Quantum Jim's Journal: Response to Lach

This is a response to Lach's comments of my response to Simon Willison's blog on Presidental Candidate Endorsements. I am posting it here out of courteousness, since it goes off-topic. Read his comments for the appropiate context, else this seems like jiberish (well, even more jiberish than usual ;-).

Lach, I was confused by Simon Willison's intent. I agree with him that disappointment is a better description of his response. In fact I probably wouldn't have commented if that was his term. However, I want to respond to your comments and questions - even if just to clarify my thoughts.

1. That's disapointment. If you feel profound sadness - i.e. depression - then it's depression.
2. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy suggests that one's feelings are based on their thoughts. So if Simon was depressed then, from my personal experience, one possible reason would be wanted validation. Since he was not depressed, this is a moot point. (I should be calling him Simon Willison or Mr. Willison since I never met him, but oh well.)
3. I never said that they were perfectly equal in good and bad points; however, I agree that I used the wrong term. I was trying to say that any reasonable analysis must conclude that different opinions - i.e. favorable or unfavorable opinions of a particular candidate - can each be formed from rational arguments. Which leads to...

4. I'd like to state that I'm on the fence right now on choosing either Bush or Kerry. Not because I haven't givin this much thought, but because I agree with Bush on certain issues, Kerry on others, and neither on still more issues. So I am examining how important these issues are and how they interact. That is a hard analysis especially since some of my opinions are probably either wrong or poorly derived.

   However, my experience with Bush's supporters is very different from yours. Most seem to be normal people - neither overtly religious or of exceptionally below-average intelligence. (In fact, on average they seem to have average intelligence - in agreement with the definition of "average intelligence".) However, this has nothing to do with a positive opinion of Bush. To think that it does is a logical fallacy.

Hope that clarifies my thoughts.