone's hands, should they choose to use it. Not easy to implement, but not impossible for certain highly motivated types. We can already buy cheap, high-wattage laser tubes from China, build the appropriate gizmo, and indulge in a little arson from the back of a rented van. Bio-weapons? No problem, if you don't mind some book learnin' and lab work. Hint: use an anonymous account with good security before you start looking up the instructions. Oh, and you'll be caught, eventually.
But I don't think future tragedies will occur at the wrong hands. It's too much work when you can accomplish much more with a few gallons of gasoline. The Big Bad will happen by accident, when someone turns the wrong valve or reads the wrong label or hits the wrong character on the keyboard. Oops.
-----
I remember those ads for the fake butts (Frederick's of Hollywood!), usually very small ads in the back of some of the magazines Mom used to subscribe to; the dark side of Lady's Home Journal. Those ads were something, sure to inspire impure thoughts in the minds of young lads. The ad I recall most vividly was for the "Blumette Bra," now referred to as a "shelf" bra. You can picture it's function precisely, and it probably spiced up the lives of many a midwestern housewife. Plain brown wrapper, naturally, don't want the postman to get any funny ideas.
-----
In some ways we should be mentally prepared for our miserable plights in a bleak future. Vonnegut was only one of many with an uncanny prescience. Bits and pieces of many older works have shown possible scenarios of future life. Fritz Lang's Metropolis, Norman Jewison's Rollerball, Huxley's Brave New World, Mike Judge's Idiocracy, Gibson's Sprawl Trilogy...the list seems endless.
It's too late to worry about any technology falling into the wrong hands; it's already in everyone's hands, should they choose to use it. Not easy to implement, but not impossible for certain highly motivated types. We can already buy cheap, high-wattage laser tubes from China, build the appropriate gizmo, and indulge in a little arson from the back of a rented van. Bio-weapons? No problem, if you don't mind some book learnin' and lab work. Hint: use an anonymous account with good security before you start looking up the instructions. Oh, and you'll be caught, eventually.
But I don't think future tragedies will occur at the wrong hands. It's too much work when you can accomplish much more with a few gallons of gasoline. The Big Bad will happen by accident, when someone turns the wrong valve or reads the wrong label or hits the wrong character on the keyboard. Oops.
butts bigger than breadboxes or handbaskets
Oh we are suckers for nostalgia are we not? Oh those ads in the back of comic books. Not only did you get 52 pages of good reading for your dime, but in the back it gave you an entryway to fantastic bargains. I sent in for I think it was 100 soldiers (army men as we called them) for a buck, and waited and waited by the mailbox and when I got them one side of them was flat and they were really tiny.
But there were a hundred of them, so it was a more honest deal than the gadget that threw your voice. What I was really interested in of course were the 3d glasses, but I was afraid that Mom would intercept the package and would know right away that I was up to no good. The gadget as I recall was some kind of whistle and a page of instructions that didn't make any sense.
I've never seen any ads on the blog, I suspect we are not high volume enough for anybody to bother with, and as yet I haven't seen any ads for Nikkii Minaj or fake butts in my facebook feed. Now that I think about it there used to be ads for fake butts too. Not in comic books, but in those romance magazines that my sisters left lying around where their brother could sneak a peek to see if there was anything lurid in them. If either of my sisters sent in for a fake butt I never heard about it.
Well I still wonder what will happen when all the work is done by robots. What will happen to those of us who used to do all the work and don't the guys who own the robots need somebody to buy all the crap that the robots make? I suppose they could pay the robots to make the crap and then program the robots to buy the crap. And money, you know it used to be like jewels and gold. You couldn't eat it, but at least it was something shiny, than it became paper which doesn't have as much substance, but at least it was something. Now it is just blips in a machine, I suppose if you owned the machine you could get whatever blips you wanted.
If you were the only man on Earth I suppose you would be the richest, but we are a social animal and we at least need people to envy us. Maybe the new super rich with their armies of robots could become like local gods. If you joined their church you would be clothed and fed, but you would have to sing songs of praise to them and perform whatever wacky rituals came to their mind.
I am thinking of Vonnegut's Player Piano with the reeks and wrecks. Wow I just looked that up and it was published in 1952, possibly at the time of the Sawyer School Blue Jeans incident.
I was just now wondering if this discussion of Nikki Minaj's butt had increased our ratings in cyberspace so I googled Beaglesonian and came up with several responses. I wonder if this is because google knows who I am. As I recall when I was in Missouri I tried to see what was going on with The Institute, but when I googled Beaglesonian on Ruby Doo's computer I got no response.
I did get a response to beaglesonian nicki minaj butt, so hop into the handbasket guys, it will be a rocky ride.
But there were a hundred of them, so it was a more honest deal than the gadget that threw your voice. What I was really interested in of course were the 3d glasses, but I was afraid that Mom would intercept the package and would know right away that I was up to no good. The gadget as I recall was some kind of whistle and a page of instructions that didn't make any sense.
I've never seen any ads on the blog, I suspect we are not high volume enough for anybody to bother with, and as yet I haven't seen any ads for Nikkii Minaj or fake butts in my facebook feed. Now that I think about it there used to be ads for fake butts too. Not in comic books, but in those romance magazines that my sisters left lying around where their brother could sneak a peek to see if there was anything lurid in them. If either of my sisters sent in for a fake butt I never heard about it.
Well I still wonder what will happen when all the work is done by robots. What will happen to those of us who used to do all the work and don't the guys who own the robots need somebody to buy all the crap that the robots make? I suppose they could pay the robots to make the crap and then program the robots to buy the crap. And money, you know it used to be like jewels and gold. You couldn't eat it, but at least it was something shiny, than it became paper which doesn't have as much substance, but at least it was something. Now it is just blips in a machine, I suppose if you owned the machine you could get whatever blips you wanted.
If you were the only man on Earth I suppose you would be the richest, but we are a social animal and we at least need people to envy us. Maybe the new super rich with their armies of robots could become like local gods. If you joined their church you would be clothed and fed, but you would have to sing songs of praise to them and perform whatever wacky rituals came to their mind.
I am thinking of Vonnegut's Player Piano with the reeks and wrecks. Wow I just looked that up and it was published in 1952, possibly at the time of the Sawyer School Blue Jeans incident.
I was just now wondering if this discussion of Nikki Minaj's butt had increased our ratings in cyberspace so I googled Beaglesonian and came up with several responses. I wonder if this is because google knows who I am. As I recall when I was in Missouri I tried to see what was going on with The Institute, but when I googled Beaglesonian on Ruby Doo's computer I got no response.
I did get a response to beaglesonian nicki minaj butt, so hop into the handbasket guys, it will be a rocky ride.
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Google This ! (makes obscene gesture)
Do you guys get ads on this site? I don't, not that I'm complaining. I have a pop-up blocker on my browser, but I see the marginal ads on Face Book. Wiki doesn't have ads, but they solicit donations once or twice a year. I have been on other sites that have those spooky ads that are tailored to whatever you are talking about at the moment. It is my understanding that Google invented those things, and Blogger is a Google product, but we don't get them here, at least I don't. I believe that Google also invented the first pop-up blocker, so they couldn't be all bad. I don't get a lot of spam on my email, but I used to. When I converted from dial-up to satellite service, they gave me a new email account and, for some reason, the spammers didn't follow me here. I seem to remember that the feds passed some kind of anti-spam law about that time, so maybe that had something to do with it.
I haven't bought much on the internet over the years, and never from an ad. I have bought a few CDs from CD Universe because nobody sells them around here anymore. Well, Walmart sells CDs and DVDs but, if they don't have what you're looking for, they won't order it for you. I understand they have their own site where you can order stuff, but I've never been there. Anymore, I go right to Amazon if I can't find something locally. I spent the better part of a year trying to get a replacement stock for my muzzle loader from the manufacturer. They said they were going to give me one for free because my old stock developed some cracks in it, even though the gun was no longer under warranty. I finally found one on Amazon, and they sent it to me in a few days. I had to pay for it, but I got the stock. Free is good, but not if you don't get it.
I believe it was my sister who told me that the day was coming when nobody would have to work for a living if they didn't want to. This was about the time the first Star Trek TV series was playing, so maybe she got the idea from them. In the Star Trek universe, all the work was done by machines, but you could still get a job on the Enterprise if you wanted "to go where no man has gone before". I don't think those guys got paid, but everything they needed or even wanted was provided by something called a "replicator". They would just say, "Computer, give me a cup of Siluvian coffee please", and a cup of Siluvian coffee would appear in a cubbyhole in the nearest wall. Later, I believe it was in the Next Generation series, they encountered an extraterrestrial race called the "Ferenghi", you know, the guys with the big ears. The Ferenghi were money grubbing capitalists that were looked down upon by the Star Fleet people. They got along with each other okay, but you could never trust a Ferenghi to give you a fair deal out of the goodness of their hearts. It was a matter of "let the buyer beware", and be sure to read all the fine print in any contract you sign with them. Nevertheless, they could get you something when your replicator couldn't, so they provided a valuable service from time to time.
I don't know if we will ever come that far in the real world, but we do seem to be moving in that direction. Star Trek accurately predicted the smart phones of today, and the medical profession has some gadgets that resemble the tricorder. The Taser that is commonly used in police work is nothing more than a phaser set on "stun". The transporter and the warp drive are still light years away, which is probably for the best. Who knows what would happen if that kind of technology got into the wrong hands?
I haven't bought much on the internet over the years, and never from an ad. I have bought a few CDs from CD Universe because nobody sells them around here anymore. Well, Walmart sells CDs and DVDs but, if they don't have what you're looking for, they won't order it for you. I understand they have their own site where you can order stuff, but I've never been there. Anymore, I go right to Amazon if I can't find something locally. I spent the better part of a year trying to get a replacement stock for my muzzle loader from the manufacturer. They said they were going to give me one for free because my old stock developed some cracks in it, even though the gun was no longer under warranty. I finally found one on Amazon, and they sent it to me in a few days. I had to pay for it, but I got the stock. Free is good, but not if you don't get it.
I believe it was my sister who told me that the day was coming when nobody would have to work for a living if they didn't want to. This was about the time the first Star Trek TV series was playing, so maybe she got the idea from them. In the Star Trek universe, all the work was done by machines, but you could still get a job on the Enterprise if you wanted "to go where no man has gone before". I don't think those guys got paid, but everything they needed or even wanted was provided by something called a "replicator". They would just say, "Computer, give me a cup of Siluvian coffee please", and a cup of Siluvian coffee would appear in a cubbyhole in the nearest wall. Later, I believe it was in the Next Generation series, they encountered an extraterrestrial race called the "Ferenghi", you know, the guys with the big ears. The Ferenghi were money grubbing capitalists that were looked down upon by the Star Fleet people. They got along with each other okay, but you could never trust a Ferenghi to give you a fair deal out of the goodness of their hearts. It was a matter of "let the buyer beware", and be sure to read all the fine print in any contract you sign with them. Nevertheless, they could get you something when your replicator couldn't, so they provided a valuable service from time to time.
I don't know if we will ever come that far in the real world, but we do seem to be moving in that direction. Star Trek accurately predicted the smart phones of today, and the medical profession has some gadgets that resemble the tricorder. The Taser that is commonly used in police work is nothing more than a phaser set on "stun". The transporter and the warp drive are still light years away, which is probably for the best. Who knows what would happen if that kind of technology got into the wrong hands?
Ifs, ands, or butts
Although I have an ad blocker on my browser some ads still sneak through and it bugs the hell out of me, but that's the price I pay for "free" services. Advertising revenue drives the internet, and we are the product being sold.
There was an old saw about advertising, that it is designed to sell people products that they don't need, they can't afford, to impress people that don't care. I can't think of any recent purchases of mine that were influenced by advertising, but maybe that's how it works. I'm not aware of it, but deep in my subconscious there's a blinking message and a klaxon horn with the command to "Buy that! Buy that!" I have probably succumbed, without knowing it.
We've been duped by advertising all our lives. Is there any product that truly lived up to the advertised claims? Offhand, I can't think of any and have often experienced buyer's remorse. There were a few things I ordered when I was a kid, usually from the back of a cereal box (Battle Creek, Michigan must have been a major commercial hub) or something in a comic book and I always felt let down, with a feeling of great disappointment. I paid a quarter for that? At least I never ordered any Sea Monkeys.
-----
Uncle Ken nails it (again!) with his comment about automation being the biggest threat to jobs. We have forgotten what happened to John Henry, that steel driving man. And what happens when all the consumers have everything they need or can't afford to consume any more? The center cannot hold, and we may be one of the last generations to have lived through the "good times." The first sign of the collapse is Uncle Ken's awareness of the Nicki Minaj butt controversy. Now I have to look it up, and climb aboard the handbasket to hell.
There was an old saw about advertising, that it is designed to sell people products that they don't need, they can't afford, to impress people that don't care. I can't think of any recent purchases of mine that were influenced by advertising, but maybe that's how it works. I'm not aware of it, but deep in my subconscious there's a blinking message and a klaxon horn with the command to "Buy that! Buy that!" I have probably succumbed, without knowing it.
We've been duped by advertising all our lives. Is there any product that truly lived up to the advertised claims? Offhand, I can't think of any and have often experienced buyer's remorse. There were a few things I ordered when I was a kid, usually from the back of a cereal box (Battle Creek, Michigan must have been a major commercial hub) or something in a comic book and I always felt let down, with a feeling of great disappointment. I paid a quarter for that? At least I never ordered any Sea Monkeys.
-----
Uncle Ken nails it (again!) with his comment about automation being the biggest threat to jobs. We have forgotten what happened to John Henry, that steel driving man. And what happens when all the consumers have everything they need or can't afford to consume any more? The center cannot hold, and we may be one of the last generations to have lived through the "good times." The first sign of the collapse is Uncle Ken's awareness of the Nicki Minaj butt controversy. Now I have to look it up, and climb aboard the handbasket to hell.
Nikki Minaj's butt
I don't worry about people tracking my purchases. The whole world can know, and if they send me coupons that's nice, but I hate fiddling with them. Our local store had those discount cards for awhile and showing them was a bit of a pain in the ass for a busy retired guy like me. But if you could always tell them you didn't have it with you they would give you the discount anyway.
Sometime back some gun porn was posted on the Beaglestonian (What Ruby Doo calls the blog, has kind of a ring no?) and a few days later I got ads on fb for guns. Didn't bother me that much I guess because if it wasn't ads for guns it would be ads for something else.
I never buy anything from an internet ad. Just being on the internet gives anything a shady reputation in my book. You know if you get a hard copy of say an advertisement circular, you can look it over all at once. On the internet you only have some shiny thing and when you click on it who knows where you will go? The internet is like one of those rope suspension bridges over a deep jungle valley. You have to keep your eyes straight ahead and don't look down. Even reputable sites like Politico and The Hill, and my Yahoo news feed (I would have included fb, but I don't think you can use reputable and fb in the same sentence), have these articles kind of at the bottom of that look sort of like news (The Ten Most Popular Presidents) but when you click on them you find yourself in a wild west of celebrity gossip and goofy health tips. I now know a lot about the Nikki Minaj butt controversy which I won't sully the Beaglestonian by repeating, but I wonder if after posting this I will start getting ads for her music.
I think two things are going on with those seasonal workers from Jamaica. One is that local people probably aren't interested in living in any barracks. Another thing is Americans can be kind of lippy, but when you import people into your country and have them living in your barracks, and probably you can send them right back with the flip of a finger, they are not so lippy.
The Republicans claim to create jobs by unshackling business from pesky regulations and not making them pay any taxes. The Democrats will provide more education and work on the infrastructure, and Carrot Top will do it by being a smart guy with a great plan.
But really these jobs are not coming back The real enemy is not immigration but automation. But don't the fat cats ever realize that they need somebody to buy their products? I guess maybe we could all end up as servants on their estates and building pyramids to their greatness, but come to think of it they can have robots do that. What will become of the ninety-niners when there is no work to be done? Won't the one percenters try to find some way to keep us around?
Sometime back some gun porn was posted on the Beaglestonian (What Ruby Doo calls the blog, has kind of a ring no?) and a few days later I got ads on fb for guns. Didn't bother me that much I guess because if it wasn't ads for guns it would be ads for something else.
I never buy anything from an internet ad. Just being on the internet gives anything a shady reputation in my book. You know if you get a hard copy of say an advertisement circular, you can look it over all at once. On the internet you only have some shiny thing and when you click on it who knows where you will go? The internet is like one of those rope suspension bridges over a deep jungle valley. You have to keep your eyes straight ahead and don't look down. Even reputable sites like Politico and The Hill, and my Yahoo news feed (I would have included fb, but I don't think you can use reputable and fb in the same sentence), have these articles kind of at the bottom of that look sort of like news (The Ten Most Popular Presidents) but when you click on them you find yourself in a wild west of celebrity gossip and goofy health tips. I now know a lot about the Nikki Minaj butt controversy which I won't sully the Beaglestonian by repeating, but I wonder if after posting this I will start getting ads for her music.
I think two things are going on with those seasonal workers from Jamaica. One is that local people probably aren't interested in living in any barracks. Another thing is Americans can be kind of lippy, but when you import people into your country and have them living in your barracks, and probably you can send them right back with the flip of a finger, they are not so lippy.
The Republicans claim to create jobs by unshackling business from pesky regulations and not making them pay any taxes. The Democrats will provide more education and work on the infrastructure, and Carrot Top will do it by being a smart guy with a great plan.
But really these jobs are not coming back The real enemy is not immigration but automation. But don't the fat cats ever realize that they need somebody to buy their products? I guess maybe we could all end up as servants on their estates and building pyramids to their greatness, but come to think of it they can have robots do that. What will become of the ninety-niners when there is no work to be done? Won't the one percenters try to find some way to keep us around?
Tuesday, September 20, 2016
Plastic
A few years after we got satellite TV, we got satellite internet service from the same company. This time they required that I get a card for sure. I suppose it was for the best because we got hooked up a lot quicker this time. We were already members of our local credit union, and I was able to get a debit card from them for free. I didn't think I would use it much, but I do. It draws off of our checking account, and my hypothetical wife keeps our checkbook in her purse, so now I don't have to get the checkbook from her every time I go to town. I just have to remember to give her the receipt from every card purchase so she can subtract it from the checkbook.
My hypothetical wife refuses to use the card, and now she doesn't even use the checkbook except to pay bills by mail. Some time ago, some of our local stores started scanning your check and then giving it right back to you. You don't even have to fill the check out, all they need is the account number, so they are processing checks the same way they process plastic. This bothers my hypothetical wife, no particular reason, she just doesn't like it. She goes to the credit union a couple times a month and draws out enough cash to cover the grocery shopping, and then pays cash for everything she buys. Our Social Security checks are direct deposited into our checking account, and she likes to make sure they went in on time. She could do that by phone but, since she's there anyway, she does it in person. Most of the clerks at the credit union know her and, unless there's a new one on duty, she doesn't even have to give them her account number. One of the stores she goes to tracks her purchases anyway, even though she pays cash. She has a store discount card that she has to use to get most of the sale prices, and they must track her that way. It's not a bad deal because they send her coupons in the mail periodically for things that she has bought in the past. Since they don't have my email address, they can't spam me to death, which I'm sure they would if they could.
When we buy something by mail order, we always pay with a check because giving our card number to strangers makes us nervous. I use the card when I buy something on the internet because that's the only way they will do it. For that reason, we only buy stuff on the internet when we can't find it anyplace else. A couple weeks ago, I had to check the DNR site to see if my doe permit application was drawn. It was, so I went ahead and bought it online since I was already there. A few days later, I started getting spam emails from some crooks who claimed they wanted to give me a free fishing shirt. Coincidence? I think not! At the bottom of the messages, it said, "To unsubscribe, click here.", which I did. My own computer warned me that this was a dangerous move, and asked me if I wanted to reconsider, which I did. I just deleted the messages and, after a few days, they stopped coming.
Kicking the illegal immigrants out of the country won't provide most of us with any jobs. That's because most of the jobs nowadays don't pay enough to maintain a reliable car to drive to work and back. I don't know what it costs to ride public transportation in the cities, but I don't imagine that's cheap anymore either. The way some of our local businesses solve this is to bring a bunch of seasonal workers in from Jamaica. It's some kind of government program and, when they tried to discontinue it some years ago, our local merchants screamed bloody murder. I don't know if they're subsidized, but the employers pay the airfare to and from Jamaica and provide housing within walking distance of the job site. So why don't they do the same for our local workers? Either pay them enough so they can commute, or give them some kind of housing in town. It wouldn't have to be anything fancy, just some kind of barracks or bunkhouse like they used to have in the old time logging camps. Since the jobs are seasonal, nobody would have to live there full time anyway.
My hypothetical wife refuses to use the card, and now she doesn't even use the checkbook except to pay bills by mail. Some time ago, some of our local stores started scanning your check and then giving it right back to you. You don't even have to fill the check out, all they need is the account number, so they are processing checks the same way they process plastic. This bothers my hypothetical wife, no particular reason, she just doesn't like it. She goes to the credit union a couple times a month and draws out enough cash to cover the grocery shopping, and then pays cash for everything she buys. Our Social Security checks are direct deposited into our checking account, and she likes to make sure they went in on time. She could do that by phone but, since she's there anyway, she does it in person. Most of the clerks at the credit union know her and, unless there's a new one on duty, she doesn't even have to give them her account number. One of the stores she goes to tracks her purchases anyway, even though she pays cash. She has a store discount card that she has to use to get most of the sale prices, and they must track her that way. It's not a bad deal because they send her coupons in the mail periodically for things that she has bought in the past. Since they don't have my email address, they can't spam me to death, which I'm sure they would if they could.
When we buy something by mail order, we always pay with a check because giving our card number to strangers makes us nervous. I use the card when I buy something on the internet because that's the only way they will do it. For that reason, we only buy stuff on the internet when we can't find it anyplace else. A couple weeks ago, I had to check the DNR site to see if my doe permit application was drawn. It was, so I went ahead and bought it online since I was already there. A few days later, I started getting spam emails from some crooks who claimed they wanted to give me a free fishing shirt. Coincidence? I think not! At the bottom of the messages, it said, "To unsubscribe, click here.", which I did. My own computer warned me that this was a dangerous move, and asked me if I wanted to reconsider, which I did. I just deleted the messages and, after a few days, they stopped coming.
Kicking the illegal immigrants out of the country won't provide most of us with any jobs. That's because most of the jobs nowadays don't pay enough to maintain a reliable car to drive to work and back. I don't know what it costs to ride public transportation in the cities, but I don't imagine that's cheap anymore either. The way some of our local businesses solve this is to bring a bunch of seasonal workers in from Jamaica. It's some kind of government program and, when they tried to discontinue it some years ago, our local merchants screamed bloody murder. I don't know if they're subsidized, but the employers pay the airfare to and from Jamaica and provide housing within walking distance of the job site. So why don't they do the same for our local workers? Either pay them enough so they can commute, or give them some kind of housing in town. It wouldn't have to be anything fancy, just some kind of barracks or bunkhouse like they used to have in the old time logging camps. Since the jobs are seasonal, nobody would have to live there full time anyway.
Your money's no good
Credit cards are another one of those things that started in our lifetimes, with Diners' Club in 1950, and we are moving relentlessly to a cashless society. Like it or not, it's happening. Bank debit cards are replacing cash and the Duper phones are even worse; just tap the phone (or whatever they do) and the dough is magically transported from one account to another.
There was a time when the US Treasury issued currency with much higher values than the Benjamins of today, with the largest being $10,000 in general circulation. Can you imagine going to a car dealership today and whipping out a wad of thousand dollar bills? I'm not sure they would be recognized as legal tender; even the humble two dollar bill raises a lot of suspicion, but I haven't seen one of those in years. The hundred dollar bill itself may not be long for this world; earlier this year there were some mutterings about abolishing it. Only drug dealers and other criminals have a need for such large bills, don'cha know.
What I like best about cash is that the purchases can't be tracked. Every time I use a debit card I think that this is another little bit of info that goes into the gaping maw of Big Data, retrievable by whatever agency deems appropriate. Behavior patterns can be discerned, but maybe I'm just getting paranoid. I have nothing to hide, right?
-----
A common campaign promise these days is jobs, and everybody promises to, somehow, create more of them. How are they going to do that, what kind of jobs are they talking about, and where will these jobs be located? Once all the undocumented workers are sent back to their homelands there will be plenty of opportunities in the agricultural and manual labor sectors, that's for sure.
-----
Living in Chicago it's pretty easy to say something about the weather for the thousandth time, don't you think? At least if you're not talking with the same people all the time, then it can get old. But how 'bout them Bears?
There was a time when the US Treasury issued currency with much higher values than the Benjamins of today, with the largest being $10,000 in general circulation. Can you imagine going to a car dealership today and whipping out a wad of thousand dollar bills? I'm not sure they would be recognized as legal tender; even the humble two dollar bill raises a lot of suspicion, but I haven't seen one of those in years. The hundred dollar bill itself may not be long for this world; earlier this year there were some mutterings about abolishing it. Only drug dealers and other criminals have a need for such large bills, don'cha know.
What I like best about cash is that the purchases can't be tracked. Every time I use a debit card I think that this is another little bit of info that goes into the gaping maw of Big Data, retrievable by whatever agency deems appropriate. Behavior patterns can be discerned, but maybe I'm just getting paranoid. I have nothing to hide, right?
-----
A common campaign promise these days is jobs, and everybody promises to, somehow, create more of them. How are they going to do that, what kind of jobs are they talking about, and where will these jobs be located? Once all the undocumented workers are sent back to their homelands there will be plenty of opportunities in the agricultural and manual labor sectors, that's for sure.
-----
Living in Chicago it's pretty easy to say something about the weather for the thousandth time, don't you think? At least if you're not talking with the same people all the time, then it can get old. But how 'bout them Bears?
talking about the weather
I wonder if Beagles ever did get a credit card. I had the same problem. As a good Bohemian of course I found them appalling. A card that aided you in accumulating debt? And not only that, once you got the debt you were encouraged to only pay part of it and leave the rest to accumulate interest. All my friends seemed to love them, but I would not sully my pockets.
But when I came back to Chicago from,Texas the movie houses were way expensive, so I decided to rent videos, but when I went into the store they wanted my credit card. Well shit, I guessed I would get one then, but then I ran into the same situation as Beagles. As a good Bohemian I had never borrowed one red cent, and hence I had no credit history, which of course is worse than poor credit history. I think I got a department store credit card, and then maybe I even borrowed money just to pay it back, and finally I got my card and I was able to rent movies,
It's not quite a credit card because the money comes straight out of my checking account which is fine with me because then I don't risk missing a payment and having to pay interest. But how about those clowns who buy a can of pop at the grocery store and pay for it with their credit cards which means I have to stand behind them tapping my foot and scowling waiting for it to clear, and worse, then they do their banking there? And how about express lines, whatever happened to them?
I saw on tv that this Afghani bomber's dad had a chicken restaurant that stayed open all night and attracted a raucous crowd and the city had tried to make them shut down at ten and then they claimed discrimination and hired a lawyer, and maybe that pissed off the kid. Nobody got killed, what is the big deal?
I like those stranger conversations. You're just standing around, waiting for a bus or for some damn fool who is buying his can of pop with his credit card and, oh, he wants to take two hundred bucks out of the bank, and one of you pops up with something. It has to be done right away because after fifteen seconds the code of silence kicks in. But once started, neither of you knows each other, nor any of us each others' friends, and you will never see each other again, so you can talk about anything you want.
A variation on this is the elevator conversation. I have lived in this building twenty-four years and ninety nine percent of the time when I share an elevator it is with a stranger. Did I say fifteen seconds? It seems like in the elevator the code of silence, probably because of the close confines is more like five seconds. You're not quite as free because you both know each other lives in the building. or maybe knows somebody who does, but on the other hand the trip is not going to last very long so you don't have to worry about those awkward silences. Usually, of course the topic is the weather, now there is a challenge, try to think of something new to say about the weather for the thousandth time.
But when I came back to Chicago from,Texas the movie houses were way expensive, so I decided to rent videos, but when I went into the store they wanted my credit card. Well shit, I guessed I would get one then, but then I ran into the same situation as Beagles. As a good Bohemian I had never borrowed one red cent, and hence I had no credit history, which of course is worse than poor credit history. I think I got a department store credit card, and then maybe I even borrowed money just to pay it back, and finally I got my card and I was able to rent movies,
It's not quite a credit card because the money comes straight out of my checking account which is fine with me because then I don't risk missing a payment and having to pay interest. But how about those clowns who buy a can of pop at the grocery store and pay for it with their credit cards which means I have to stand behind them tapping my foot and scowling waiting for it to clear, and worse, then they do their banking there? And how about express lines, whatever happened to them?
I saw on tv that this Afghani bomber's dad had a chicken restaurant that stayed open all night and attracted a raucous crowd and the city had tried to make them shut down at ten and then they claimed discrimination and hired a lawyer, and maybe that pissed off the kid. Nobody got killed, what is the big deal?
I like those stranger conversations. You're just standing around, waiting for a bus or for some damn fool who is buying his can of pop with his credit card and, oh, he wants to take two hundred bucks out of the bank, and one of you pops up with something. It has to be done right away because after fifteen seconds the code of silence kicks in. But once started, neither of you knows each other, nor any of us each others' friends, and you will never see each other again, so you can talk about anything you want.
A variation on this is the elevator conversation. I have lived in this building twenty-four years and ninety nine percent of the time when I share an elevator it is with a stranger. Did I say fifteen seconds? It seems like in the elevator the code of silence, probably because of the close confines is more like five seconds. You're not quite as free because you both know each other lives in the building. or maybe knows somebody who does, but on the other hand the trip is not going to last very long so you don't have to worry about those awkward silences. Usually, of course the topic is the weather, now there is a challenge, try to think of something new to say about the weather for the thousandth time.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Credit Where Credit is Due
Back in 2007, when we got satellite TV service from the Dish Network, they didn't want to sell it to us because they couldn't establish our existence to their satisfaction. First they wanted us to have a credit card, which we didn't. Then they said that, if we paid for our "free" installation up front, they would credit our monthly bills for a year until we had been reimbursed, but first they had to run a credit check on us. After not hearing from them for awhile, I asked the local installer, who was a contractor, not an employee, to check into it. He told me that, according to the Dish people, we didn't exist because their credit check came up "negative", which means that they couldn't find any credit records for us. It had been about five years since we had paid off the mortgage on our house, and we hadn't borrowed any money since then. One would think that credit records are kept for at least five years, but apparently not.
After the installer personally vouched for our existence and good character, the Dish people said that, before they would let him install the system for us, I needed to send them a copy of my driver's license and my Social Security card. I sent the driver's license, but I couldn't find my Social Security card, so I sent them a copy of my hypothetical wife's Social Security card, figuring we could just put the service in her name. After not hearing from them for some time, the installer called them again. This time they said the problem was that the names on the driver's license and the S.S. card were not the same, so I sent them a copy of my hypothetical wife's driver's license.
After not hearing from them for some time, the installer recommended that I contact the Dish people myself and see if I had any better luck with them. He said I should send them a letter or an email because, whenever he called them, he got a different person each time, and nobody over there seemed to know what anybody else was doing. I wrote them a nice email explaining the whole thing, and then I said, "If you are a computer, please give this message to a human. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for computers, but you only know what some human has told you, and they might have given you false or incomplete information." We got our satellite dish within a week after that, but he whole process took several months to unfold.
Another time, back in the 1980s, this lady and I were sent on a business trip to Phoenix, Arizona. Somebody had told us that no car rental company would rent us a car unless we had a credit card, which neither of us did. There was a different lady in the Clerical Department who arranged the trip for us, and I asked her about the credit card thing. She said that she would set it up with the rental company and there would be no problem. When got to the Phoenix airport, there was indeed a problem, so we phoned the paper mill long distance, reversing the charges, and got ahold of our team manager. She told us to give the phone to the car rental person, which we did. After a brief conversation, they gave us the car without further argument. When we got back from our trip, I asked our manager what she had said that had changed their mind. She replied, "I told them to rent you the car and send the bill to Procter & Gamble." That's exactly what we had told them, and the trip arranging lady was supposed to have told them. Okay, this was somebody in management, but the rental people couldn't have known that for sure, she hadn't given them a code or anything like that.
I saw on the TV news this evening that they have a suspect in custody for those New York bombings. He is a naturalized citizen who was born in Afghanistan. So far they have not linked him with ISIS or any other terrorist organization, although they said that he might have been "inspired" by one or more of them. Apparently there are terrorist wannabes or copycats out there who want to do stuff like this without the necessity of paying dues or going to meetings.
After the installer personally vouched for our existence and good character, the Dish people said that, before they would let him install the system for us, I needed to send them a copy of my driver's license and my Social Security card. I sent the driver's license, but I couldn't find my Social Security card, so I sent them a copy of my hypothetical wife's Social Security card, figuring we could just put the service in her name. After not hearing from them for some time, the installer called them again. This time they said the problem was that the names on the driver's license and the S.S. card were not the same, so I sent them a copy of my hypothetical wife's driver's license.
After not hearing from them for some time, the installer recommended that I contact the Dish people myself and see if I had any better luck with them. He said I should send them a letter or an email because, whenever he called them, he got a different person each time, and nobody over there seemed to know what anybody else was doing. I wrote them a nice email explaining the whole thing, and then I said, "If you are a computer, please give this message to a human. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but respect for computers, but you only know what some human has told you, and they might have given you false or incomplete information." We got our satellite dish within a week after that, but he whole process took several months to unfold.
Another time, back in the 1980s, this lady and I were sent on a business trip to Phoenix, Arizona. Somebody had told us that no car rental company would rent us a car unless we had a credit card, which neither of us did. There was a different lady in the Clerical Department who arranged the trip for us, and I asked her about the credit card thing. She said that she would set it up with the rental company and there would be no problem. When got to the Phoenix airport, there was indeed a problem, so we phoned the paper mill long distance, reversing the charges, and got ahold of our team manager. She told us to give the phone to the car rental person, which we did. After a brief conversation, they gave us the car without further argument. When we got back from our trip, I asked our manager what she had said that had changed their mind. She replied, "I told them to rent you the car and send the bill to Procter & Gamble." That's exactly what we had told them, and the trip arranging lady was supposed to have told them. Okay, this was somebody in management, but the rental people couldn't have known that for sure, she hadn't given them a code or anything like that.
I saw on the TV news this evening that they have a suspect in custody for those New York bombings. He is a naturalized citizen who was born in Afghanistan. So far they have not linked him with ISIS or any other terrorist organization, although they said that he might have been "inspired" by one or more of them. Apparently there are terrorist wannabes or copycats out there who want to do stuff like this without the necessity of paying dues or going to meetings.
Dig this
Do you suppose the analytical engines at Google and Wikipedia are registering an uptick in queries regarding Crete and the Minoan civilization? I've been hitting it pretty hard, reading all kinds of interesting stuff, the types of things that were glossed over during my formal education phase.
In terms of ancient history, the Minoans are the new kids on the block despite being Europe's oldest civilization. Prior to the discovery of archaeological artifacts in the early 20th century, the Minoans were considered mythical. King Minos was probably a real guy; I don't know about the labyrinth that Daedalus designed. Still a lot of digging to do and much to be discovered.
It's doubtful that the Minoans were founded by the Egyptians. Some University eggheads have been conducting DNA studies and indications point to Turkey. I think the Beaglesonian Institute of Minoan Studies should apply for a grant to study this further. Winter is coming and the coldest it gets in Crete is the low 50s in January. Fine weather to be working outdoors, digging for relics. Too much rain in December.
-----
Here's an aspect of conversation that hasn't been covered yet: total strangers engaging you in conversation. I must have some kind of aura that tells people, "Sure, you can talk to me!" I can be daydreaming at the bus stop and invariably someone, usually my age but sometimes a lot younger, will start talking to me. Maybe they're only asking directions but then the topic shifts and we end up chatting away, awaiting the bus. It happens a lot.
Today, for instance, I was at the Social Security office waiting for an appointment and this old (my age) black guy a few seats over says, "You want to hear something funny?" Sure, I say, I need to hear something funny. He then proceeds to tell me how his bank refused a loan because his credit rating was too high. Huh? He's got an account there, pays everything on time, never misses any payments, and they refuse a lousy $3000 loan. WTF? I told him that wasn't funny at all, and then we yammered back and forth about banks, risky loans, sub-prime mortgages, and what a bunch of crooks the bankers are. I said he should go back and apply again, and if they refuse he should close all his accounts and take his business to the bank across the street. Or go to Fast Eddie at the pool hall and see about a short term loan.
Maybe he doesn't have enough credit cards or isn't in hock enough and it isn't worth the bank's time to bother with people who pay on time and don't incur penalty fees. I don't know how that system works, or if it works at all. It's not working for that guy.
In terms of ancient history, the Minoans are the new kids on the block despite being Europe's oldest civilization. Prior to the discovery of archaeological artifacts in the early 20th century, the Minoans were considered mythical. King Minos was probably a real guy; I don't know about the labyrinth that Daedalus designed. Still a lot of digging to do and much to be discovered.
It's doubtful that the Minoans were founded by the Egyptians. Some University eggheads have been conducting DNA studies and indications point to Turkey. I think the Beaglesonian Institute of Minoan Studies should apply for a grant to study this further. Winter is coming and the coldest it gets in Crete is the low 50s in January. Fine weather to be working outdoors, digging for relics. Too much rain in December.
-----
Here's an aspect of conversation that hasn't been covered yet: total strangers engaging you in conversation. I must have some kind of aura that tells people, "Sure, you can talk to me!" I can be daydreaming at the bus stop and invariably someone, usually my age but sometimes a lot younger, will start talking to me. Maybe they're only asking directions but then the topic shifts and we end up chatting away, awaiting the bus. It happens a lot.
Today, for instance, I was at the Social Security office waiting for an appointment and this old (my age) black guy a few seats over says, "You want to hear something funny?" Sure, I say, I need to hear something funny. He then proceeds to tell me how his bank refused a loan because his credit rating was too high. Huh? He's got an account there, pays everything on time, never misses any payments, and they refuse a lousy $3000 loan. WTF? I told him that wasn't funny at all, and then we yammered back and forth about banks, risky loans, sub-prime mortgages, and what a bunch of crooks the bankers are. I said he should go back and apply again, and if they refuse he should close all his accounts and take his business to the bank across the street. Or go to Fast Eddie at the pool hall and see about a short term loan.
Maybe he doesn't have enough credit cards or isn't in hock enough and it isn't worth the bank's time to bother with people who pay on time and don't incur penalty fees. I don't know how that system works, or if it works at all. It's not working for that guy.
bombs away
I think the Minoans developed independently of the Egyptians and the Sumerians, It seems like first there were cities, and then there were civilizations. You had to have several different cities to be considered a civilization. People were generally aware of each other. There was long distance trading before there were civilizations. Of course this is all speculation, but a lot of archaeology is speculation. They probably never will have things nailed down. Linear A fascinates me, it just seems like with all our razzle dazzle computers we would have been able to decode it by now.
Sometimes I ask about somebody's dog, just for a chance to talk about my cat. Just seems sort of polite like to me, like where when you go to a Mom and Pop grocery you say something about the weather before you ask for a pack of gum.I guess when Beagles invites us back to his house for venison steak after our seminar at Club 27, I'll remember if I want to talk about my cats, I'll just talk about my cats.
Bombs in New York. Is it terrorism? The hotter heads say it is, and the cooler ones say let's wait and find out,. Looks like kind of an amateur job at this point, but does that mean it isn't terrorism? What if it's some nut job guy, didn't he do it with the intention of creating some kind of terror? The thing is we will always have those lone nuts.
What if it's the IRA or one of those eco-terrorist groups? Well those guys have been around for years.
Ah but what if it's ISIS??? Clearly that is what the Trumpists and the rest of the republican party want us to believe, because then it is Obama, and Hilary's fault, all the more reason to install the amber asshole, because then he will, oh, you know, do something, something great to make us all safe.
Sometimes I ask about somebody's dog, just for a chance to talk about my cat. Just seems sort of polite like to me, like where when you go to a Mom and Pop grocery you say something about the weather before you ask for a pack of gum.I guess when Beagles invites us back to his house for venison steak after our seminar at Club 27, I'll remember if I want to talk about my cats, I'll just talk about my cats.
Bombs in New York. Is it terrorism? The hotter heads say it is, and the cooler ones say let's wait and find out,. Looks like kind of an amateur job at this point, but does that mean it isn't terrorism? What if it's some nut job guy, didn't he do it with the intention of creating some kind of terror? The thing is we will always have those lone nuts.
What if it's the IRA or one of those eco-terrorist groups? Well those guys have been around for years.
Ah but what if it's ISIS??? Clearly that is what the Trumpists and the rest of the republican party want us to believe, because then it is Obama, and Hilary's fault, all the more reason to install the amber asshole, because then he will, oh, you know, do something, something great to make us all safe.
Friday, September 16, 2016
A Time to Speak, and a Time to Keep Silent
Although I have been told that I talk too much, I can also listen if somebody else is talking about something interesting. Many of the times that I have been accused of dominating a conversation, it was because nobody else seemed to have anything to say. I am usually content to listen to somebody else talk if somebody else is indeed talking, but I have a hard time sitting through long periods of silence, waiting for somebody to speak up. I don't mind sitting in silence if the other person tells me that they don't want to talk right now, but it bothers me when they say they want to talk, and then they don't talk.
As I have said, another thing that bothers me is when somebody asks me a direct question and then interrupts to change the subject right in the middle of my answer. If they don't want to hear the answer, then why do they ask the question? If I ask Ken about his cat, it's not because what I really want to do is talk about my dog. If I wanted to talk about my dog, I would just talk about my dog. If I wasn't interested in Ken's cat, I wouldn't have asked Ken about his cat. Therefore, I assume that, if Ken asks me about my dog, he really wants to hear about my dog. If some people are talking about a subject that holds no interest for me, like sports, I don't try to break into the conversation and get them to change the subject, I just mind my own business and leave them alone. Of course, everybody else is not like me, but I think that the world would be a better place if they were.
According to Wiki, the Minoan civilization on Crete was the first one of its kind in Europe. It began around 3000 BC, which would make it a contemporary of the early civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. There is evidence of contact between the Minoans and the Egyptians, so the Minoan culture was certainly influenced by the Egyptian culture, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Minoan civilization was founded by Egyptians, or vice versa. They may have both originated "in situ" and developed on parallel tracks. There are theories, but I don't think any of them have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
As I have said, another thing that bothers me is when somebody asks me a direct question and then interrupts to change the subject right in the middle of my answer. If they don't want to hear the answer, then why do they ask the question? If I ask Ken about his cat, it's not because what I really want to do is talk about my dog. If I wanted to talk about my dog, I would just talk about my dog. If I wasn't interested in Ken's cat, I wouldn't have asked Ken about his cat. Therefore, I assume that, if Ken asks me about my dog, he really wants to hear about my dog. If some people are talking about a subject that holds no interest for me, like sports, I don't try to break into the conversation and get them to change the subject, I just mind my own business and leave them alone. Of course, everybody else is not like me, but I think that the world would be a better place if they were.
According to Wiki, the Minoan civilization on Crete was the first one of its kind in Europe. It began around 3000 BC, which would make it a contemporary of the early civilizations of Egypt and Mesopotamia. There is evidence of contact between the Minoans and the Egyptians, so the Minoan culture was certainly influenced by the Egyptian culture, but that doesn't necessarily mean the Minoan civilization was founded by Egyptians, or vice versa. They may have both originated "in situ" and developed on parallel tracks. There are theories, but I don't think any of them have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Election-free Friday
One new little bit I've learned about Crete is that it is the site of the oldest known European civilization. I wonder how that worked out. Did shipwreck survivors decide that it was in their best interest to develop a system of getting along, and it grew from there? Maybe I should look it up.
I also associated Crete IL with Native Americans because I usually heard the name in reference to Crete-Monee, which sounds Indian to me. Turns out that Monee is a corruption of the name Mary, which was the name of a trader's wife, and the local tribe didn't pronounce the letter 'R' in their spoken language. More fun with Wikipedia...
There's a Crete, Nebraska too.
-----
Conversation is a sub-set of verbal communication, and there are different types of conversation. So, it seems to me that Uncle Ken is focused on the nature of informal social conversation. Am I getting close?
Evolution has favored the listeners...they're the guys sitting quietly, taking it all in, and making better decisions than the folks that are running their mouths all the time.
I have mixed feelings about the blowhards. Sometimes they are entertaining (for a while) but all too often they are annoying in that they seldom bring anything new to the table that would enhance further conversation. Or their opinions are set in stone and they refuse to consider alternate points of view. They could simply be lonely or insecure and their options for healthy social interaction are limited. Don't know, can't judge, and where are the envelopes for the pool scores? How 'bout them Cubs?
I also associated Crete IL with Native Americans because I usually heard the name in reference to Crete-Monee, which sounds Indian to me. Turns out that Monee is a corruption of the name Mary, which was the name of a trader's wife, and the local tribe didn't pronounce the letter 'R' in their spoken language. More fun with Wikipedia...
There's a Crete, Nebraska too.
-----
Conversation is a sub-set of verbal communication, and there are different types of conversation. So, it seems to me that Uncle Ken is focused on the nature of informal social conversation. Am I getting close?
Evolution has favored the listeners...they're the guys sitting quietly, taking it all in, and making better decisions than the folks that are running their mouths all the time.
I have mixed feelings about the blowhards. Sometimes they are entertaining (for a while) but all too often they are annoying in that they seldom bring anything new to the table that would enhance further conversation. Or their opinions are set in stone and they refuse to consider alternate points of view. They could simply be lonely or insecure and their options for healthy social interaction are limited. Don't know, can't judge, and where are the envelopes for the pool scores? How 'bout them Cubs?
the art of blather
What I was wondering about in conversation is why people would generally prefer to talk than to listen, inasmuch as when you are listening you are learning something, but when you are speaking you are just hearing the same stuff you already know.,Wouldn't evolution have favored the listeners because they would learn more and be able to survive longer and bear more children etc etc?
Old Dog has pointed out that when we speak we are putting our thoughts together and therefore constructing a more cogent map of the world in our mind. I think there is a lot of truth in that except that it seems like most blowhards are just saying the same thing over and over.
I suppose we talk at different times for different reasons. I was mostly talking about like bar talk. I will enter the seminar tonight with a few tidbits of news, I imagine Old Dog will also have some. If one of us goes on too long about something the other one isn't interested in, the other one will find a way to change the conversation. Beagles has a point there where if I want to talk about my cat, I'll ask somebody how their dog is doing and let them blab on about their stupid animal because I expect when they are done they will ask me about my adored Mr Fluffy, and then I will get to go on and on,. Some people never get around to responding that way and they drive me nuts.
I don't know that interruptions are more common now than they were a decade ago in my regular conversations, but they have gotten out of hand in political talk shows. I blame it on the Foxies, that was their habit whenever they invited some unaware liberal on their shows and then they would shout over him, and they got to like it so they shouted over each other, and then when they got invited onto other tv shows they shouted over the people there, and then the other pundits also took up that behavior. I don't know why they don't take up the time honored Chicago way of turning off the blatherers microphone.
You know another irritating thing about sooper dooper phones is that suddenly all the attention is on the idiot blip blipping those tiny buttons and you have to sit there twiddling your thumbs while they do whatever they do and that doesn't work so they try this. that's why it's good to have more than two people so that the others can just move on and leave the blip blipper behind.
Old Dog I don't know how good conversation is at conflict resolution, it seems as many conflicts get started by them as get resolved by them.
When I was in Austin in 1986 they were celebrating the sesquicentennial of the Alamo. Mexico had a cannon that they pried from Davy Crockett's cold dead hands, and the Texans wanted it back, but the Mexicans were all like when hell freezes over. I was in the habit of eating breakfast in a cafeteria in the basement of one of one of their government buildings and when I went there one day the place was filled with Mexican soldiers. Oh my God, they're coming back for more cannons I thought, but it turned out that they were only eating breakfast.
Old Dog has pointed out that when we speak we are putting our thoughts together and therefore constructing a more cogent map of the world in our mind. I think there is a lot of truth in that except that it seems like most blowhards are just saying the same thing over and over.
I suppose we talk at different times for different reasons. I was mostly talking about like bar talk. I will enter the seminar tonight with a few tidbits of news, I imagine Old Dog will also have some. If one of us goes on too long about something the other one isn't interested in, the other one will find a way to change the conversation. Beagles has a point there where if I want to talk about my cat, I'll ask somebody how their dog is doing and let them blab on about their stupid animal because I expect when they are done they will ask me about my adored Mr Fluffy, and then I will get to go on and on,. Some people never get around to responding that way and they drive me nuts.
I don't know that interruptions are more common now than they were a decade ago in my regular conversations, but they have gotten out of hand in political talk shows. I blame it on the Foxies, that was their habit whenever they invited some unaware liberal on their shows and then they would shout over him, and they got to like it so they shouted over each other, and then when they got invited onto other tv shows they shouted over the people there, and then the other pundits also took up that behavior. I don't know why they don't take up the time honored Chicago way of turning off the blatherers microphone.
You know another irritating thing about sooper dooper phones is that suddenly all the attention is on the idiot blip blipping those tiny buttons and you have to sit there twiddling your thumbs while they do whatever they do and that doesn't work so they try this. that's why it's good to have more than two people so that the others can just move on and leave the blip blipper behind.
Old Dog I don't know how good conversation is at conflict resolution, it seems as many conflicts get started by them as get resolved by them.
When I was in Austin in 1986 they were celebrating the sesquicentennial of the Alamo. Mexico had a cannon that they pried from Davy Crockett's cold dead hands, and the Texans wanted it back, but the Mexicans were all like when hell freezes over. I was in the habit of eating breakfast in a cafeteria in the basement of one of one of their government buildings and when I went there one day the place was filled with Mexican soldiers. Oh my God, they're coming back for more cannons I thought, but it turned out that they were only eating breakfast.
Thursday, September 15, 2016
More Talk About Talk
"But I think only a small part of our conversation is of that nature. I think there is something deeper going on. What do you think?" - Uncle Ken
I think that people talk for lots of different reasons. Sometimes there is an agenda, and sometimes there isn't. Sometimes it's just a social bonding ritual. It used to frustrate me when somebody would ask me a question and then change the subject while I was right in the middle of my answer. At some point I came to the conclusion that they weren't all that interested in what I had to say on the subject, they were just trying to start a conversation or keep one going. For example, they ask me how my dog is doing, and I proceed to tell them everything my dog has done since the last time I saw this person. Truth be known, they don't really care all that much about my dog. What they want me to do is say something brief about my dog, and then ask them how their cat is doing. Then they something brief about their cat and segue into something else. Their intent is to keep the conversation going, and it makes them uncomfortable if we stay on one subject for any length of time.
It seems that the more people there are in the group, the more difficult it is to stay on topic. If the person to whom you are talking doesn't change the subject, somebody else will interrupt and do it. It used to be considered impolite to horn in on somebody else's conversation, but now it seems to be the norm. When I saw "now" I mean that's the way it was a decade or so ago when I still used to have live conversations with people on a regular basis. Truth is, I really don't know how people are doing it now because I don't get around much anymore.
In thinking about Crete, Illinois today, I concluded that it was presumptuous of me to assume that the town was founded by immigrants from the Greek island of Crete. Indeed, according to Wiki, the town was originally called "Wood's Corner" when it was founded in 1836 by Dyantha and Willard Wood. It didn't say when the name was changed to "Crete", but a click on one of the references revealed that there are several hotels in the town with Greek sounding names, including the Crete Greece Hotel. It then seems reasonable to assume that there is, or used to be, a significant Greek population in Crete, Illinois, but we don't know the circumstance of their arrival, or if their descendants are still there. It only took me a few minutes to find this out, and I'm sure that a little digging would uncover more interesting tidbits. If this was a live conversation, however, somebody would have changed the subject by now, and this fascinating information would never see then light of day. That's one reason I have come to like blogging better than talking.
I think that people talk for lots of different reasons. Sometimes there is an agenda, and sometimes there isn't. Sometimes it's just a social bonding ritual. It used to frustrate me when somebody would ask me a question and then change the subject while I was right in the middle of my answer. At some point I came to the conclusion that they weren't all that interested in what I had to say on the subject, they were just trying to start a conversation or keep one going. For example, they ask me how my dog is doing, and I proceed to tell them everything my dog has done since the last time I saw this person. Truth be known, they don't really care all that much about my dog. What they want me to do is say something brief about my dog, and then ask them how their cat is doing. Then they something brief about their cat and segue into something else. Their intent is to keep the conversation going, and it makes them uncomfortable if we stay on one subject for any length of time.
It seems that the more people there are in the group, the more difficult it is to stay on topic. If the person to whom you are talking doesn't change the subject, somebody else will interrupt and do it. It used to be considered impolite to horn in on somebody else's conversation, but now it seems to be the norm. When I saw "now" I mean that's the way it was a decade or so ago when I still used to have live conversations with people on a regular basis. Truth is, I really don't know how people are doing it now because I don't get around much anymore.
In thinking about Crete, Illinois today, I concluded that it was presumptuous of me to assume that the town was founded by immigrants from the Greek island of Crete. Indeed, according to Wiki, the town was originally called "Wood's Corner" when it was founded in 1836 by Dyantha and Willard Wood. It didn't say when the name was changed to "Crete", but a click on one of the references revealed that there are several hotels in the town with Greek sounding names, including the Crete Greece Hotel. It then seems reasonable to assume that there is, or used to be, a significant Greek population in Crete, Illinois, but we don't know the circumstance of their arrival, or if their descendants are still there. It only took me a few minutes to find this out, and I'm sure that a little digging would uncover more interesting tidbits. If this was a live conversation, however, somebody would have changed the subject by now, and this fascinating information would never see then light of day. That's one reason I have come to like blogging better than talking.
Dangling conversation
A few posts ago I mentioned an article that dealt with the internet and meta-ignorance, and the use of the Duper phones play into that. Those phones suck all the joy out of a good conversation..."wait a minute while I look that up." While the item in question is being searched there is often dead air, or the topic shifts and nobody cares what the actual fact might be. Such is the fluid nature of verbal discourse.
-----
I have no idea where Uncle Ken's conversation about conversations is supposed to be headed, so let me say it's a form of social interaction that many people like. Its form has changed, if the number of Nit-Twitters is any indication, but it's still a social activity and a form of personal expression. The nature of society is changing, but it's still a society.
Conflict resolution is another fine use for conversation. Should we keep fighting until we are all dead, or should we maybe talk over a few things; perhaps there are some misunderstandings that can be clarified. Just asking, but haven't these tribal blood feuds gone on long enough?
But that completely ignores the "might makes right" factions, I know. "We want your land/food/water/oil and we're gonna take it, dammit, by any means fair or foul?" There's a lot of that going on, too, and no amount of conversation will change anything.
-----
Here's a curious notion to ponder...after the Fat man visited Mexico, one of the guys in the Mexican government proposed a repeal of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo if the Chump was elected US president. That would be something if Mexico wanted its land back.
Nothing more has been said about it since then, but it's something to think about. They could declare that anybody in that area with Mexican heritage is an immediate sovereign citizen of Mexico, with all rights and privileges thereof. There's quite a few people already occupying the territory, aren't there? A new fence would be required.
-----
I have no idea where Uncle Ken's conversation about conversations is supposed to be headed, so let me say it's a form of social interaction that many people like. Its form has changed, if the number of Nit-Twitters is any indication, but it's still a social activity and a form of personal expression. The nature of society is changing, but it's still a society.
Conflict resolution is another fine use for conversation. Should we keep fighting until we are all dead, or should we maybe talk over a few things; perhaps there are some misunderstandings that can be clarified. Just asking, but haven't these tribal blood feuds gone on long enough?
But that completely ignores the "might makes right" factions, I know. "We want your land/food/water/oil and we're gonna take it, dammit, by any means fair or foul?" There's a lot of that going on, too, and no amount of conversation will change anything.
-----
Here's a curious notion to ponder...after the Fat man visited Mexico, one of the guys in the Mexican government proposed a repeal of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo if the Chump was elected US president. That would be something if Mexico wanted its land back.
Nothing more has been said about it since then, but it's something to think about. They could declare that anybody in that area with Mexican heritage is an immediate sovereign citizen of Mexico, with all rights and privileges thereof. There's quite a few people already occupying the territory, aren't there? A new fence would be required.
Why do we talk so much?
Actually (this is the word I use when I am being obnoxious Ken and making a correction) if Cretans settled Crete they would have named it something else because 'Crete' is Crete in English, they would have named it something in Greek or Turkish, probably they would have used both names and each lived in a different side of town and there would be UN troops patrolling down the middle of their Main Street.
Going to the wiki for more facts my face turns red as I realize what I am talking about is Cyprus, not Crete. That's where they had the troubles in the sixties. Odd I thought at the time that these two podunk countries were going to war over some podunk island, but then I realized that it was an echo of the Ottoman Empire, which, if you stretched things, an echo of those glorious Greek/Persian wars that have enriched our cultural heritage.
Crete, on the other hand had those Minoans who predated the Greeks and the Persians and had cities without walls which lead some to think they didn't have wars. They did have that unfortunate volcano however.
Absolutely about the mobile devices. If either Old Dog or I had a sooper dooper phone, most of our seminar time would consist of us tapping our fingers on the bar with maybe an occasional how about those Cubs, or how about those Bears?
I think Libya, Somalia, and Yemen are just being droned or maybe bombed by our allies, but who can keep track? Yemen is maybe the craziest of a crazy bunch. The Saudis are bombing the fuck out of the Houthis who came storming out of the mountains maybe last year and are some kind of Shias, but not the same as the Iranis (Persians popping up again), who are not particularly fond of them, but a Shia is a Shia as far as the Saudis are concerned, and being as how they are a bunch of clowns with shiny new American weapons, they are basically bombing whatever moves. And Al Qaeda is in there sort of as Saudi allies because they are Sunnis. And the US backs them because we needed to throw them a sop so that we could get the Iran anti nuke deal done.
I don't think it's a deal breaker with the Trumpists if their man spent a little time in the loony bin. After all didn't he shoot that guy on 5th Avenue just to watch him die? I imagine he could have sex with a hooker at the same place and his backers would think that was groovy also, and if they didn't he could just say it never happened and they would all believe him because one after another they consistently say that they trust him. If you can't trust a guy who once had a tv show that was a moderate hit, who can you trust?
The point is well taken from Old Dog about how people talk to figure out what they think about something. I can run things through my head, but it's better if there is someone else there to point out when what I am saying doesn't make sense, and that is where I get my arguing from. When somebody says something different from what I am thinking I want to know why they think what they do.
Of course writing is even better, because there are the words in black and white that can't be changed and you can go back and look at them anytime. And when you write you just naturally put more thought into what you say.
But I think only a small part of our conversation is of that nature. I think there is something deeper going on. What do you think?
Going to the wiki for more facts my face turns red as I realize what I am talking about is Cyprus, not Crete. That's where they had the troubles in the sixties. Odd I thought at the time that these two podunk countries were going to war over some podunk island, but then I realized that it was an echo of the Ottoman Empire, which, if you stretched things, an echo of those glorious Greek/Persian wars that have enriched our cultural heritage.
Crete, on the other hand had those Minoans who predated the Greeks and the Persians and had cities without walls which lead some to think they didn't have wars. They did have that unfortunate volcano however.
Absolutely about the mobile devices. If either Old Dog or I had a sooper dooper phone, most of our seminar time would consist of us tapping our fingers on the bar with maybe an occasional how about those Cubs, or how about those Bears?
I think Libya, Somalia, and Yemen are just being droned or maybe bombed by our allies, but who can keep track? Yemen is maybe the craziest of a crazy bunch. The Saudis are bombing the fuck out of the Houthis who came storming out of the mountains maybe last year and are some kind of Shias, but not the same as the Iranis (Persians popping up again), who are not particularly fond of them, but a Shia is a Shia as far as the Saudis are concerned, and being as how they are a bunch of clowns with shiny new American weapons, they are basically bombing whatever moves. And Al Qaeda is in there sort of as Saudi allies because they are Sunnis. And the US backs them because we needed to throw them a sop so that we could get the Iran anti nuke deal done.
I don't think it's a deal breaker with the Trumpists if their man spent a little time in the loony bin. After all didn't he shoot that guy on 5th Avenue just to watch him die? I imagine he could have sex with a hooker at the same place and his backers would think that was groovy also, and if they didn't he could just say it never happened and they would all believe him because one after another they consistently say that they trust him. If you can't trust a guy who once had a tv show that was a moderate hit, who can you trust?
The point is well taken from Old Dog about how people talk to figure out what they think about something. I can run things through my head, but it's better if there is someone else there to point out when what I am saying doesn't make sense, and that is where I get my arguing from. When somebody says something different from what I am thinking I want to know why they think what they do.
Of course writing is even better, because there are the words in black and white that can't be changed and you can go back and look at them anytime. And when you write you just naturally put more thought into what you say.
But I think only a small part of our conversation is of that nature. I think there is something deeper going on. What do you think?
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Dead Air
I have been told that I talk too much. This bothers some people more than others, and some people don't seem to mind it at all. I don't know why I do it, it just comes natural to me. I'm content to shut up and listen as long as somebody else is talking but, when there is dead air, I feel compelled to fill it with something. Often, when I explain this to somebody, they respond that, with me in the group, nobody else can get a word in edgewise. I have tried keeping quiet, just to see how long it will take for somebody else to say something, and they eventually do, but I don't understand why it took them so long. This doesn't bother me as much as it used to when I was younger, I guess I have gotten used to it.
I seemed to remember that Crete was part of Greece, but I looked it up to be sure. Well, it's part of Greece now, but it wasn't always. People have been living on the island for 130,000 years, sometimes they were independent, sometimes they ruled other people, and sometimes other people ruled them. Crete, Illinois was likely named after the original Crete, maybe because it was settled by Cretans. I seemed to remember that the word "Cretan" was also used to describe a person who is lacking in certain social graces, so I looked that up too, just to be sure. Come to find out, that's a "cretin", named after the medical condition "cretinism", which is caused by hypothyroidism, and results in stunted physical and mental development.
It's funny, how you think you know something, and then you find out that it isn't what you think it is. That's probably because we learn by association and, if one thing is similar to another, we tend to put them both in the same mental pigeonhole, which can lead us to think of them a one and the same thing when they're not. Before the internet, one way to resolve something like that was to get a bunch of people talking about it. One guy says something, another guy disagrees, another guy puts his two cents in and, sooner of later, we get to the bottom of it. I don't get around much anymore, but my daughter tells me that it's not like that nowadays. If there is a disagreement, everybody whips out their mobile devices and starts punching buttons. The issue is resolved in a matter of minutes, and then they have to find something else to talk about. I wonder what they do with all that dead air.
I seemed to remember that Crete was part of Greece, but I looked it up to be sure. Well, it's part of Greece now, but it wasn't always. People have been living on the island for 130,000 years, sometimes they were independent, sometimes they ruled other people, and sometimes other people ruled them. Crete, Illinois was likely named after the original Crete, maybe because it was settled by Cretans. I seemed to remember that the word "Cretan" was also used to describe a person who is lacking in certain social graces, so I looked that up too, just to be sure. Come to find out, that's a "cretin", named after the medical condition "cretinism", which is caused by hypothyroidism, and results in stunted physical and mental development.
It's funny, how you think you know something, and then you find out that it isn't what you think it is. That's probably because we learn by association and, if one thing is similar to another, we tend to put them both in the same mental pigeonhole, which can lead us to think of them a one and the same thing when they're not. Before the internet, one way to resolve something like that was to get a bunch of people talking about it. One guy says something, another guy disagrees, another guy puts his two cents in and, sooner of later, we get to the bottom of it. I don't get around much anymore, but my daughter tells me that it's not like that nowadays. If there is a disagreement, everybody whips out their mobile devices and starts punching buttons. The issue is resolved in a matter of minutes, and then they have to find something else to talk about. I wonder what they do with all that dead air.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)