Sunday, November 2, 2008
Knocking doesn't entitle you to come in.
They can be anyone from police to parents, but when you're in the middle of sex and they suddenly come in your room, fifty-one percent of you wishes you lived in a world in which the others and the girl you're with would simply give you just five more minutes.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
I know you.
I watched an elephant brain be dissected on a television show about elephants. The brain was being chopped up to further support that elephants have good memories. Their ability to know a lot about the places they go, the things they see, and the elephants they roam around with is very important to their society.
This made me wonder -- a bit tangentially -- if, maybe, memory is vital to the creation of emotions in beings. Do emotional attachments naturally spring from deep understandings of things and beings?
Is to know, know, know him, truly, to love, love, love him?
Today I think that familiarity with a thing needn't breed opinions and feelings for that thing. ...Familiarity doesn't, necessarily, cause value judgments to be made.
But I think they are in most cases.
(But I'm quite likely to think the opposite tomorrow.)
*Addition, November 2: Insects are the most successful animals of this age, and they must intimately understand their surroundings, places in social hierarchies, etc, but they exhibit no emotional attachments.
I'm now calling this one as: Mammals tend to form emotional ties and opinions of things because their brains are constructed in such a way as to make forming them likely.
New one: Do emotions make a species more or less fit for its environment (for survival, long-term) due to the display of emotions being a something mammals do simply to attract mates?
--But first: Do emotional displays attract mates? Is that what they're for?
("Obviously not" is my immediate reaction. ...More attention will be given to this in a future post. This post is likely to start out with me writing that the two questions I asked in the above paragraph were stupid.)
This made me wonder -- a bit tangentially -- if, maybe, memory is vital to the creation of emotions in beings. Do emotional attachments naturally spring from deep understandings of things and beings?
Is to know, know, know him, truly, to love, love, love him?
Today I think that familiarity with a thing needn't breed opinions and feelings for that thing. ...Familiarity doesn't, necessarily, cause value judgments to be made.
But I think they are in most cases.
(But I'm quite likely to think the opposite tomorrow.)
*Addition, November 2: Insects are the most successful animals of this age, and they must intimately understand their surroundings, places in social hierarchies, etc, but they exhibit no emotional attachments.
I'm now calling this one as: Mammals tend to form emotional ties and opinions of things because their brains are constructed in such a way as to make forming them likely.
New one: Do emotions make a species more or less fit for its environment (for survival, long-term) due to the display of emotions being a something mammals do simply to attract mates?
--But first: Do emotional displays attract mates? Is that what they're for?
("Obviously not" is my immediate reaction. ...More attention will be given to this in a future post. This post is likely to start out with me writing that the two questions I asked in the above paragraph were stupid.)
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Bailout
Corporate bailout: 700 billion dollars.
Population of the United States: 301,139,947 (July 2007 estimate).
Seven hundred billion (dollars) divided by the population of the US = $2,324.50.
Population of the United States: 301,139,947 (July 2007 estimate).
Seven hundred billion (dollars) divided by the population of the US = $2,324.50.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Elect "I'm Stupid" in '08!
Class warfare and socialism.
Republicans maintain that raising taxes on those that can afford tax increases is class warfare. A sort of warfare designed to "spread the wealth." Which is, according to those that know nothing of socialism, the larger part of the definition of socialism.
The smaller and smaller crowds McCain and Palin draw boo and hiss and sometimes call for Obama's murder when "spreading the wealth" is mentioned as something Obama supposedly desires. (Weather he does or does not -- and, if so, would attempt to do so -- is something to write about another time.)
I was running some errands, and passed by a trailer park as I did so. The entrance was a field of McCain/Palin signs.
These not-wealthy people overwhelmingly seem to support a campaign that has made it crystal clear they will give tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthy, on top of keeping W.'s tax cuts, which overwhelmingly favored the wealthy, permanent.
Many, I would guess, are so-called values voters. Many will vote in direct opposition to their economic interests because Republicans don't favor abortion.
Which is obvious. Because in W.'s first term, when the GOP
(which stands for Grand Old Party, which is synonymous with "Republican," and good to know if your local/state reps. and or senators list themselves on your ballot next Tuesday as members of the GOP to distance themselves from the Republican political philosophy the same way they would Aristotelian philosophy, which is a worldview just as wrong as their own)
had a veto-proof majority in the House, owned the Senate and the executive branch, they passed a law that made abortion illegal.
...Wait...
They didn't.
They didn't fight for any of the values the values voters put them in place for -- and they didn't do it because if they did they would have been voted out of office because their values are extremely unpopular.
Fine then. I'll end on this note, half-made points and all, because I don't feel like writing (but promised to do so in a post last week):
If you're going to vote McCain/Palin against your interests (beyond the economic ones, even) because of "values" promises that are sure to be not-kept, I reserve the right to call you a goddam idiot.
You goddam idiot. Your vote is as well thought-out as this essay.
Republicans maintain that raising taxes on those that can afford tax increases is class warfare. A sort of warfare designed to "spread the wealth." Which is, according to those that know nothing of socialism, the larger part of the definition of socialism.
The smaller and smaller crowds McCain and Palin draw boo and hiss and sometimes call for Obama's murder when "spreading the wealth" is mentioned as something Obama supposedly desires. (Weather he does or does not -- and, if so, would attempt to do so -- is something to write about another time.)
I was running some errands, and passed by a trailer park as I did so. The entrance was a field of McCain/Palin signs.
These not-wealthy people overwhelmingly seem to support a campaign that has made it crystal clear they will give tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthy, on top of keeping W.'s tax cuts, which overwhelmingly favored the wealthy, permanent.
Many, I would guess, are so-called values voters. Many will vote in direct opposition to their economic interests because Republicans don't favor abortion.
Which is obvious. Because in W.'s first term, when the GOP
(which stands for Grand Old Party, which is synonymous with "Republican," and good to know if your local/state reps. and or senators list themselves on your ballot next Tuesday as members of the GOP to distance themselves from the Republican political philosophy the same way they would Aristotelian philosophy, which is a worldview just as wrong as their own)
had a veto-proof majority in the House, owned the Senate and the executive branch, they passed a law that made abortion illegal.
...Wait...
They didn't.
They didn't fight for any of the values the values voters put them in place for -- and they didn't do it because if they did they would have been voted out of office because their values are extremely unpopular.
Fine then. I'll end on this note, half-made points and all, because I don't feel like writing (but promised to do so in a post last week):
If you're going to vote McCain/Palin against your interests (beyond the economic ones, even) because of "values" promises that are sure to be not-kept, I reserve the right to call you a goddam idiot.
You goddam idiot. Your vote is as well thought-out as this essay.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Old and White? Experience Not-Voting This Year!
If you make less than $250,000 per year and plan to vote/will vote/voted for McCain/Palin please leave a comment that details how bad your head injury remains.
It could be the first step toward the help you need.
Fine then.
Bandini
It could be the first step toward the help you need.
Fine then.
Bandini
Friday, October 24, 2008
PROGRAMMING NOTE:
This blog will be used primarily for weekly essays. I am giving myself a Wednesday, midnight deadline, so there will always be something here Thursdays for you to read. Have Kleenex handy, because each post, be assured, will move you to tears. You're sure to be moved that much.*
Think of these weekly posts as newspaper columns. But columns that will be on whatever topic I find handy that week, and that are peppered with swear words and blasphemies.
So: Column/essays on Thursdays.
Plus: (And aren't you lucky!) This blog will feature the occasional commentary on my life (like the post below this one).
Must go. XSU or bust and all that.
I'm also trying to think of a sign-off for my posts... For some reason. I haven't settled on anything, and don't have time to create one right now. So, until next time:
God is dead!**
*Not a guarantee. Author cannot know if reader is even capable of crying. Perhaps reader has Chronic Dry Eye and cannot properly express reader's emotions because reader needs a prescription for Restasis. At least according to commercials that feature the woman costar from Northern Exposure, in her first role (as far as I know) since leaving the show. Kinda a step down... Especially if it's been all these years since she's been on TV...
**Nietzsche.
Think of these weekly posts as newspaper columns. But columns that will be on whatever topic I find handy that week, and that are peppered with swear words and blasphemies.
So: Column/essays on Thursdays.
Plus: (And aren't you lucky!) This blog will feature the occasional commentary on my life (like the post below this one).
Must go. XSU or bust and all that.
I'm also trying to think of a sign-off for my posts... For some reason. I haven't settled on anything, and don't have time to create one right now. So, until next time:
God is dead!**
*Not a guarantee. Author cannot know if reader is even capable of crying. Perhaps reader has Chronic Dry Eye and cannot properly express reader's emotions because reader needs a prescription for Restasis. At least according to commercials that feature the woman costar from Northern Exposure, in her first role (as far as I know) since leaving the show. Kinda a step down... Especially if it's been all these years since she's been on TV...
**Nietzsche.
News You Can Use
Today I leave for the weekend, to be spent, at least in part, visiting my alma mater, designated XSU. I haven't been since I left the summer after graduating too many years ago.
Finally finally finally. I am so so so goddam excited. Despite the fact that, of course, it's going to rain all fucking weekend and all I want to do is grab a fifth of vodka to sip while I visit every single place I ever set foot upon during my higher education/best skating years.
Time is a factor, and XSU has a huge campus. And I have memories for every building, botanical garden, rail, bar, bench, sidewalk square -- every freaking blade of grass, every squirrel whose kids I'll see today. A friend is making my trip possible -- I don't drive -- so I have to work around her schedule. I can only hope we can cover quite a few miles in a very few hours.
I love today.
Finally finally finally. I am so so so goddam excited. Despite the fact that, of course, it's going to rain all fucking weekend and all I want to do is grab a fifth of vodka to sip while I visit every single place I ever set foot upon during my higher education/best skating years.
Time is a factor, and XSU has a huge campus. And I have memories for every building, botanical garden, rail, bar, bench, sidewalk square -- every freaking blade of grass, every squirrel whose kids I'll see today. A friend is making my trip possible -- I don't drive -- so I have to work around her schedule. I can only hope we can cover quite a few miles in a very few hours.
I love today.
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