Augustine And Aristotle

Lately, I've been reading up on Augustine and Aristotle. I'm liking Augustine's ideas of good and evil, which has it that evil depends on good in a sort of parasitical way. So, without good there could be no evil. It beats the Manichean view of absolute good and absolute evil going toe to toe against one another.

I'm also getting into Aristotle's "Virtue Ethics" Kant tells us to follow certain rules. "Do your duty." He admonishes. He tells you not to lie and if you lie under any circumstances it's not moral. Something about that just doesn't ring right. Aristotle, on the other hand, tells us that we must build character. We do this by developing certain traits and those traits fall into a "golden mean." So, if we're brave it means that we're not reckless ans charge into frays needlessly, and it also means that we aren't cowardly and shrink for any conflict.

Teleologica

I get things wrong when i think of them and I always hit the mark when I don't. Whenever I think of what I'm doing I become so self-conscious that I trip over my own feet, both literally and metaphorically. When I keep my eyes on the path ahead and I savor the exploration of whatever it is I seek, I often make a bullseye without my intending to do so.

Religion Defined

Religion is best defined as the attempt to control people through their spirituality

No man is an island

The successful are built on either the cooperation of others, or on their backs

Fetishizing the World

I've been reading The Lord and the Rings and Philosophy and I am enjoying the essays in there a good deal. Not only am I picking up philosophical thought but I'm revisiting a favorite book of mine and really learning it.

One bit in there discuses how the main plot of the story seems to be de-fetishizing the world.. and then that leads into how modern culture is fetishized.

Anytime you see scantily clad people draping themselves over the hoods of cars or other appliances, fetishing is going on.

Apparently that is a common phenomenon in the modern consumeristic world since the relationship between craftsman and buyer is no longer as personal as it once was.

Responsibility Blues

One of the puzzling aspects of American culture is this negative reaction toward responsibility. It's not negative in the sense that people don't live up to their responsibilities, though there's that, too. It's like this; our teachers, our parents, and just about any figure of authority that wants to scapegoat someone else always moans about "people living up to their responsibilities." They complain and shake their fingers and lecture that we have "responsibilities" we must live up to before we go off and have fun.

Well, all true, but rather negatively phrased don't you think?

not all responsibilities have to be a torment. The ones that require us to go off the the dentist to have our children's teeth drilled into are not what I mean... but taking out the garbage, cooking, cleaning, are all things that I actually enjoy on occasion. If on everyone given time people will dump all the housework on me and go off to play nintendo and leave me by myself; on those occasions maybe responsibility sucks. If everyone pitches together and works as one, discusses the day, tells jokes, and gets into a community spirit; those occasions are the best.

So, if not all responsibilities are a chore, why don't we start talking up Responsibility and sell it as something that can be fun?

American might not have such a weak dollar today if we had done that.

Tuesday Bluesday

Well, OK. There's not to much to report.

I'm trying to organize my thoughts and activities a bit more. So, We'll see how that goes.

<3

Dems Play Republican Enabler; Again

The Democratic front runners have all pelted for the doors in order to avoid voting on the Mukasey confirmation.

This poster on HuffPO had all the questions nicely arranged for us.

1. As political cover? They are not on recorded voting for or against the nomination; staying the middle course; non controversial; sitting on the fence post undisturbed?
2. Legitimate scheduling conflicts that they could not attend; surprised by the vote they did not have time to return to D.C.?
3. The vote was scheduled to exclude these presidential candidates; to make they look bad; a calculated strategy?
4. Other? (Dems and Repubs are really all part of the same club " so the vote really was predetermined while allowing pseudo political posturing?)
5. Just plain old incompetence? Complacency? Arrogance? Spineless? SNAFU?- LDJeff

I want to see what's going on in their political crystal balls. They have to know that they are looking like mighty prats in front of the world.. so what do they have to gain from abstaining?

Their donor's contributions, perhaps?

Krugman on Cartoon Physics

The First Law of Cartoon Physics .

Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation.

*giggle*

Not So Much

There's not too much going atm I'm afraid. I'm just bustling to and from taking care of odds and ends and waiting for a new part for the PC to arrive.

I need to get through the general philosophy books I've acquired recently. Phew.

The Lowdown on Mr Prostrate

This lazy Sunday (btw, remember to set your clocks back) The sad consensus around the house seems to be the coming election will be nasty. The fundy Republicans are backing Giuliani with all their pathetic might, which means that the same people who back Bush will back The Moron, part two.

Of course, it is already a given as to who the nominees will be going into next year and the house analysis seems to be that these are reactionary people backing Mr Prostrate so of course, and like all reactionaries, once they have power they will never give it up easily.

It all seems ridiculous that the upcoming election will be close, considering the unpopularity of Moron one, but there you have it, the press and certain unnamed elements of the house all agree that the next election will be close, dirty, and the fighting likely to continue well past the 2008 cycle.

Popcorn, anyone?

My Friends

These are my friends of the internet!

Bardhlul! |

Queen of The Mods | politicsplusstuff

Fun Stuff

All the entertaining and diverting links I come across and wish to share;

Movies
IMDB Movie database | Rotten Tomatoes

Fun
Ranma 1/2 | The One Ring | Sorceress Supreme

Politics - Environment

All links I find interesting and are related to politics and the environment are below for your pleasure;

Baghdad Burning | Grist | Paul Krugman | Moyer's Journal | Open Democracy

Pam's House Blend | ACLU | WIKI the VOTE! | Rachel's Tavern | Beloved Communities

Saturday, Saturday

It's just another Saturday (at least I hope it is *check calendar*) before I pick the small white terrier up from being groomed. There's not too much to report except that I'm adding books onto the Shelfari stacks and cleaning house today. Revetting blogging stuff, I know, but I have to write something here (no matter how silly) or I get no practice writing in.

Anyhoo, that's all I can think of!

Keeping Up With The Eclectics

On Last.fm, I have found myself prey to the oddest fixation; that of trying to be as eclectic as possible. They have these scripts that you can run on your own user-name and it grades you and it gives you an eclectic score. Like 1 = one artist fanatic and 100 means eclectic, try-every-genre, freakazoid. Well, I'm hip, right? I wanna be 100 wooo.

Well this week I'm mentally slapping myself around with a cyber herring and wondering what that was all about.

Yes, yes. I hear the sage advice that is no doubt in your mind. "Just listen and enjoy and play around."

Yes, oh cybergod,
I hear and obey <3

Teh Good

"Goodness is easier to recognize than to define" - W.H. Auden

Taking It To The Streets

Via Firedoglake Naomi is proposing that we start taking things to the streets in a peaceful, family oriented way !


Her words -

All right: Blackwater and other contractors have four BILLION dollars in US funds and, the New York Times reports today, almost no oversight in Iraq; wildfires are consuming acres of Southern California and many counties have been declared to be in a state of emergency — and nothing at all but a whisper of popular opposition and a prayer — nothing legal — would prevent Bush today from declaring that the National Guard is overstretched and that it is Blackwater’s torturers and murderers, recruited from Salvadoran, Ecuadoran and Nigerian paramilitaries, who will be `maintaining order’ in the `public emergency’ that is Southern California; and Mukasey has informed Congress that he has no idea what waterboarding is — which professed cluelessness alone should disqualify him from service — and that the President does not actually need to obey the law of the United States of America — which alone should alert us that if he is confirmed the ga me is over. Once Congress confirms someone to decide the law of the land who holds that the President is exempt from the law of the land (which assertion was, notably, an historic tipping point when Hitler asked his Reichstag to confirm a similar position about his powers in regard to the law and the constitution) it is open season on all of us.

It is time to take to the streets.

...cont

I Don't Believe You're Christian

Can I say that?

Christian fundamentalist types seem to have no qualms with bragging about their Christian status to me. Also, since I'm bisexual they have no issues with telling me that I need to choose to go straight and accept God or go to hell.

I'm sure many of you out there have experienced pretty much the same thing. It's either toe the religious line (their religious line) or be punished in the after life. Oh, yes, you also get a mighty scolding in this life by religious fundamentalists. Essentially, if your a fundamentalist Christian you have carte-blanche to brag about your faith and harangue people into accepting your way of thinking all in the name of freedom of expression as covered in the Bill of Rights.

Right.

So, what if I told people "I don't believe you." Just like that?

Fundy's have a right to nag me and parade their assertions around and club me with them so I think I might just have to tell them that I think they are lying when they tell me that they are saved.

"You're making that up. Why would God want to save you? Anyway, I don't think you're being honest. You don't really believe in Jesus."

I want to see how many heads start to spin when I point out that they're taking their Lord God's name in vain.

Arianna May Agree

It seems like Arianna has been wondering along the same lines as I was. If you read down the comments you can see a lot of other people have made up their minds as to how dumb the dems are.

Eh, I'm still undecided but you have to admit it just looks darn suspicious. The Fudd Democrats have not been been looking so hot lately. If i were them I'd be stamping my feet and making some noise but all I hear is the sound of squeaking as the congressmen rush to their holes in the walls.

Rhetorical Questions

Just how dumb are the democrats? It seems like every time they near victory, defeat comes pelting across to backhand them into submission.

Honestly, it's like watching an Elmer Fudd cartoon, starring Bugs Bunny as the Republicans "Shhhh, I'm hunting Wepubwicans, hah hah hah hah" where Bugs always seems to outwit Fudd by wearing zaney disguises and tapping him on the shoulder to make him look back (the wrong way).

This happens so often that I have to wonder - are they really that stupid or is there some tiny part of them that agrees with what the Republicans want? The facts are that all high level politicians are in bed with special interests to some extent. The only question is how far deep into the covers are they?

Stupid or complicit, Dems. Which is it? Neither looks too good for either you or us.


From the article:

As noted below, GOP Rep. Eric Cantor came up with a clever way of throwing a wrench into the FISA bill, which was scheduled to be voted on today and which is opposed by Republicans.

He threatened this afternoon to submit an amendment that would have mandated that nothing in the bill "shall be construed to prohibit the intelligence community from conducting surveillance needed to prevent Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda, or any other foreign terrorist organization…from attacking the United States or any United States person."

The Three Taboos

Has anyone ever wondered why sex, politics, and religion were taboo subjects in polite conversation? I mean, really, wondered.

In other countries where the democratic spirit is alive and well people talk about these subjects all day and every day with no apparent trouble what-so-ever (France, Canada, Germany, to name a few).

It just makes me wonder why American society, the land of the brave and the home of the free, has such an issue with discussing these topics in day to day conversation. After all, SPR (sex, politics, and religion) is very fascinating and if the root of democracy is the discussion of ideas - then why do people feel such discomfort talking about these things??

Is America, really, based on democratic ideals? Be honest.

The Cackle of Witch Hazel

I missed the great news of the day when Ms Clinton apparently vocalized The Cackle Heard Round The World. I was sorely remiss in my duty when I missed this tragic Tell that has lain bare the cold stone of the presidential candidate's heart That I hear the same Cackle every day from warm hearted country women in Texas or in Tennessee while I'm visiting my mother has nothing to do with it. How I ever could have interpreted this laugh as just a quirk of a certain culture?

What would we ever do without our beloved liberally biased press corps pelting to cover stories of monumental importance like this one?

Journalism Today

Don't bother going to journalism school if you want to be a journalist these days...

All you have to do is practice against the gag reflex whenever your kissing ass.

Beer Drinkin' With The Pres.

"I'll pass on the beer. Just give us a country that works."

- What we say the next time someone gives us "the drinking buddy pres" test.

The Cockroaches

but I shouldn't say that.. since at least cockroaches serve a useful purpose in nature's grand scheme. These guys serve nothing but themselves.

All in all, the Graeme Frost case is a perfect illustration of the modern right-wing political machine at work, and in particular its routine reliance on character assassination in place of honest debate. If service members oppose a Republican war, they’re “phony soldiers”; if Michael J. Fox opposes Bush policy on stem cells, he’s faking his Parkinson’s symptoms; if an injured 12-year-old child makes the case for a government health insurance program, he’s a fraud.

Is anyone that routinely attacks children and people with conditions like Michael J. Foxes someone you would want as a friend? Seriously, if you are getting your money using techniquues like this (or depending on people who use them) you should know that you are a bad person. Spin that.

Gore And UK Panel Wins Nobel!

Al Gore is a personal hero of mine as one of the few public personaes in recent memory to dare stand up for what they believe in. No concessions for "practicality." No cave ins for cash.

And so, despite a last minute attempt to derail his chances, Al gets his Nobel prize



Stick THAT in your craw (or up someplace.. where ever it bests fits) wealthy capitalistic interests!
xD

EDIT: This is via talkingpointsmemo.

...

There are several layers of irony and poetic justice wrapped into this honor. The first is that the greatest step for world peace would simply have been for Gore not to have had the presidency stolen from him in November 2000. By every just measure, Gore won the presidency in 2000 only to have George W. Bush steal it from him with the critical assistance of the US Supreme Court. It's worth taking a few moments today to consider where the country and world would be without that original sin of this corrupt presidency.

And yet this is a fitting bookend, with Gore receiving this accolade while the sitting president grows daily an object of greater disapproval, disapprobation and collective shame. And let's not discount another benefit: watching the rump of the American right detail the liberal bias of the Nobel Committee and at this point I guess the entire world. Fox News vs. the world.

...

Bridges

Build bridges, don't burn them.



(that aphorism is so good i know it has to come from somewhere NOT ME) but I thought of it so unless someone hits me over the head with a comment it stands <3

Wiki The Vote

Here's an all new way to find out who's running and what they stand for. Looks promising. Let's hope people use the resource <3

Breathing In; Breathing Out

When you breath in, you breath in the love of worlds. So, naturally, when you breath out, you give back the love of the worlds.

Addicted to Last.FM

I've been spending an incredible amount of my free time over at Last.FM. What hooks me is not only the ability to listen to just about every song published but also the ability to click on user's profiles and listen to what they are listening. This means if they are from Brazil you can get a taste of what a Brazilian listens to in her country. If they are Swedish- same. Thai - same.

If music is a universal language then mediums like this might be wonderful diplomats.

Tell Your Friends

It's Burma, not Myanmar. Myanmar is what the thugs in charge (the junta) want us to call it out of a cynical hope that it will instill national pride into her citizens and help fully legitimize them. Burma is what the rightfully elected president and the opposition movement against the junta call their country.

It's been Burma for centuries, also. Why give the thugs what they want?

Via the "Fair Use Act" from the above ABC News link. -->

In all my reporting on Burma, I have often pointed out that "Burma" is still the name of the country to those who legitimately won the 1990 election (which we covered in Burma). Note that all the opposition and exile groups use "Burma".

It was the junta that changed the name after Suu Kyi was arrested and accused of being under the influence of foreign powers (she was married to an Englishman). The junta ruled that keeping the name as Burma was an insult and proof that foreign powers wanted to dictate the country's future.

In fact the military was intent on wiping out the past and creating a whole new reality, history, and power structure under a new name: Myanmar.

They claimed it had true nationalist roots.

In fact, this is exactly what the Khmer Rouge did when they changed Cambodia's name to Kampuchea. Only those who wanted to gain favor with the regime called it Kampuchea. Today it is Cambodia again. I expect the same will be true of Burma and Rangoon if the military regime is ever unseated. - Correspondant Mark Litke

I Swore No More TV

Then they have to remake Bionic Woman... and from all reports it's entertaining. Yee - quick someone Teevo!


*It was one of my faves growing up

Kool-Aid Time

America is in a "restructuring" moment at present.

We have a lot of rich folk that wish to keep their money and we have a lot of folk that want to enforce their simplified world views on people (social conservatives). So, we have lack of health care and nothing in the way of decent social services or infrastructure. We get lack of net neutrality and corporations popping up everywhere to tell us what we can listen to, what we can do,
and who we can do. ^

It's the age old phenomenon of technology outstripping social progress and at present the distance between the two is fixin' to grab a huge can o' whoop-ass on The USA and the world in general.

At the end of it all, if the globally warmed oceans haven't swallowed us all, we'll emerge in a new world created by new democracy movements. It has to happen. We live in an information age and the only way to progress in an information age is to be good with information (duh). We can't do that if we're trying to go back to a fake 50's idea of social model (with a lot of laissez faire market practices).

Isn't that a nice thought?

Burmese Action

Just because these guys need all the help we can give them. Let's try to kick our congress people in their rear a bit.

Asperger's Syndrome

Mine papa has asked me to look up Asperger's Syndrome for him so I can discuss it with him later. I have to say it is rather interesting reading as I now can readily exclaim "aha! I know people that fits!"

Snipped from Wikipedia.org:

Asperger syndrome (also Asperger's syndrome, Asperger's disorder, Asperger's, AS, or AD) is one of several autism spectrum disorders (ASD) characterized by difficulties in social interaction and by restricted and stereotyped interests and activities. AS is distinguished from the other ASDs in having no general delay in language or cognitive development. Although not mentioned in standard diagnostic criteria, motor clumsiness and atypical use of language are frequently reported

Reading further down the article informs us that many brilliant people fit the AS category and there's a growing trend to see AS as just a "type" of functioning person, rather than a disorder. I suspect ADD is a lot like that , also.

The Net Is A Neat Place

If you know where to look and what to avoid. A friend turned me onto last.fm so I listened to a few stations and I've finally got enough in my play list to embed my own lil player thing-a-ma-bob into the blog. It's over to the right ----->

There ya go!

Gramma told me once, " that the world is a great place, if you don't weaken," which, in the case of the internet is pretty on the money. As long as you protect yourself against ID thieves, stalkers, and virii, it's a great place.

On other topics; those Burmese monks are sure stirring things up nicely. I heard that there are just as many of them as there are troops. Peace against tyranny. It can't get any clearer than that. Again, best to them.

The juice is in the primaries

No, not THE Juice. I mean the sort of juice that means "really important stuff."

I'm coming to see the primaries as being so much more important than the general presidential election because it is there that we come up with our presidential material. Our real choices are there at the primary. Past the primaries we have dumb and dumber or smart and smarter or smart and dumb. We just have two to pick from and, guess what, if you're from one party or another your choice has been made for you. You just gotta pull the freakin' lever.

I know that personally I used to feel that the actual presidential election was THE election but as I have gotten older and observed politics I've noticed that it just isn't so. Ultimately the important elections are the ones closest to home. The precinctual, mayoral, state-wide, elections are the ones where the flavor of the country comes out and that is where most of our primary presidential candidates come from. So, obviously, if we have a large pool of highly qualified people from those offices running for president, we get better results - better national governments.

But, so many of us act like that's not the case. So many people wont even lift their bums from the couch and walk or drive a block or two to vote in an election unless it's a presidential election... and then the biggest mystery of all is that's when people come out of the wood-work to vote, when their choices have already been made for them. Not that it's not important to vote in the general election. It is. After all, once we've made our choice we do have to follow through and beat the dumber guy. No, the mystery is that we let a relative few (the people who vote in the primaries) decide for us (the rest of the poor hapless sods that vote in the general elections but who haven't voted in the primaries) who our choices will be.

Then we have 4-8 years.. and it's usually 8 with the power of encumbency what it is, to complain about our lack of choice and the rotten selection we have made.

That's all i wanted to say on this. This is very obvious stuff, really, so why did I say it? Probably, I said it because we all need to remind ourselves of this fact, everyday.

Creature's proposal: make voting participation mandatory and give a national PAID holiday for election days. In school we should teach political history covering both general political theory and the history of our current dominant political parties and various special interest groups. Who has the power and why

Hillary has lost my vote

For the primary, at least. Don't get me wrong. I will vote for a democratic dogcatcher in the general election but if I'm forced to vote for Hillary it will be in full recognition that it's a choice between evil and evil lite /co Dr Evil. Firedog lake has my feeling on the matter nailed down in this post. Hillary is a political opportunist and where she is no doubt better than Bush she is obviously not the best choice running, despite my interest in seeing a woman pres. sit the Oval Office.

Here is where she lost me

Wednesday’s vote on the Lieberman - Kyl resolution, condemning Iran and allowing the designation of its Revolutionary Guards as a “terrorist” entity, was a litmus test for candidates seeking the Presidency. The vote separated the wise from the foolish, and Senator Clinton voted — again — for foolish.

There's no way we should go any where near Iran at this point. Not with our forces stretched so thin and not after observing the level of incompetence and outright deceit this presidency has displayed in getting us to go into Iraq.

The Burmese Demonstrations

I boggle at how serious these people are about making a change in their world.

Monks marching to the home of Aung San Suu Kyi reportedly urged civilians not to join them and not to resort to violence.

But elsewhere witnesses said civilians were shielding the marching monks by forming a human chain around them.

I hope the way opens up for them and I wish them the best.

Oops! Did I really Do That?

"Oops! Did I really Do That?"

The Democrats seem to make a lot of really stupid political errors. So much so, in fact, that lately even the public at large (not just the activists)are starting to cotton to them.

This fiasco with MoveOn, for instance, where 22 Dems voted along with the Republicans to censure MoveOn for making a highly critical ad over General Petraeus. The Dems claim they are anti-war but instead of helping to vote to bring the troops home they waste time by censuring an organization that speaks for millions.

At this point I do not think they are simply out of touch. I think that being out of touch is an active desire on their part.

Medical Justice

This is just a concept I'm playing with. People seem to respond to concepts and ideas once they are established, framed, and bound. In the US it's obvious that we have a problem with our health care system, so I'm examining whether a concept of an elaborate system of Medical Justice could be useful; especially to Americans who like to have their rules precisely minced, written down in granite, and parceled out to them.

The concept so far -

Medical Justice: The right to obtain the best care a society can give, as quickly as it can be given, regardless of the patient's income, social status, or condition; pre-existing or otherwise.

I do not get a deluge of traffic here, I know. But, if you are one of those surfers that accidentally hit upon this site and this concept intrigues you or makes you laugh because it's so infantile, please leave a comment to me and let me know how to improve it or where I went wrong (i'm thinking that a similiar concept does alreeady exist. if it does and you know of it let ME know too! <3

Bounded Rationality 1

Here we go yet again!


I guess my blog is pretty much turning into a place i can dump the things im digging into currently. Hopefully it will become also more like a journal as well but for right now I guess the groove isn't yet entirely there

Here's the first link for Bounded Rationality
. More to follow <3

Bounded Rationality
In 1957, Simon proposed the notion of

Bounded Rationality: that property of an agent that behaves in a manner that is nearly optimal with respect to its goals as its resources will allow.

Bounded rationality better describes agent behaviors than Anderson's optimal rationality approach for the following reasons:

* agents are not optimal
* the methods by which architectural tasks are performed significantly affect the agents behaviors
* the representations of information and the strategies for solving problems must all be discovered by the agent
* agents' behaviors across isomorphic task domains are not constant

In considering bounded rationality, Simon suggests that researchers not limit their focus to signature data but look for all the data they can in order to uncover the underlying processes. He concludes by providing a lower bound of relevance to cognitive analysis:

The exact ways in which neurons accomplish their functions is not important- only their functional capabilities and the organization of these.

David Hume 2

This is his epistemology and metaphysics

In a revolutionary step in the history of philosophy, Hume rejected the basic idea of causation, maintaining that “reason can never show us the connexion of one object with another, tho' aided by experience, and the observation of their conjunction in all past instances. When the mind, therefore, passes from the idea or impression of one object to the idea or belief of another, it is not determined by reason, but by certain principles, which associate together the ideas of these objects and unite them in the imagination.” Hume's rejection of causation implies a rejection of scientific laws, which are based on the general premise that one event necessarily causes another and predictably always will. According to Hume's philosophy, therefore, knowledge of matters of fact is impossible, although as a practical matter he freely acknowledged that people had to think in terms of cause and effect, and had to assume the validity of their perceptions, or they would go mad. He also admitted the possibility of knowledge of the relationships among ideas, such as the relationships of numbers in mathematics. Hume's skeptical approach also denied the existence both of the spiritual substance postulated by Berkeley and of Locke's “material substance.” Going further, Hume denied the existence of the individual self, maintaining that because people do not have a constant perception of themselves as distinct entities, they “are nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions.”
From Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2007. © 1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

The wikipedia article I linked yesterday seem to be a good compliment to this. Although, I'm no longer certain that the Wiki author is right when he asserts that Hume can't possibly literally mean that a person is nothing but "a bundle or collection of different perceptions." After reading a little of Hume (and beginning to read actual Hume again and not just encyclopedia articles) I'm not sure I agree. The idea sounds very similar to the Buddhists idea of "No self."

-"Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man." - Hume

How We Know

What we know. I'm revisiting David Hume and Karl Popper and others from my days of the Great Books Program I took in college. Trust me, when you think you know these things, you often don't.

2 quick links The Problem of induction and David Hume and who knows, I may just add more links to this post later.

You know David Hume; he's the one that argued that deductive and inductive reasoning were 'necessary illusions.' That brings all new meaning to the arguments over what "Is is." Anyway, I'll come back to this post!

Here's a snip from what I found in the David Hume article

*snip*

1. Demonstrative or Intuitive. This sort of reasoning is basically a priori. We cannot determine a priori that the future will be conformable to the past, because it is both (logically) consistent and conceivable that the world stop being uniform. Hume here does not distinguish adequately between the uniformity of nature in general and the persistence of particular regularities. For it is open to a philosopher (perhaps of a Kantian bent) to argue that it is in fact inconceivable that the world not be regular in some ways. However, what is important, and what vindicates Hume, is that for any particular regularity in the operations of nature, it is consistent and conceivable that it might cease. Thus we cannot ground our inductions in a priori reasoning.(Italics are all mine)

2. Inductive. We cannot appeal, either, to our past successes in using inductive inference, to the fact that it has worked in the past, for this would be circular reasoning.

"Reason is, and ought only to be, slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them." -Hume

Chaos Hawks

Josh Marshall links us into a post to Kevin Drum who points out that the Pro-War people in congress have entered their 3rd and least convincing stage to date. They were War Hawks, then they became Pottery Barn Hawks (we broke it we'll fix it, ala Colin Powell), and now they are Chaos Hawks; things will just go to hell if we leave now.

After seeing this post and posts like this the feeling that I'm getting is that Iraq no longer exists except as a war theater. As things are now, The sectarian militias are fighting to determine what Iraq will become. My sincerest apologies go out to those Iraqis that wish and feel otherwise but that's how I'm seeing it. Drop me a comment if you think otherwise.

My big clue here was in hearing that thousands of refugees are leaving the country. One of my favorite bloggers, Riverbend, is in another country now. I wish her the very best and I do hope she starts to write more now that she is in a safer place.

Daily Zen

I thought this site was cute. It even has a daily meditation area where the zazen gong sounds. <3 Check it out if Zen's your thang.

San Fransisco Zen Center

I'm pretty much a weird, out there, kinda girl with so many things going on with her life that it's pretty tough to shake a stick at everything. But, I'll give it a shot!

I'll add links to all my little interests here in the fullness of time. One of those interests is in Zen. I consider myself to be a follower of just about anything that makes sense, so I don't let myself become entangled or nailed down by any one faith; but if I had to be nailed it would be by Zen Buddhism. So, here's a link both in this post and off to the side link section to The San Fransisco Zen Center.

Oh yes. Here's some Ranma 1/2 too

Beloved Communities Initiative

I saw Grace Lee Boggs on Bill Moyer's Journal today. It's awesome stuff concerning civil rights and changing our American values.

"I think we're not looking sufficiently at what is happening at the grassroots in the country. We have not emphasized sufficiently the cultural revolution that we have to make among ourselves in order to force the government to do differently. Things do not start with governments.

I'm very down with that. Here's a link to her Beloved Communities Initiative website !

My Favorite Web Hangout

My favorite current web hangout at the moment has to be the Philosophy area at Wikiversity. I'm currently trying to pick up more tools in which to explore my universe but for some reason i just find it too onerous to explore in conventional ways, what with all the demands life draws on me at them moment. So far this is very much a winner.

Fair and Not Fair

I get so busy with whatever else that I do during the day that I often forget to come here and share my thoughts with you. However, I do try to come often and leave something - anything- so that I can come back later and look over what I had thought in the past.

So, my little snippet of wisdom that "is not wisdom" for today is over fairness.

How often have we heard that "Life is not Fair"?

As a child you might come up to a parent and bawl "It's not fair!" and then your superior in stature and in wisdom and all other things great and small in your day to day living tells you, "Well, dear, life just isn't fair, is it?"

I just have to think what a crummy back-handed-assward message this is to teach kids. The US today is not fair. That's why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. That's why our newspapers slant the news and only give us part of the picture.

Guess what?

Life should be fair.

That's the point of a democracy. It makes things fair. It helps to level the field so that the people who work hard have a good shot of getting rewarded for their efforts. That's what democracy is about - fair. So, life IS fair (in a democracy)

get it?

Bright Creature Scoops All!

Realistically, I'm -sure- this joke has been around. It's just so obvious (especially as the cartoon is dated on the same day my joke was...>.>), but I take credit for it anyway since I'm the first one that -I- know that had come up with it. Logical.

Right?

Right???

*maniacal laughing*

But, the Barney resigns meme has filtered through the net!

Here's the cartoon, just because it's so shiny... -->

Barney Resigns Post As First Dog

-.-

Not really , but with Tony Snow being rumored to resign (once his money runs out because he has cancer) the White-house must be feeling rather empty by now.

The Real Problem With Socialism

Is that it's called socialism. Note; it isn't called "being good to your fellow creature." To call it that would be to admit that you have common value with people that you wish to take money away from. If you call it socialism you can then lump it in with communism and be respectable while you froth and foam at the mouth and claim that any taxation on yourself represents the end of civilization.

So, no need for national health services. No need to take care of your fellow creature.. and you can make money off of them at the same time by making them pay high prices for prescriptions and very very high prices for the insurance that they have to pay (but often doesn't pay out).

No insurance?


Well, that's no problem. Just get another job and either get paid better or find one with an insurance plan because this isn't a "socialist" state and everyone pays their way. After all, it's not the fault of the rich that they find more and more ways of taking money out of their workers paychecks.

Wait...

Snark Attack! *rawr*

Apparently Mitt Romney went to a state fair where, besides having such delicious entrees like fried twinkies, an Iraq Vet walked up to him and after shaking his hand started to ask him some questions.

The questions were; "When are we pulling out of Iraq." "Isn't this war like Vietnam."? and before he could ask his third question (after dealing with the evasive answers of the first two questions) Mitt's press secretary walked up and told Mr Romney that they were due for another appointment.

Mitt said basically, "Well, thanks. Bye." to the Iraq war vet and just left without another word. The vet told reporters afterward that he thought Romney's behavior was very rude.

Here's a comment on this article (by Michael Scherer) in the Letter's to The Editor's

I don't know

why that kid didn't just volunteer for Mitt's campaign, 'stead of going all the way to Iraq.

-- katewill2

Religious Experiences

My father has started his own study of religion (in his own secular way) and he's fond of pouncing out of dark corners at me at every turn to show off the latest discovery of his.

Well, time to fight pounce with pounce!

This week I'm starting to read The Varieties of Religious Experiences by William James. Hope it's fun! William James has been very recommended to me by brainier types so I'm sure it will be <3

Dems Blink Again

Via Firedoglake , I thought this pic was great. Sums it up, yep.

They's All Bought

As much as it pains me to admit this - I'm finally swinging over to where the tin foil hatters on the political spectrum. The day before, Bush comes out and stands before the microphone and tells congress "if you don't give me what I want with FISA, then your not going home 'cause we're keeping congress in perpetual session 'till you do give me what I want."

If you were a real player, a real firebrand holly roller, what would you have done? Right. You wouldn't have caved. You would have stood up to these guys and said "well, ain't that dEMOcratic of you, master."

Not these guys.

They want their beauty rest.

So, they give "The Man" what He wants and they call it "on a temporary basis" which is code for we'll give you what you want but try to make it look like we gave it grudgingly. Here's the keys to the porsche! Nudge nudge. Wink wink.

We, as The People in We The People, need to call these aristocrats on their decision. I suspect that they've always been nudging and winking in the dark corners of Capitol Hill but now they've come out into the light and are barely hiding their privilege anymore.

Democracy Movement.

Selling My Vote

To the highest bidder!

Kidding kidding

However, I do consider my vote for sale. All anyone has to do to get my vote is run for election and convince me that they are good for the country and to us little folk in general.

"Wait," you ask. "This is what most people do, isn't it?"

Well, no. If you ask me, I would tell you that people usually grow up in a certain culture and adopt the politics of those people around them. So, they in effect become good little Democrats and good little Republicans and go around everywhere yelling and shouting each other down. They cry and whine when the other side scores a point and they cheer and stamp their feet in pleasure when their side makes a goal. What they do not do is try to understand issues on their own and they do not think of what would be good for the people around them in general.

Therefore, I would like to ask people that they should let those in government know that their votes are up for market. The currency is honesty, noble intentions, and effective results. My own vote goes to those that can demonstrate that they are on the side of the wee folk. Not the folk with the mansions. Not the folk with the stock options and the perks. I'm talking about the folk that need help and not the folks that can help themselves quite well already.

As it stands I am currently allied with the Democratic party. That party is where I see the most hope and I see the Republicans as acting frankly dangerously and destructively right now. The Republicans are doing the most damage to us wee folk right now so right now they aren't doing so well toward buying my vote.

But, it's still on the table, Republicans. Get your act together and compete with the Democrats and if your as effective at gaining my sort of currency as you are at making piles of cash for your rich supporters my priceless vote can be yours!

(Fine print: limited warrantee on vote applies consistent to how well you look after said "wee folk" after elected )

Cover Up

"I plead the ... I plead the... oh damn I don't recall what the number was - executive privilege!"

Civil Liberty and The US

How do we know our government is a bad government?

When people begin to think and talk like this

What country is this? The president is claiming the right to keep his aides from testifying for Congress about the U.S. attorneys scandal; hundreds of men -- according to a Seton Hall study, many of them innocent -- are in legal limbo in Guantanamo Bay; U.S. agents are kidnapping people off the streets in Italy and Macedonia and `rendering' them to be tortured; the president and his lawyers claim the executive has the right to call anyone -- U.S. citizen or not -- an `enemy combatant' -- and the person who should decide what that means is the President himself; civil rights organizations say peaceful citizens' groups are being infiltrated and put under surveillance; and a new bill just made it easier, as Senator Patrick Leahy warned, for the president -- any president of whatever party -- to declare martial law.

She is calling in her post for a civil rights movement and for the record I join her in that call. To Bush; you'r not the ultimate "Decider." That's our job.

Michael Moore Subpoenaed by Bush Admin

If that just hasn't put the cat among the pidgeons. I know you haven't asked me.... well maybe you sort of have as your reading this blog ... but subpoenaing M Moore is one the most desperate and silly things to have done. For one thing, it shows people just how desperate they are if they're going to go out and make an effort to "investigate" some film maker about his opinion. For another thing, this is Michael Moore they are targeting and he isn't exactly known for being spineless or stupid.

A sign of the Bush admin. unraveling in the face of all the heat they've been under? I hate to sound overly optimistic <3

New Foto

I found a great foto from Reuters.



Here's the full caption:

Animal rights activists, dressed up as dogs, attend a protest against the eating of dog meat in central Seoul July 25, 2007. In the summer, many Koreans traditionally eat dog meat for good health to overcome hot weather. (SOUTH KOREA)

REUTERS/Yonhap

Prisonville USA

The United States now has the dubious distinction of incarcerating more people per capita than any other country in the world. Yet this astonishing jailing of America has been little noted because many of the prisons have opened in remote areas like Susanville.

This was from a PBS POV film, Prisonville, USA .

Fairly telling of the times in which we live, if you ask me. Others will have their own opinions.

Harry Potter 7

I have just finished reading the last Harry Potter book. The ending was satisfying to me - so Rowling stays in my good books and I don't chuck the series out of the house.

I have seen better writers, in terms of style, technique, and message, but for some reason JK Rowling was able to put together a group of characters and enough imagination to create an astounding and thoroughly memorable story.

It ain't Tolkien but I'm glad she published it!

In related news, one friend of mine (she gave me a lot of candy today, she must be a friend! O.O) told me that CNN spoiled a bit of the HP7 plot. When i pressed her what she told me informed me that they only "spoiled" to mislead - but still, poorly done CNN. Bad mass media corporate money grubbers.

The Meaning Of Life: 42

"If there is no meaning attached to it, I ascribe no value to it." - I don't know, but I like it!

Whitehouse Makes A Big Power Grab

Via Boing Boing and via FDL we have the WH making some very authoritarian (I'll say it) moves. Everyone, please spread the word. The presidency should not get away with this if we wish to continue on with democracy.

I like our country the way it is, George - mitts off.

The latest Executive Order from the War Criminal Administration facilitates and sanctions the taking away of property of anyone who is deemed to be "undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people". Left in those terms, it isn't too much of a stretch to envision this Administration deciding that any particularly vocal critic of the Iraq occupation is "undermining efforts" and thus a target for seizure of property or assets, Fifth Amendment be damned.

Big news indeed, and yet it has received scant little attention in the media. Shameful in every regard, but it troubles me even more that this latest criminal act has crossed a new threshold in reckless disregard for the US Constitution, and yet hardly a soul even knows about it.

Free Will and Monsters

I choose to have free will whenever I have the opportunity.

Also, I'm up to Beowulf in Monsters, Gods, and Heroes (see below).
I think after I'm done with this bit I will slap on my Beowulf audio CD and get more familiar with it.

Monsters, Gods, and Heroes

I've just started the Monster's, God's, and Heroes Series that I bought a long time ago from Barnes and Noble. I'm quite enjoying it.

Here's a advert (they should pay me)

From the Publisher

PORTABLE PROFESSOR^TM is a series of exciting and informative lectures recorded by some of today's most renowned university and college professors. Each course introduces listeners to fascinating, and sometimes startling, insights into the intellectual forces that shape our understanding of the world. Each package includes 14 riveting lectures presented by notable professors as well as a book-length course guide.

The epic is one of the foundations of Western literature. These sweeping tales of bitter trial and fantastic adventure have given the world its most celebrated heroes and most reviled villains, and the great epic themes—love, death, and the interplay between the human and the divine—are universal. In this lively and engrossing course, Professor Timothy B. Shutt takes us on a tour of some of the greatest examples of the form, illustrating why they remain as compelling today as in centuries past.

Other than this there's not a lot to report. I've also started reading a novel called Dragonspell that has had a promising beginning. I like the way the author has dealt with her characters. Very vivid and entertaining.

I hope she can keep it up. Here's a blurb from that;

From the Publisher

One Dragon Egg Holds the Key to the Future.

Once a slave, Kale is given the unexpected opportunity to become a servant to Paladin. Yet this young girl has much to learn about the difference between slavery and service.

A Desperate Search Begins…

A small band of Paladin’s servants rescue Kale from danger but turn her from her destination: The Hall, where she was to be trained. Feeling afraid and unprepared, Kale embarks on a perilous quest to find the meech dragon egg stolen by the foul Wizard Risto. First, she and her comrades must find Wizard Fenworth. But their journey is threatened when a key member of the party is captured, leaving the remaining companions to find Fenworth, attempt an impossible rescue, and recover the egg whose true value they have not begun to suspect…

Weaving together memorable characters, daring adventure, and a core of eternal truth, Dragonspell is a finely crafted and welcome addition to the corpus of fantasy fiction.

Categories = Human

Today while I was wrestling with the laundry and buying the dog food and the groceries a sudden stupid "aha" moment struck me. I say "stupid" because it's something that's straight forward and perfectly obvious - except it wasn't to me.

Having to wait in a number of lines today I noted that the check out assistants always called people sir or ma'am while hardly looking at the people they were serving. This is not to say that every assistant always treats every customer this way (some are very attentive) but enough do this to make me realize that the "sir" or the "ma'am"s were not representative of who the customers actually were but rather the nice, neat, little category that the assistants could quickly use to seem polite without having to be polite so that they could shuffle the clients out the door as rapidly as possible.

Then, it struck me that most of us do this in our day to day lives. Perhaps not as roughly as the assistants did but still often and as a matter of necessity as well. Most of us learn that people fall into certain types while we're in high school. There are nerds, jocks, preps, kickers, lamers, etc. As we get older those categories get more sophisticated but my bet is that we still have them. We're just more flexible with them.


Add to that fact - Modern life doesn't have time for people in transit.

If your not in transit and safe at home or at your place of work you have time to get to know people. But if you're doing chores and getting from point A to B most people just ignore everyone else for the most part until the tasks are done.

No, I'm not going to try to render a judgment based on these two observations. I'm just going to present them and let them stay in the back of our minds.

Bill Moyer's Journal

This was a rocking episode ( i plan on watching it again) that I want to share. Should we impeach Bush? If we should then why did Nancy Pelosi take it "off the table?"

Politics Above All

The best way to sum up what's going on in American politics is ---> politics above all.

Bush is refusing to budge an inch concerning the troops and has threatened to defy congressional orders for withdrawal if they come. Congressional witnesses are stonewalling, not showing, or being downright flippant in their refusal to cooperate in congressional hearings.

It's just one big "we want our way and to hell with the rest of you" moment in our national life.

Friday the 13th

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' I chortled in my joy* It's Friday the 13th and this day would not be complete without being paid homage to by Bright Creature.

Most people, I think, have at least some pale vestige of superstitious fancy left in their natures. It's human nature after all...and western humans of late have taken to paying homage to this day of ill-fated fortune by worshiping it in films like Friday the 13th and in taking contrary/morbid delight in intentionally frightening themselves and others on this day.

Well, I'm no different, really, but my own particular way of sublimating my fears on this day is to contrarily celebrate the day as a day of good luck. All of you poor hapless creatures who are falling down stairs and bemoaning your piteous drop into the depths of horrendous fortune shall, on this day, give all of your luck to me!

..and if that doesn't work..

...

Oh, well !

* Line shameless co-opted from Jabberwocky

Pictures for The Blog

At the bottom right hand side of the right hand column I've added pictures from film's that I like. I chose them because they are a little bit twisted and interesting. Expect more to follow as I come across them and they strike my fancy.

Please feel free to suggest pics i could add <3

Endangered Wolves

Looks like the powers that be are at it again. This time the "it" are the American wolves that are endangered by new proposed legislation.

From the "learn more" tab I'll give you this little snip;

Over the past 3 years, Alaska has engaged in a barbaric annual aerial wolf kill whereby wolves are tracked and gunned down by aircraft. More than 550 wolves have been killed in this manner since 2003.

I Just saw this in my email box and I thought I would share. We just gotta help look after our fellow creatures

Sicko

The other night I managed to see "Sicko."

This is a very tricky film.

It's tricky because it's an issue that desperately needs attention. However, Moore presented his film as viscerally as possible. It was designed to punch you in the guts with the facts and show you his argument as forcefully as possible. So, I fear people are going to dismiss it as unbalanced. He made it easy for critics to poo-poo "Sicko" as more Moore malarkey.

On the other hand, perhaps he'll grab enough attention that enough people will do solid investigations within our health care system. After all, the film did a great job of ramming home the issue on an emotional level. Also, Michael Moore didn't have as much time as he needed to be able to fairly address the issue. To do the subject credit 3 extra hours added to Michael's 2 would still be skimpy treatment. In this light, perhaps a polemic was all he could manage within the time available.

At any rate, let's hope this film will help the situation.


As an aside: concerning the issue of health insurance - I feel that it's a sham. People shouldn't have to be in the position of being objectified in this way. If you have a possession, like a work of art, a house, or an automobile, that you wish to insure so that if you lose it because of theft or catastrophe you will not be out too much, then that's a sensible use for insurance. However, if you get sick you should just be cared for. Period.

Let's leave insurance to deal with the world of things and leave health care to the world of caring for our fellow creature.

EDIT:

A friend of mine pointed out to me that this is M Moores POV and as such is his side of the argument. Those that claim it's not "fair and balanced" basically want people to argue against their own POVs. So, far I can't think of a thing wrong with that reasoning.

Dog Days of Summer

At last I know why they're called "dog days of summer." It's not simply because dogs and people are all under the patios fanning themselves.

Today I got out and did a few thing and at the end of it I was panting. Literally. My tongue was actually hanging out as I was trying to suck in all the coolest particles out of the air.

Ironically, TXU Electric dropped the ball, so when i came back home it was to a darkened house. I think i was on my fourth or fifth hop in a hopping mad fit when the lights finally came back on. TXU obviously could not handle all of those air-conditioners being switched on at once.

Guerilla Warfare (Cat Style)

We have one sweet-heart kitty named Mitsy here (I didn't name her) who loves to be around people. She especially seems to like me since I will pet her just about anytime she wants it. Normally, she is quite mature and sensible about it and only leaps up into my lap occasionally to extort her cuddling. However, there are days like today where she'll leap up into your face and dangle herself in front of you in all sorts of poses to demand her fair hour of non-stop lovin'. She will drape herself over the monitor, perch on the back of the chair, and place herself on your lap with all claws extended until her just demands are met.

I just thought I would share this in case people started to wonder why every so often a claw mark appeared on a post or two.

You can just bet that was a day she thought I had not sufficiently complied.

Liberal or Conservative

Calling yourself either a liberal or a conservative is just a bad idea. Yes, I know that this is ironically a pretty "liberal" thing to do in itself but it's not without a bit of reasoning. For one thing, when you choose to call yourself liberal, or conservative, or even moderate, you are drawing lines in the sand and declaring yourself as a member of a particular class.

Once you've finished categorizing yourself you feel even more compelled to define yourself based on the stereotypes of that class as you defend the other members of your category against the members of the now opposing other category.

Now, this is objectionable. If i choose to choose then I choose to no longer be able to choose to a certain extent. What does this mean; it means that once you declare "I'm a liberal" you begin to try to prove it, which means adopting at least most of all the other things people associate with liberal. You are not really able to cherry pick your positions fully and decide that "I want to be a conservative here and be a liberal here." Not unless you want to be labeled a moderate.

However, say you're OK with being a moderate! Fine. Then you choose moderate bedfellows and follow moderate agendas and you run over to the class of people called the moderates and have tea and scones and throw moderate parties and play moderate games. However, what you never, ever,
do is walk next door to the conservatives party, or the liberals party at the door to the other side of you, and drink their kool-aid or eat their chips. You must always drink your own.

Try Try Again

I've tried my hand at blogging before but without a lot of success. We'll just have to try it again, wont we?

There is no theme here.

At least, if there is a theme that develops and it changes abruptly I do hope no one becomes overly upset.

The problem is that I'm interested in too much. For example, I'm interested in politics but I have no real desire to choose sides - and I'm just as likely to start thinking about self-awareness and art and philosophy in the middle of whatever I'm saying about politics and forget whatever main point it was I was trying to make in the first place.