weird, weird, very weird

I just watched the Peter Jackson movie, Meet the Feebles. I have been watching bad, tasteless, gorry, and offensive movies on a fairly consistent basis since I was about 12, and this was one of the most viscerally disturbing things I've ever seen. Like the 20 minute flashback where the frog puppet junkie remembers his experience being caputured in vietnam by the "guks" (which I guess were cats). This whole scene, which alluded to the Deer Hunter when the frog prisoners were forced to play Russian Roulette, was completely straight.
These and other images are going to be popping up when I don't want them for a while. Oh, like the anteater (I guess it was an anteater) who cummed out of his nose. That was a good one.

A break from empathy

I just read this bit on German toilets. Makes me want to take a sitzpinkler.

Not really, 'course. Sitzpinkler is a great word though (not sure if it's "real"). I put "sitzpinkler" in to a Webster's dictonary search, and my eye immediately went to "cysticercoid", which, is oddly entertaining in it's own right (however unpleasant). But when I googled the thing I found out that there's some kind movement or something called stehpinkeln, and a whole lot of other words that made me laugh. I hope you click on the links and are entertained.

More Thoughts on Giving

I’m confused by the issue of what distinguishes an ethical donation from an unethical donation. I believe, like Joe’s last post suggests, that it is the percentage given from one's earnings that matters more than the dollar amount. But even here, it is difficult to clarify what counts as sufficient.

Should we give everything we have so as to compromise our own health? Or should we give everything except what we need to pay our bills and buy groceries? May we save a little bit of money to buy a beer or see a movie, or would that be placing our wants above their needs? Basically, what must we (citizens or governments) sacrifice in order to meet the standards of a morally unobjectionable donation?

lessons about giving from a dead guy

Despite my official abdication of the label "Christian," I do love the Bible. Here's a little classic wisdom from the man, Jesus.

Mark 12:41-44
The Widow's Offering

41Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins,[a]worth only a fraction of a penny.[b]
43Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything–all she had to live on.”

Amen to that, can I get a halleluia!

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2012:41-44;%20Luke%2021:2

A Stingy Primer

If yer curious, here's some frame of reference on the U.S. and it's "stinginess".

The San Francisco Chronicle has a brief, decent article on "How much to give" for tsunami relief. Foreign Policy Magazine and the Center for Global Development ranks the rich for 2004 "on how their aid, trade, investment, migration, environment, security, and technology policies help poor countries". Check here for the nitty-gritty of the study, of which this index is perhaps the best snapshot of the actual rankings. According to the FP piece, the US went up in the rankings 13 places due to a new measure of security, changes in how investment is measured, and a consistently improving migration number. I have no idea how much stock to put in this single source, but it seems to be the most repubidable analysis out there (I didn't see much mention of private donation, but then I just scanned the thing). Overall the US was at 7th. Japan was dead last. Currently, the U.S. government is sending around $350 million to countries affected by the tsunami, around $200 million more is coming from private sources. Japan has pledged $500 million in aid. Australia just pledged $1 billion.

As a matter of comparison consider Spain's $70 million pledge, with strings attached.Oh, and don't forget there's a new power structure to the world and it's being evidenced, at least for now, by generosity. Fareed Zakaria has an article to similar effect. India and Thailand are each saying, "thanks, but no thanks," and are turning away this money, again, for now. And China is making a historic break from "stinginess" and helping its neighbors.

These donation numbers are all going to rise, and many promises made with this money will go broken or prove otherwise flawed. The tally of dead and injured won't be made final for weeks (jeezus, maybe months?) and there's a shitload of work to be done. Giving aid is far from being a cut and dry issue and only time will tell how generous or stingy we are being. Either way, if you're not convinced our country doing you service in it's giving, the answer seems simple enough to me, give more of yourself. There are enough reputable charitable institutions out there that would be happy to make use of your contribution.

U.S. aid?

The U.S. gives way, way more money in foreign aid than any other country, but that's mostly because we are way, way richer than most countries. As a percentage of our GDP, we don't give very much. So, even though we give a lot absolute dollars, we could give a shitload more. On the other hand, we give a lot through private charities (which, of course, makes the conservatives as pleased as punch). I'm not sure if giving money to your church counts as giving money to charity or not, but a lot of charities are church-based.
We are also, to quote Charles Krauthammer (which I am not inclined to do), the world's fire department, in that we bear the brunt of the world's military "peace-keeping" missions. So, some might argue that we give a significant amount if we factor in our non-monetary contributions. That doesn't cut it for me. The accusation of stinginess might have been in poor taste, but it's true. More precisely, because of the weak political will of leaders in Washington, no politican or beauracrat has been successful at conveying the message that international development, humanitarian aid, and other forms of crisis intervention are as important to the interests of the U.S. as fighting terrorism. I believe that George Bush, like most Americans, is a good person whose heart truly aches for the incomprehensible destruction in Asia. But after the shock of this event, after the headlines fade to the second, third, last page, or dissappear, this country will settle back into its blissful ignorance of just how incredibly fucked up this planet is, and we'll feel comfortable about spending our money on bombs and stupid bullshit again.

Happy Holidays & Relief

I had a great time visiting the homeland (i.e., southern Indiana) the past few days, and got back to Beantown just in time to miss a wee snowstorm. I didn't do a whole heck-of-a-lot over the holiday, but then that was part of what made it so nice. If you have any exciting or otherwise interesting tales, by all means share.

In contrast, the past couple days have been horrible for pretty much every country bordering the Indian Ocean. These pictures tell a lot of the story, but having heard the death toll rise from 20 to 50 and now 100 thousand (I haven't seen this one confirmed, but it seems believeable enough), I'm still absolutely stunned.

Amazon is taking donations on behalf of the American Red Cross and they are looking to make a serious difference. Yesterday when I first checked in $115,000 had been donated, this afternoon they're up to 1.8 million. Instapundit points out that it can be fairly mesmirizing to keep refreshing the donation page while looking at the number of people donating and the amount given (I concur, the amount went up $200,000 in the time it took to write this entry). Glenn also notes, "What interested me most about the Amazon phenomenon was how quickly and dramatically it worked, raising lots of money without a lot of overhead." I just donated a few bucks and encourage the rest of you out there to do the same.

P.S. If you'd prefer not to donate to the American Red Cross for whatever reason, but would still like to give something, look through relief funds on the right side of The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog.

UPDATE: There's some hullabaloo floating around regarding the U.S. and stinginess with aid money. That is, whether we are more or less stingy than other assortments of generous folk. I find the assertion to be pretty weak on it's face, and inflamitory besides. But if that inspires people to generosity, so be it. I don't see a loser if that's the game. Dan Drezner offers a reasoned, well-linked post thus.

Peter Suber

As Ben mentioned, I'm on sort of a Peter Suber kick. I was amazed by him as a student and am still amazed now purely as a reader. Anyone who has invented six knots, been a professional stand-up comic and taught philosophy is bound to be an interesting person. He has a profound mind, the vocabulary to articulate it clearly, and a knack for writing zingers that are both linguistically elegant and filled with insight. There are a lot of reasons that I find him interesting. But what I find far more fascinating than anything else is his sense of fairness.

I have never met or read anybody who is as willing to engage opposing points of view in as honest a fashion. He doesn't engage opposing arguments specifically to undermine them. On the contrary, he often shows ways to strengthen them that make them more persuasive than they were originally. But it's not a game. I don't think he does this merely to show that his position will remain intact when compared to even the best opposing argument. He does it, I think, in an honest effort to see if there's anything in them that is worth believing. He considers the possibility of having to temper, revise or even reject his own stance based on the points made by the opposition.

I'm a fanatic for this kind of flexibility of opinion. I only wish that I encountered it, and practiced it, more frequently. I recently found a short writing of his called The Clinical Attitude, which better describes the fairness and flexibility that he is an example of.

Good god, it's been ages!

Sorry 'bout that. I have no good explanations for my lack of participation and I'm not particularly interested in sharing the bad ones. Please forgive me if these seem a little on the brief side, but there's only one way to get back into the swing of things, so here goes...

Mark (one of my house/blog-mates) has been reading loads of stuff from Peter Suber's site. Peter was one of our Philosophy Prof's at Earlham College, and a particularly amazing one at that. He has an essay entitled "When we leave our desks" and it was originally a baccalaureate address given at Earlham in 1992. It generally works as a primer on Philosophy and specifically, for me anyway, as a kick in the pants.

My interest in politics has waned a little since about a month before the American election, but real life is always interesting. Since I constantly hear terrible things about what's going on in Iraq, I usually look forward to balancing it out with some optimistic news, Arthur Chrenkoff from the Wall Street Journal abides. This stuff from Spirit of America is pretty neat too.

Karla got me an IPod (20-gig style) for Christmas (we exchanged some gifts early), and I love it. I don't often listen to music through headphones and now hear what I've been missing. This morning I partook of some Magnetic Fields (69 Love Songs), Sufjan Stevens (Greetings from Michigan), and Neutral Milk Hotel (In the Aeroplane over the Sea). And it all has me thinking of splurging on one of these systems (or a variation thereof) from Apple. I have something like this at work, only a couple years old, and the things you can do from creating music, video, and doing photo editing is pretty amazing. Not that you can't do them on a PC, I've simply had much better luck with Mac's in this regard. Robert Rodriguez (another inspiring fella) is up to no good these days filming Sin City, using an HD camera and heavy post-production, but the main reason a filmmaker (especially one as notoriously penny-pinching and efficient as Rodriguez) can do this kind of thing is because of the crazy advances in technology from the past couple years. So it feels like time to either shit or get off the pot.

Oh and Joe, I found this one from Oxblog for you regarding the utility of school.

Ahhh... that's better.

UPDATE: Here's another link, with folks talking about making college mandatory?

my new toy

This is my first post on my new computer. I just bought an HP Pavillion ze4805us notebook. It was sort've used, but just barely. Someone bought it and the hard drive was bad, so HP fixed it and I bought it. It's practically new. It seems to be working alright. It's got an Athlon XP-M processor, 60G hard drive, and 500+ MB or memory. (The guy at circuit city talked me into putting an extra 200 MB of memory on there). I paid 999.00, plus a 100 dollar rebate, which I hope I will get back if I figure out how to do it.
It's got an integrated wireless (like I know what that means), but I guess it means I can get fast internet.
So, those who know about computers, how would you rate my purchase? 1. Joe paid too much for a shitty computer. 2. Joe paid the right amount for a shitty computer. 3. Joe got a good deal on a shitty computer. 4. Joe paid too much for a decent computer. 5. Joe paid the right amount for a decent computer. 6. Joe got a good deal on a decent computer. 7. bla bla bla for an outstanding computer.

musings

Last time I posted something, I was getting drunk. Now I'm hungover. I rocked the GRE. I bent it to my will. I am the man. I just read this thingfrom the NYTimes that made me feel weird. It was all about college and jobs and shit. Our generation, whatever we call it, totally got screwed. It used to be, if you graduated from college, you could basically get a job doing whatever you freakin wanted for a gazillion dollars a year. You didn't have to study something practical. If you had the degree, you were set. Now it all sucks. We pay a hell of a lot more for a lot less utility. Now I'm going to go to grad school, gonna make myself "marketable," but the scary thing is, I'm paranoid that my masters degree won't be sufficient! How fucked up is that! Ok, I get it, I don't have any marketable skills (I'm very good at going to school, but the market is down for professional students). I can read, write, speak, and think better than the average dude, but I've become obsolete. Fuckin A. And then I think about all those poor schmucks who are too dumb for decent jobs but too smart to be retarded and get good benefits. How are they supposed to compete?

Oh, the tears of unfathomable sadness.

Wow, was that gloating? I thought I was being rather amiable with my RNC hit list post. Internally I've been like Cartman tasting the tears of Scott Tenorman . Every time I hear any non-red-stater around me work themselves into a self righteous frenzy over 43 winning I feel all giddy inside. It's like watching a team you hate writhe on the ground in sorrow as you laugh victorious.

YEEESS!!!! YESSS!!! Let me taste your tears! They taste so yummy and sweet!!!!

I'm getting drunk

I'm gettting drunk at the big thanksgiving here in Boston. Although I'm tempted to respond to Andrew's gloating, in the spirit of bipartisanship and, why not, thanksgiving, I'll also give a big thank you for the demise of Arafat. But long live Hilary Clinton (I'd like to be able to afford a life saving operation if I need one)
Now it seems that the big bad fascist U.S. is supporting the quasi-communist challenger in the Ukrainian elections and is lambasting their sketchy elections. Boy, we sure do hate "the people"

Another One Bites the Dust

God it's great being me. I came into work today to find yet another person I despise effectively ruined. Here’s the tally so far:

1.) John Kerry
2.) Terry MCauliffe
3.) Yasser Arafat
4.) Tom Dashle
5.) Kofi Annan
6.) Randy Moss
7.) Dan Rather

Now all I need is Hillary Clinton, Paul Krugman and Robert Reich to have a fateful trip on a Russian airliner together and I’ll be set!!!

UPDATE!!!: Looks like Krugman's discrediting himself with renewed zeal. Come on Robert destiny is calling you! Oh wait, he listened...

Blogger Alchemists

Every so often science makes a discovery so startling that it forces you to see the world differently. These guys have found a way to turn crap vodka that would burn a hole in your stomach into vodka that supposedly tastes better than Ketel One with a Brita pitcher! Why are we pissing billions away on alternative energy research when an affordable single malt scotch could be just few years and an unidentified kitchen appliance away!

Best Death of the Year

Finally, finally, finally the world doesn't have to pretend this guy is a legitimate leader anymore. Though I think I'm still going to spasm every time I hear "Nobel Peace Prize winner" in conjunction with his name. Hey Swedes you can announce it was fake anytime now.

correction

In my last post, I meant that they can teach creationism, not evolution. Ooops, I guess I'm the retard afterall.

Babies and Homos

This election wasn't about national security, the war on terrorism, Iraq, or the economy. It was about two things: babies and homos. All the political pundits proved their appalling ignorance of the culture of the midwest. Too much time in D.C., New York, and L.A. I should've known better, cause I've lived here my whole life and I spent many of my formative years balls-deep in evangelical Christian fundamentalism. But it's not just Christians who hate homos. All the piece of shit white-trash-put-your-truck-on-a-lift-kit-nascar-watching-rednecks also hate homos, and lots of otherwise normal people over the age of 50 too. I say fuck-em. Let the republicans give them a 300 hundred dollar tax cut while they cut their food stamps. Let them dessicate their education funding. Who care's if they get condoms in school or not? Half of them won't go to school anyway, and the other half are too stupid to use condoms even if they could get em. Let them have their assault rifles. Too bad they can't eat them. I'm sick of advocating for the poor people in this country when the truth is that I don't like the sons-o-bitches anyway. I'll be fine. I'm white, and once I finish school, I'll be squarely in the middle-class, so I'll be alright if they cut medicaid, or medicare. I'll probably even be ok if they privatize social security, cause I'll have time to invest. Let the old people, the Christians, and the red necks fall on their own sword. Let them teach evolution in school. When India, China, and Japan fly past us on scientific research, I'll just sit back and laugh. Let them ban gay marriage. The midwest will conitinue to suffer the extremes of Brain Drain as the smart homos and those who support them move to the coasts. Let them have God's Country. I'll sit back and laugh as it turns to shit.

93%

Thats the percentage of provisional ballots that John Kerry must win to win Ohio assuming 90% are valid. Possible? Sure. Probable? Nope. Is it really worth putting the country through this again with a .001% chance of winning? Do you think if Bush was in the situation he'd do this? Nixon and Ford sure didn't and their chances were a hell of a lot better.

How did the left get so extreme?

Here’s a pretty good reaction to the recent Osama tape and the increasing severity of mainstream leftist rhetoric:

Is there any doubt that some bootleg DVD or videotape of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" made it to a remote mountain village somewhere near the Afghan-Pakistan border?
Now we hear Osama saying, "It never occurred to us that he, the commander in chief of the country, would leave 50,000 citizens in the two towers to face those horrors alone, because he thought listening to a child discussing her goats was more important."

Was the story of Bush's seven minutes in the schoolhouse really well known or a hot topic of discussion before Moore's movie came out? Is there any doubt that if not Osama, then one of his flunkies watched that movie and excitedly repeated the story to his spiritual leader, bubbling with excitement that even American filmmakers were exposing the foolishness of the Crusader Bush?

Last night, I heard secondhand that a left-of-center friend said, during a discussion about the tape, “Well, now I actually agree with bin Laden, I mean, the stuff he said about Bush.”
It was probably meant as a joke, or as a statement of irony. I wasn’t there, so I don’t want to draw conclusions about the statement’s meaning, and apparently the topic of conversation shifted so that no one could really analyze what that speaker meant.
But I have little doubt that in some other corners of our country, a statement like that was probably said and wasn’t a joke, or wasn’t ironic.

There was an old saying about politics stopping at the water’s edge. Over the last three years or so, we have seen that concept obliterated. We’ve seen a truly unparalleled deluge of criticism of the president that well beyond policy differences. He is tarred as a war criminal, a fool, an idiot, a warmonger, a man who trades blood for oil, a mass murderer of innocent civilians, a stooge of sinister corporate interests, a puppet of Cheney, a terrorist himself, the anti-Christ, the second coming of Hitler, a slave to Ariel Sharon, an anti-Muslim hatemonger… and I’m sure I’ve left out plenty.

The far left hates George W. Bush with a raging fury. So does al-Qaeda. Was it really so shocking that the rhetoric of the former would eventually be taken up by the latter?
This tape should cause many on the left to stare into the mirror for a long time and ask, “What have I turned into? How did I become so reflexively partisan, so blinded by rage, so intemperate in my rhetoric that my own arguments are being echoed by a man who planned and enjoyed the mass murder of Americans?”

“How the hell did I reach the point where I agree with Osama bin Laden on Bush?”