Journal Journal: Naming children 2
If I have a boy child, and when he pops out and I decide I don't like him, I'll name him Skyler.
If I have a boy child, and when he pops out and I decide I don't like him, I'll name him Skyler.
I get slightly nervous when I leave the Mississippi drainage basin. I know and like the flora and fauna there. The people aren't terrible either.
I'm watching this television show called the Big Bang Theory. Having heard it was good, I've watched four episodes in an effort to make sure that my impression is not mistaken.
Impression the first: Not a good laugh to minute ratio.
Impression the second: Rather insulting to the people I call friends. There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding about what it means to have a higher IQ and interacting with people. Basically, there is not much difference between the cowardly insults I associated with primary school and many of the jokes on this show.
Impression the third: There seems to be some racial / bigotry issues. The Jewish and Indian characters are insulting caricatures.
Impression the fourth: The plots are unimpressive predictable. Every episode began with a strong consideration for a throw-away pop culture reference to sub-cultures associated with "nerds", followed by mundane action.
If not for the first impression, the other three would be acceptable. I find the critics who endorse this television program to be contemptible fools or manipulative liars.
I came across a subject this evening called Situational Ethics. Basically, it means that ones decisions should not be based on what is necessarily moral or ethical, but rather that with perpetuates agape. The pitfalls of Situational Ethics are obvious. Namely, who decides what best perpetuates agape. It is the duty of the man (or woman) on the spot to make the best decision based upon the ultimate creation or protection of love, rather than a predetermined set of morals or laws.
The main argument consists of situational ethics being used as a means for ignoring convention, law, and morality for the purpose of promoting individual happiness. Other arguments against situational ethics are derived from its religious background - namely that the word of God is inherently good and therefore immutable. This second argument against can be safely ignored for obvious reasons.
It's the first argument against that should attract our attention. It seems an unfortunately dim view of humanity that subscribes to the premise that ones neighbors should be feared, rather than trusted or even respected. Of course, our neighbors (and we) are fallible. Many times we have been stolen from, our reputations infringed, etc. But this argument also assumes also that human culture is stagnant. It is not. Education has created a morality in the 20th and 21st centuries unknown in any earlier time period. People are better capable of making decisions for themselves and those around them then at any point in earlier times.
(I might continue this later.)
From Elizabeth MacDonald, Jackwagon at Fox News:
Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan said in a recent interview that the U.S. is suffering from an unproductive youth movement in the labor force, and that companies dont want to hire these young folk. Greenspan also said that U.S. companies would be better off hiring immigrants.
I yield the floor to FOX Business Director of News Ray Hennessey:
Apparently the problem with the American jobs picture is the American worker.
At least thats what Alan Greenspan thinks.
We are, he says, too young, dumb and unproductive as a workforce. The Baby Boomers were better, finding ways to do more with less, but they are retiring in droves. As they hit the links, their ranks of replacements dont measure up.
Here are his [Greenspans] words, in an interview with The Globalist:
"Baby boomers are being replaced by groups of young workers who have regrettably scored rather poorly in international educational match-ups over the last two decades. The average income of U.S. households headed by 25-year-olds and younger has been declining relative to the average income of the baby boomer population. This is a reasonably good indication that the productivity of the younger part of our workforce is declining relative to the level of productivity achieved by the retiring baby boomers. This raises some major concerns about the productive skills of our future U.S. labor force."
There is, sadly, much truth in what he says. The degradation of our educational system, thanks to a lack of accountability and a general resistance to innovation, is well-documented.
It has been difficult for American students to keep pace with those from overseas when viewed through the lens of quantitative, objective metrics like standardized tests.
But the lack of productivity Greenspan frets over can arguably also be set at the feet of our growing entitlement culture, which we explored in some detail several weeks ago for Entitlement Nation Week. Being a productive worker means having a commitment to honest labor.
That has eroded as more people have relied upon the federal government for the growth of their household wealth. That, in turn, has led to a troubling change in attitude in this country.
As [Pulitzer prize winning syndicated columnist] George Will put it, Americans, endowed by their solicitous government with an ever-expanding array of entitlements, now have the whiny mentality that an entitlement culture breeds.
The question then becomes, How do we fix this? To Greenspan, it is to Go West, young man. Or East, North and South for that matter. Just go anywhere else but here and find someone who is willing and able to work:
"Most high-income people in our country do not realize that their incomes are being subsidized by their protection from competition from highly skilled people who are prevented from immigrating to the United States, Greenspan said. But we need such skills in order to staff our productive economy, so that the standard of living for Americans as a whole can grow."
Think of that last line for a moment. We need to import labor intelligent, skilled labor to guarantee that Americans standard of living is maintained.
Have we indeed fallen so far?
What MacDonald does not acknowledge, or even potentially understand, is that America has always benefited from incoming labor to maintain the American standard of living. From Germans, to Irish, to Italians, to Hispanics, to Asians, we have always used imported labor. All Greenspan is doing is pointing out that if we are going to import labor, import the best. (And fix the schools, especially math.) So damn the torpedoes, damn MacDonald, and damn Fox Lies. Full Speed Ahead!
I came across a rather serious security issue in my phone. Not very major, but still weird. I submitted it to Google. We'll see what happens.
You don't shake the hand of a liar and a bully. Suarez was completely correct not to acknowledge Evra.
Deion Branch certainly looked as if he was inbounds on that second to the final play. In two minute warning time, all close plays should be reviewed. Did the Pats just lose because the referees screwed up?
We're sitting in the bottom of a gravity well that prevents us from our natural inclination - exploration and progress. And rather than look to resolve this issue through technology and grit, we spend most of our time worried about copywrite and God.
It's not fair to call police officers pigs. At least pigs are useful.
Autistic boy known to be autistic to police to be autistic shot for wielding butter-knife.
FBI enters wrong apartment with chainsaw on no-knock warrant.
So today is Black Wednesday. Wikipedia, Google, EFF, a host of webcomics, Mozilla and others have blacked out their websites. I am very proud of the Internet and humanity today. Also, apparently Zombocom's infinite possibilities are threatened by SOPA/PIPA.
In the latest Liverpool match (against Newcastle), Luis Suarez was unavailable due to an illiberal expression made some matches previous and frowned upon by the FA. And without Suarez as a striker, instead using Carroll and Bellamy. Liverpool goes on to win 3-1, with that 1 being an own goal in an unlucky touch off Aggers. Gerrard was also fantastic after being substituted in.
Is Suarez too small to play central striker in the Premier League? Should he instead be moved into a winger position, where he can drive into the goal in the way that he does so brilliantly? People accuse him of taking dives, but the fellow is small. Wikipedia lists Suarez as 5'11", though I suspect his actual height is a lot closer to 5'9". With the hits a central striker takes in the EPL, it is not realistic to expect Suarez to be able to maintain ball control in the center of the goal box.
Aside from the Beatles, I have never heard anything positive about Liverpool without searching for it. In fact, I would like to point out the rampant racism that exists in Europe and the UK against Scousers, people from Liverpool. Example the first: I mentioned to a friend online that I would like to visit Liverpool to see a football (soccer) game and asked what I should see while there. She said I should keep an eye on my wallet. Example the second: There was a terrible crush at Hillsborough. 96 Liverpool supporters (fans) were killed. The Sun newspaper reported despicable lies about the Liverpool supporters. Example the third: Some Italian soccer supporters were killed when a stadium wall fell on them. The Europeans blamed the Liverpool supporters and banned Liverpool from European competition for years, despite very strong evidence showing that the Italian supporters attacked Liverpool supporters, causing a crush. Example the fourth: Urban Dictionary. EDIT - Example the fifth: http://www.sickipedia.org/subcategory/view/1317.
The issue is either bigotry against class or bigotry against cultural origin. In this case, I find that cultural origin in the source of the bigotry. Basically, there is a strong bigotry against people from Liverpool, otherwise known as Scousers or Liverpudlians.
The optimum committee has no members. -- Norman Augustine