Monday, July 30, 2012
One reasonable level-headed guy is worth a thousand community agitator idologues...
...then there's the life experience thing too.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
News and Information is Only Supposed to Go One Way...I Thought
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Cut Your Energy Consumption...and fire up those speakers...
It's so nice when rational thought is part of the discussion.
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Carnage...
I suppose that anyone with a blog should comment on the horrible shooting in Colorado -- but really, what can one say? Tragic, horrible... Sympathies to those affected of course.
Soon the barrage of media "speculation" will begin. ABC began it immediately, one journalist taking the time to check local Tea Party memberships to see if the murderer's name came up -- it did, but it wasn't the same guy. In every recent shooting pundits and garden variety jerks have sought to tie the horrible event to talk radio (Clinton famously did that immediately after the Oklahoma bombing) or any other cause that they didn't personally approve of. If the killer is found to have had a trace of leftism in their worldview, their perspective quickly becomes a non-issue. Of course, in the current shooting, talking heads wouldn't have thought to speculate that it may have been one of the Occupy Wall Street crowd - not that that would have been appropriate either.
Can't they give it a rest and not use every tragedy as a talking point to their perpetual cause to defeat half the political spectrum.
Crazy people can be anywhere on the spectrum of political thought, including being apolitical. Some people are just nuts and it has nothing to do with where they stand on reducing federal power or eliminating capitalism.
Of course, the "gun issue" will be once again brought front and center in all of this. 'Can't say that's a surprise or unwarranted. My libertarian instincts default to a respect for the second amendment but, like abortion, it's not an issue I personally get fired up about. I take it as a given that more and more regulation will occur and eventually, if not sooner, it will be against the law for a citizen to own a firearm - with all the expected repercussions.
In Japan, when a nutcase releases aggression, knives are the weapon of choice. Sometimes cars. Even swords. Guns certainly increase the number of victims in a given act of violence but if a crazy person kills or injures you with a knife your loved ones probably aren't going to care much about the gun control issue. For those who tie crimes to our "sick contemporary world," I'd suggest that anytime and place in history, out of thousands or millions of people, one of them occasionally goes crazy and commits horrible acts of violence. Random murder of innocents is not a new thing but it's certainly always terrible.
For now, sorrow and empathy. What else can one really do?
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
'Gotta Love IT
Thursday, July 12, 2012
American Exceptionalism
The following is a generalization. I like generalizations. I think they often provide more insight into an issue than micro-analysis. For the sake of polemic rigor and symbolic revelation, generalization "gets the job done."
For most Americans living overseas in most countries, one initially comes to notice the comparative flaws in our homeland and its culture. The new home is often seen as superior in numerous ways. Eventually, if paying attention, one eventually begins to see the stifling top-down weight of cultures fixed rigidly in a thousand daily events from emptying the garbage to driving. One begins to notice that America's flaws of misdeed, error, or excess are dwarfed by the nonsensical malaise of obedience found in the life spirit of many countries where rules both written and unwritten dictate stasis and compromise with the value systems of sheep.
For innovation, diversity, perpetual change, adaptability, and, above all else, the "pursuit of happiness," "American exceptionalism" is no mere nationalistic stance, it's true in every way. Gifted with a dynamism and vigor born of free thought and volition, it runs rings around pedantic lists of "government services" or sophisticated polemics on why one must "sacrifice" on the many altars of statism.
"The American dream" is a dream come true - rare among the nations of the world.
Friday, July 06, 2012
U.N. Me
Hugo Chavez, the authoritarian theocrats of Iran, Russia, China,...and some others, won't like this...You can judge people by their friends.
