Getting a word in edgewise
I bought my first mac. I’m learning to make it do what I want it to do. I installed firefox & thunderbird making them the defaults (clever of apple to put those options in the programs I’m trying to avoid opening. bad apple, bad, bad apple.) Doing software updates. Will later install open office, maybe sunbird. Need a mac multinetwork chat client. Ayttm doesn’t do mac. Everybuddy? Trillian?
The honeymoon has not yet worn off. Pretty toy.
Bet it’ll do warcraft III pretty darn spanky, too.
I know I said I wouldn’t do something stupid this semester like I did last semester, but I have reason to contemplate it.
The course is called sustainable development. It would save me some headaches in the future (I’d already have my concentration requirements completed at the end of this semester). It’s only first half of the semester, the part of the semester I’d prefer to stay indoors anyway.
Now the downers. It’d bump me up 2 units to the top of the tuition plateau, aka, stress city, though two of those units are phys ed, so maybe not. It’s an evening course and I already have a monday course which would mean that (for the first half of the semester) I’d have classes from 2:30 – 9:15 with a 45 minute break for dinner. And finally, I’ve been told the class is somewhat lame.
I’ll probably take it, if only so I don’t have to ease later curricular woes.
Now that the student loan surplus have arrived, I must find ways to spend it.
I’m planning on getting my laptop asap, which may involve my first trip to the dreaded temple of consumption: the mall of america. I’m planning on getting a 14″ iBook with a DVD reader, not writer (doesn’t seem worth $200ish). I’m also planning on upgrading the ram, to like 768MB. This would put me in the awkward circumstance of having more ram on my laptop than on my desktop. Checking on pricewatch, I found a 1 GB ram stick (compatible w/ the desktop) for $77. I Like what Moore’s Law does when I’m not looking. So now the question becomes, is 1 GB enough, or should I shoot for two? Heh. =)
The new buzzword I’m using to describe my career interest is “sustainable development”. Let’s see if I can find an internship in that. =)
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Created by spyndakitrose and taken 17968 times on bzoink! |
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| Abortion? | self-regulated by doctors overseen by the government. |
| Death Penalty? | Our justice system is too fallible for it to be right to kill someone |
| Prostitution? | Should be legal and regulated, particularly in terms of health care and stds. |
| Alcohol? | tax it, regulate it, educate about it |
| Marijuana? | see alcohol |
| Other drugs? | see alcohol |
| Gay marriage? | Relationships between same sex couples should have the same recognition as relationships between heterosexuals |
| Illegal immigrants? | Generally ought to be returned to their country of origin. Exceptions to be made for inhumane treatment by country of origin. |
| Smoking? | Shouldn’t be allowed in public venues. Otherwise, see alcohol. |
| Drunk driving? | Is reckless endangerment. When consequent accidents do occur, inebriation should not be a mitigating circumstance |
| Cloning? | So long as the clone is properly cared for, I see no reason why not |
| Racism? | Is alive and well, sad to say. Guaranteed economic basics for everyone regardless of race, including a great education. Can’t think of a good way to encourage racial mixing, but it ought to be done. |
| Premarital sex? | Education is the sole responsibility of the state, when it comes to consensual sex. |
| Religion? | Preventing the persecution of minority religious adherents is about the only task for government here |
| The war in Iraq? | Should never have started |
| Bush? | is the most divisive president we’ve had in my lifetime. And the most destructive of our nation’s welfare. May his reign be brief. |
| Downloading music? | IP laws are screwy, thanks to the corps that profit from them. The goal of IP law was not to guarantee profit but to nurture creativity for the common good. Needs work. |
| The legal drinking age? | Should be up to parents/legal guardians on a case by case basis. |
| Porn? | is not something the government should be involved in. |
| Suicide? | is not something the government should be involved in. |
Okay, here’s a critical analysis of light rail in general and Minneapolis light rail in particular. I was asked my opinion on this. Without my opinion prejudicing you, tell me what you think of it.
I’ve never gotten into phone sex. It’s like writing a story for nifty, only worse, because it’s extemporaneous. My creativity is not that fast. The one or two times in my life I’ve done it, I was given great compliments, but I was lying about what I was doing, because the act was a huge turn off for me. Just experimentation and an overly cooperative mindset.
I’ve been a bit more selective about the dating than the sex. I’m going to have to cut loose on the dating, and figure out what it is that I like. Or maybe cultivate a bunch of casual relationships in a more stable setting. Or maybe even both at the same time. I’m just afraid of hurting people. One threatened suicide from someone I was fooling around with is more than enough for one lifetime. Emotions: scary shit. Eek.
So here’s my quick blurb about my politics, reciprocating
Society is formed of norms. Beliefs about the world. Practices for performing important tasks like maintaining safety, acquiring food, shelter, bringing up the next generation, and so forth and so on. But sometimes norms aren’t enough. This is particularly true as societies get larger. The need for more sophisticated and often more powerful systems of organizing people and maintaining order take over.
What matters to me in society are the big ones: safety, food, shelter, water, health, and the ability to keep things going smoothly for the next generation(s), and maybe just possibly hand them something better than what we have.
Correspondingly, education is probably my top priority. I’d like smaller class sizes, more participatory, and project based learning. I’d like kids to learn initiative, cooperation, and cultivate all the various abilities they possess, at the levels they possess them. I’d like kids to learn how to learn on their own. I want to see greater adult involvement in the educational process, and less age segregation. I’m not nearly as concerned with shoving more money at schools as I am with making sure the schools do things in a different and better way. See also Howard Gardner on this one. If our citizens are going to think for themselves they have to start young. A few years of mandatory military or civil service also seems like a good idea to me (it shouldn’t be too easy to duck out of the military service though, no more national guard draft dodges).
People do a better job when they are not worried about their health care or that of their loved ones. Further, people are society’s most valuable resources. Society should cultivate their well-being accordingly, including strong increases in preventative healthcare. Subsidize Total and tax frosted flakes. Gym memberships should be a citizen right. Healthcare, including mental healthcare, should be provided free or nearly so (ala public transit) to everyone. I recognize and appreciate the choice concerns of
I think privacy should be vigorously protected, not by continuing to deny that the government collects information on us, but by making every effort to secure the information they already have on us, and putting strong controls on how that information is distributed, as well as full information on how it is used and accessed. I see one’s right to pursue whatever religion, philosophy, or personal perversion one likes as intimately tied to this. Anything two consenting adults wish to do is fine. Marriage is a religious institution. Legal relationships for co-parenting, co-residence, and co-ownership of property ought to replace civil marriage. People should be able to bundle them. Making any of these relationships more than two citizens should be kosher. Allowing any of them to be performed by same sex couples ought to be fine. Allowing sisters to coparent, or a bunch of buddies to establish a co-residence deal should be a no brainer. There should be a waiting period on such civil arrangements. Just to reduce commitment in haste.
I think all citizens should be equal in the eyes of the law in terms of race, gender, sexual preference, religion, and cultural affiliation. I’m not sure what to do about age. Almost no one is competent to live independently at 12, some still aren’t at 40. Sex should only matter in terms of reproductive law. Discrimination of the basis of relevant characteristics is fine. (Hooters shouldn’t have to hire men, chippendales shouldn’t have to hire women, but sex isn’t relevant in picking surgeons, secretaries, or shelvers)
I think we as the governed ought to know (and ought to fucking care) about what our government is doing for us, to us, and with us, down to the last dot of ink. I think willful attempts to deceive the public, or deny a citizen their rights, including access to information, ought to be considered treason, and those guilty of it ought to have their citizenship revoked. Negligent deception or obstruction should merely remove one permanently from office, and bar election to any public office down to and including county dogcatcher. Leaders ought to be held to much higher standards than the rest of society, but not for their private perversions. I don’t care that Clinton got a blowjob. I do care that he lied about it. I care more so that he may have used his office to coerce an intern. I care much more that Bush manipulated military intelligence to fabricate a justification for war to serve his political purposes.
Voting rights for everyone, including ex-cons. Including voting from prison. Attempts to dick around with this fall under my previous statement about denying citizens their rights. Flexible voting policies (not a single voting day, easy vote by mail, etc)
I am, as you can probably tell, an idealist, and I’m fine with that.
I don’t give a shit about hunting as an argument for allowing gun ownership. I care about safety from criminals (better served by banning guns, than by universal gun ownership, we can chat about that if you disagree, but far better served by preventing the motivation for crime), and safety from the government, which may be better served by allowing gun ownership.
I care a great deal about how I’m going to leave the world when I’m dead. My veganism and aversion to cars is as much if not more political [as] than personal. Most of the problem is that people are spread way the fuck out because we are afraid of our fellow citizens. Because we don’t know our fellow citizens. Because we are spread way the fuck out. Note the vicious cycle. Think about it, long and hard. Particularly if you’re thinking about buying suburban real estate. Also note the effects of transience, disposability, and consumer culture. Disposal costs ought to be included in the purchase price of an item. Urban forms ought to be contracted. Our cities ought to be rebuilt to better suit biking and walking. Efforts should be made to encourage people into mixed culture communities and engage in their communities (and get the hell away from the TV).
I think the UN should be scrapped and replaced with an organization structurally capable of making a decision. I think that the US should reprioritize away from military endeavors and western europe should build up its militarily capabilities. I don’t think we should be the world police. If we choose to be the world police, we shouldn’t bitch about protecting the world. Playing the martyr for choices one has made is one of the prime forms of drama queen.
I think our current criminal justice system is beyond retarded, as well as inhumane. Pot and all other drugs should be legalized, and smoking (anything, including pot) should be banned in public. Education and rehabilitation (for the willing!) should be the norm. Prostitution should likewise be legal and regulated. Deliberatly allowing rape to go on in your prison should put you behind those same bars, with the rapist. Negligently allowing it should get you your own cell. Sticking convicts in an environment where their dominant contact is with other convicts, and expecting it to cure them of criminal tendencies is the “beyond retarded” part. The goal should be to turn them into useful members of society on exit. Minimal standards of living guaranteed. And not just to criminals, to remove that motivation for criminal behavior.
Abortion. I actually forgot about this one, because as a gay man it has never directly involved me. I am fine with abortion. I’m honestly not as deeply bothered by infanticide as many people are either. I view the killing of an adult as a much bigger deal, though I would never do either. It is killing, certainly.
Yeah, there’s more, but that should do for now.
Mine don’t really fit on a bumper sticker either. And, yes, I do change my positions when confronted with countervailing evidence, some are more mutable (whimsical) than others.
Wouldn’t it have been clever to look up a list of veggie friendly restaurants earlier? Instead of going to some place that seemed to not understand that “no cheese” and even “sin queso” meant the cheese inside the burrito, too. *shrug* I’ll definitely try a couple out before I go, though. =)
I don’t think I ever got around to reviewing the Day After Tomorrow. The roomies and I watched it on NYE. The idea, proposed by many, that it might raise environmental consciousness made me want to cry, like the science of the movie. Otoh, taken as an action movie, it wasn’t bad. I also found the experienced arctic explorers who didn’t bother to look under the snow to see what they would be walking on, not to mention their ready abandonment of all their gear, somewhat, err, questionable. =) The burning of books, to keep warm (which I predicted pretty early on), the interesting notions of international goodwill, etc, etc. Sure, it’s an action movie, using your brain isn’t expected to be an asset when enjoying it, but a little more plausibility in there would have been nice. =)
Night before last, I saw Saved. I thought it was an amusing, superficially dumb, but subtly well made movie. I understand