Bank of America

Look, it's not "higher than normal call volume" when it's been that way for the past ten years.  Hire more people or admit you don't want to talk to me.


Thanks.

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New Take

I've just decided that, for me, worrying about the world is just a way for me to avoid thinking too much about my own life.  So I'm going to take a break from that.  Worrying about the world, that is.


I'll get back to worrying about the world eventually, I'm sure.  After I get a few more of my own affairs in order.  But for now I'm going to stop reading the news and news discussion sites.  I figure anything important enough to effect my day-to-day will get to me somehow.

I wonder what and when my next post here would be.  It may be a while...

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Global Warming Worries

I'm a little worried about global warming, but not in the traditional sense. I'm worried that it's not true.


I'm a fairly strong conservationist, and I believe we do a whole lot of careless things that damage our environment.  I think there's a lot we could and should do to better maintain our world.  Being carbon neutral is probably one of those things, and I take it into consideration.

The problem is that Global Warming makes very specific predictions about an extremely complex and little understood process.  Even if we are causing warming, it may be made irrelevant by other changes the planet goes through which we can not anticipate.  But if the predictions don't pan out in a certain time frame, I think the Global Warming movement will damage the idea of conservation in general.  It will be used as an example of how conservationists are sensationalist sky-is-falling types, and can be safely ignored.  I also think it puts far too much emphasis on one aspect of conservationism, ignoring other important issues like deforestation, overfishing, other forms of air and water pollution, etc.

I hope we can, in a reasonable way, learn to live sustainably.  I hope that the flash of Global Warming, true or not, doesn't drown out the rest of the picture.

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Negative Campaigning

Here's an article about Obama and negative campaigning.


I hope he sticks to his principles on this.  And if he loses because of that, because the people respond best to negative campaigning, then we get exactly the government we deserve.  At least in that case we had a choice.

Meanwhile, here's one of the more solid analysis of the two democratic hopefuls that I've seen.

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I guess I'm strange

I love dogs and puppies, really I do.  I don't like to see them hurt.  But when I came across this story about a soldier tossing a puppy off a cliff, the first thing I thought was how overblown the reaction was.


I'm not saying it isn't awful.  It is awful.  But anyone who thinks that is the most unjust thing that a US military person has done recently is really not paying attention.  Can we get as collectively outraged about all the other horrors as we do about the puppy killing?

Of course, the last line of the first article nicely explains that the atrocities of war are okay, because... they're part of war.  Makes sense.  I would add to that that tossing puppies over cliffs is okay because... it's part of tossing puppies over cliffs.

Hey: the guys on American Idol are pretty good this year!

Post a comment Tags: war, puppies, american idol

Meat

I love meat.  Steak.  Chicken.  Pork.  Lamb.  Seafood.  Love it all.  Though I tried being a vegetarian a few times for various reasons, I couldn't stick to it.  A meal without meat is barely a meal.  So the following situation benefits me:



But even so, that just seems ridiculous.  Let the costs be reflected in the price.

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Intellectualism

In regard to my previous post about intellectualism, I got some feedback that implied I was coming across a bit full of myself.  I think it's worth pointing out that in context with the linked article, the bar for "intellectualism" is not set very high.  For example:


  "more than three years into the Iraq war, only 23 percent of those with some college could locate Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel on a map."

or knowing that the following statement is inaccurate:

  "[Perl Harbor] was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War"

Also, Europe is not a country.

So when I say I consider myself and most friends "intellectual", it's not exactly an elite group of geniuses.

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Economics

I don't claim to know jack shit about economics.  But check this out:



So I'm just going to make what I think is a sound logical connection here and say that essentially, in his opinion, government spending is good.  It doesn't matter what you're getting for your money: if the government buys equipment and people are working on stuff for the government, that should bolster the economy.  You can just go and burn the equipment, or blow up the stuff that is produced -- as long as money is flowing from the government to US business, we're good.

I actually like that belief.  If true, it would be a wonderful boon for our economy to just dump trillions into national healthcare.  Put an MRI on every corner, I say.  Or how about free Ferraris for everyone?  You could spend it on infrastructure, education, or Pokemon.  It just doesn't matter as long as we keep spending.

Somehow I think there's a flaw in this idea, but I can't quite put my finger on it.

And this passes for Republican these days?  

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Using Your Head

I don't think it's quite as bleak as this article implies, but it is kind of absurd and funny.  And to the degree that people actually disdain intellectualism, it's kind of sad.


I think that society functions quite well with a wide strata of intellectualism.  I think intellectuals are critical for the higher functioning of society, but non-intellectuals are critical for the lower functioning of society.  I don't intend the judgement implied by using the terms "higher" and "lower" -- in any case, they seem complimentary.

That's not to say that we shouldn't try to improve our education, or that more people caring would be a bad thing.  And certainly anyone who has the desire to learn should have the opportunity.  But I know that if everyone was like me and my intellectual friends, a lot of important shit wouldn't get done :)

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Around We Go

Congress votes to outlaw waterboarding and other physical interrogation methods (i.e. torture).  However our fine leader has vowed to veto it.  Sigh.

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  • jfield
    jfield said:
    I agree. He can defend himself and call out the negative campaigning for what it is. There's sometimes a fine... read more
    on Negative Campaigning
  • math
    math said:
    [this is good]
    Is a negative comment by an opponent about the negative actions of a candidate to be counted as "negative" campaigning... read more
    on Negative Campaigning
  • math
    math said:
    [this is good]
    Thank you for the link. Facts are good. Looking at patterns in the facts is better. gracias. read more
    on Negative Campaigning
  • jfield
    jfield said:
    (And before someone jumps on my pseudo-intellectual ass about the spelling of "Perl", note that I programmed largely in Perl... read more
    on Using Your Head
  • jfield
    jfield said:
    That's a good point. Certainly some intellectuals cause a lot of grief in the world by overreaching with flawed ideas.... read more
    on Using Your Head

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