Surreptitious Opinionation

Originally posted as a comment in ‘s journal.

nothing new here

It turns out that recently had his yahoo account hacked, and I got to hear from another “friend” who hadn’t chatted with me in years about his new webpage. I decided my yahoo account password needed some beefing up. AOL has bad password rules (alphanumeric only), but I updated it too, with an aol-abusive password, no less, even if it’s just incomprehensible gibberish to the rest of the world. =)

The more people it takes to do something the greater the likelihood that a critical party is on vacation when a particular action needs to be taken.

I was wondering where my student loan disbursement had gone, because I wasn’t receiving the expected direct deposit. Well, it turns out that I hadn’t signed the resarch assistantship paperwork for this semester. The research assistantship paperwork that the former financial administrator chased me down to sign for my past two semesters. This means no paycheck until the wheels finish turning, the wheels that I started in motion about 10 minutes ago. This also means that my student loan disbursement has been eaten by tuition, full out-of-state tuition, as opposed to half of in-state tuition. And I need to sign up for health insurance, which will also show up in my student account. And, of course, a critical first stage person is not in the office today. j. o. y.

I was watching some b5 last night with and seeing Mr Morden again, I have to say, turning down the shadows would be difficult. =)

Well, now that I have your attention…

Here’s why. I was talking with Joe the other day about Agedashi Tofu, which I love, and he pointed out it was usually made with bonito, some sort of fish product. I ordered some this evening sans bonito, and some vegetable tempura udon besides. Of course, the udon broth also had bonito (as do many miso soups). Having basically been told that much of my favorite japanese food was not merely not vegan but not vegetarianism, I started thinking about why I’m vegan.

The environmental reason is all well and good. But I don’t kid myself to think that I’m making a huge impact by lowering my own ecological foot print. In fact, by living smaller on the land, I’m increasing the delicacy of the situation to a trivial degree. If everyone were to follow my example into veganism (just pretend), and some sudden food production crisis arrived, we wouldn’t have as much waste to trim to preserve our collective diet. This also brings up the point that no one I know has really gone vegetarian, let alone vegan, in my wake except , and he switched back over a year ago. Further, I miss some things. Sweet lassi, pudding (kheer), pizzas with actual cheese, almost all japanese food, pumpkin ice cream (try finding that in vegan form. Hell, try finding it in dairy form). I also think I might lead a healthier lifestyle if I ate meat occasionally (prions or mercury, prions or mercury). I know I gained about 10 pounds when I made the vegetarian to vegan jump. And I do wonder if there’s anything to the protein claims. I’m certainly getting adequate to stay healthy and Joe certainly doesn’t seem to have any trouble building muscle (he’s also more rigorously vegan than I am.), but I don’t think I’m getting protein in doses that approximate those of the kidney stone creating, high protein diets that seem to work for some people. So, to summarize, I’m not changing the world, I’m not leading by example (or at least, no one’s following if I am), I’m not gustatorily attached to my diet, and it’s not really a net health benefit to me. The abused chickens and the mistreated cows still tug on my strings a bit, I admit.

If I were to drop it, I’d probably drop it all, at least, as an identity. I’m not sure how much I’d change my diet. I don’t really like most meat. Or at least, I didn’t the last time I really had any. Fish, being cold blooded, aquatic, and not the brightest critters, trigger neither my environmental concerns nor my compassion to any great degree, and I’ve had them in tasty ways in the distant past. Maybe I’d eat just like I do now, but have pizza sometimes, or lassi, or japanese food, and shut the fuck up about being vegan.

Maybe. *shrug* I’ll probably take a few months to ponder it before making any hasty moves.

Originally a reply to an entry by .

I think there are many better, yes, more sophisticated, ways to handle this [than his proposal, provide everyone willing to document their poverty with a check to push them past the poverty line]. One, universal medical insurance. Enough $$ to cover, oh, say insulin, needles, glycometers, etc for a poverty stricken diabetic or hiv meds for an hiv+ individual could be far more than a generally healthy poverty stricken person would need. Particularly given that those needs are in addition to the common basic needs.

Sophisticated work training programs. Training everyone to be a generic office worker is probably less than helpful. Checking out local needs and student strengths is more helpful. Uniting potential employers with potential employees is very helpful. Also support groups to provide counseling (be it debt, drug, or psychological) and the like as necessary very helpful.

Assistance in a nonfiscal form. I don’t support helping the poor to become happier on my dime. I support helping the poor because it works towards the greater good, according to my idea of what that good is. If their ideas don’t agree with my ideas, they needn’t accept the assistance. I’m breaking with the utilitarian line here.

Their happiness is not the goal. They can spend their money to accomplish that when they get a job. Government money should be used to serve public needs. In this case, reducing the externalities of homelessness. Further, getting people into jobs, off the streets, whatever, reduces the degree to which their current state reduces others’ quality of life. Their tax revenue is simply bonus on top of that.

Provide the minimum housing that will get most people off the streets. Encourage and facilitate the finding of productive employment. Provide the essentials of life and the services needed to make a meaningful life: Food, shelter, healthcare, education, counseling.

Ideally, someone would create work structured to accomplish useful tasks that can be done with relatively little education, no set schedules, and other constraints appropriate to the “unemployable”.

A final point, which is essential to this process. The support needs to be graduated in such a way that individuals receive rewards for incremental steps towards independence and productivity.

Your solution would leave no one making less than the poverty level with any incentive to continue working beyond their own job satisfaction.

“Limbo” is a word I’ve used to describe my state between chicago and minneapolis. But it also reflects my attitude towards my time in minneapolis. I’m only going to be here for another 9 months. (“only” Heh, but on the scale of friendship formation, that’s not very long). My challenge, should I choose to accept it, is to engage this ‘limbo’ head on, and make connections to it, while it lasts.

Working at the gao this summer calmed my partisan bias quite a bit. I took a step to the right. To put this in perspective, I’m a couple olympic-length swimming pools to the left. But I did notice the change. I don’t think it was a change so much of political beliefs, but an insertion of another layer of analytical detachment, and a realization that so much of what government does is the subject of no partisan debate. That part just doesn’t get covered in the press. “Government working smoothly” makes for boring headlines.

What better way to retain consciousness than to rant?

Professors use their own special brand of english. The phrase is not “give a flavor” you cromagnon autists. It is “give a taste”. I used to think this was unique to CS. Apparently, it’s spread more broadly than that. Fortunately my environmental classics prof seems to have dodged the bullet. Hopefully, she will stay uninfected for the upcoming year.

Sadly, I feel no more conscious.

I’m soooo glad the prof feels the need to review econ 101. If only I’d known this beforehand, I could have used the time to do reading for other classes.

Well, I’m thinking I might go to the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force creating change conference in oakland in mid november. But I’m also thinking I might spend a major part of my winter break in the not-so-bitterly-cold bay area. Plus, I want to go to at least one ecoscientist/ecopolicist type conference. Repeat after me, “travel budget”.

Maybe NYC in october. Europe in the spring (See Ro at Oxford has been added to that agenda). Zanesville over thanksgiving. Pittsburgh at carnival time. Hmm… When will I get around to Vancouver?