Random political commentary

No "solution" can possibly be fair to all. Blanke...

2008-11-29T10:27:00.000-08:00

No "solution" can possibly be fair to all. Blanket generalizations are ALWAYS wrong, yet individual personalization is rarely possible when regulating the marketplace or enacting legislation to remedy the many. This is clearly a case in which some must innocently suffer for the benefit of society as a whole since the corruption and greed of the moneyholders has seduced so many naive but guiltless people into accepting mortgages that were not in their best interests. The banks, the real estate sales industry, and the insurance companies with their huge pension fund capital to invest have all contributed to this mess. Even those of us without mortgages are forced to suffer as the marketplace for our properties contracts and substantial losses must be tolerated in order to maintain the mobility to which we always thought ourselves entitled but is now denied us despite the apparent exercise of prudence in purchasing our real estate.

JAB

I read somewhere that the RIAA and its ilk are doo...

2007-08-06T06:51:00.000-07:00

I read somewhere that the RIAA and its ilk are doomed. The music industry is shifting away from a recording model and into a performance model.

Apparently people have a certain budget for entertainment. Folks will continue to steal recordings (because it is cheap and many cases far more convenient) but that merely frees up more money to be spent on concerts and festivals.

So in the future we will see even more high priced tickets ($200 to see the Rolling Stones?) and the pay towards artists will increase. It becomes in the artist's best interest to give away the recordings at this point - it's just a marketing expense for the next concert.

The only losers in this scenario are the recording companies themselves, but of course they really aren't providing us with value for our money in the networked 21st century.

Let's face it: We invaded Iraq to keep the Irania...

2007-05-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

Let's face it: We invaded Iraq to keep the Iranians out. Now, we gotta prevent a Syrian Army invasion which is certain to happen if we keep failing to do our job. Please read "Hire Mercenaries" in Werewolfking's Howl blog at www.werewolfking.blogspot.com

OK, but I think your comment proves my point - you...

2007-01-28T19:23:00.000-08:00

OK, but I think your comment proves my point - you're saying that what I thought was a waste is actually not a waste. OK, I can buy that. Certainly eating the meat/etc. is more unambiguous, but I can see your argument that if it's good for the herd then it's not a waste.

Of course, what's good for the herd is often removal of the weakest/sickest animals. While predators naturally find these animals (as they are the easiest to catch), human hunters rarely have such an even match and as such can just as easily take the strongest as the weakest.

Anyhow, I didn't mean to start a debate on the merits (or lack) of hunting, but rather just point out that hunting per-se - in the abstract - can be moral or not, but it depends on circumstances beyond the mere killing of the animal. I chose one set of circumstances (eating it), you chose another (herd management), but I don't think the particular circumstances matter so much as the merit behind those circumstances.

Excellent article, but I think your hunting exampl...

2007-01-25T12:36:00.000-08:00

Excellent article, but I think your hunting example falls flat.

Wild game is managed on a state (and to a lesser extent federal) basis to preserve the health of the herds and the ecosystem. Left to their own devices, game animals today would quickly reproduce to exceed their niche and the result would be disease, unhealthy herds, and wildlife accustomed to humanity. While one may argue that there is nothing wrong with this result (animal freedom of choice?), as a society we have decided to actively manage our wildlife resources.

Like a shark maintaining the health of a school of fish, every year government entities compute how much wildlife needs to be culled to meet its objectives. At this point the goverment has several choices to meet the goal. One option is for government employees to kill and remove animals, but this is cost prohibitive. Especially when there is a large contingent of volunteers (hunters) who are willing to do the work for free or even pay for the privilege.

My point is that whether the animals are killed for meat, killed for trophies (and of course this option doesn't exclude killing for meat for consumption or for sale to another consumer), or killed and lost and left to rot (and feed hungry carnivores), the net result is the same and though unfortunate for the individual animal, is never a "waste" for the continued survival of the herd. And survival of the herd is why we allow hunting in the first place.

Eric, I have two major comments.First, I think you...

2006-11-13T15:11:00.000-08:00

Eric, I have two major comments.

First, I think you have hit the nail on the head. Call it whatever you want (marriage, gay marriage, drusion (my made up name for the legal union of two people of the same sex)) but they can/should be given the same legal rights.

Second, you have way, WAY, WAY too much free time on your hands to be writing such erudite thorough dialogues.

3:10 PM

Eric, I have two major comments.First, I think you...

2006-11-13T15:10:00.000-08:00

I think your comment about "sald bowl" vs. "meltin...

2006-09-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

I think your comment about "sald bowl" vs. "melting pot" is quite accurate. But what I mean by every group having ultimately assimilated is that every group has ultimately become Americans first, (pick your subculture) 2nd. And there's nothing wrong with that - in fact, I think it's terrific that we don't try to homogonize our culture. But we all can communicate in English (even with our various dialects), we can be African Americans or Jewish Americans or Italian Americans or whatever, but all of these are Americans.

The biggest wave of immigrants over the last 20 years has been Hispanic, and so that's where we still see the biggest enclaves. But we saw Yiddish and Italian speaking enclaves in New York at the turn of the centuries too - and yet their children all grew up speaking English. And I think we're already seeing that with the Hispanic immigrants as well.

"Every other immigrant group to America in our his...

2006-09-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

"Every other immigrant group to America in our history has ultimately assimilated, and contributed."

I see your general points but I don't agree with this statement. What the heck does assimilation mean, anyway? African-Americans may speak (a variety of) English, but for centuries they've had a very distinct, very strong and quite separate culture of their own, which is in many respects fundamentally opposed to the main culture at large. Try driving around Harlem or east Chicago, Compton, Newark or Detroit sometime-- I have trouble remotely calling the culture in those locales *assimilated*. The people in those places contribute to our economy and to our culture, obviously, but they form a very distinct subgroup, not only ethnically but also culturally. Same deal with the native American reservations I've been on.

I don't know, it seems to me that we're more in a sort of salad bowl than a melting pot. 30 years ago I don't think this was a big concern, with 85% of the population being Euro-American, but with our share dropping below 50% very soon (and probably by 2025 if even that late), it's not going to be the same place, and there won't be a dominant culture. Moreover, this is mainly due to *legal* immigration levels more than illegal, even if we were to send home every illegal tomorrow, the demographic change is upon us nonetheless. IMHO language is probably the *least* important and overrated descriptors of a culture.

We already have maybe half a dozen subcultures in the US, and short of a moratorium on *both* legal and illegal immigration, and some serious acculturation exercises, it's becoming even more so. I'd think we'd have to take teaching our country's civics lessons a lot more seriously-- really requiring a thorough knowledge of the US Constitution and the Federalist Papers, reading about and respecting the Founding Fathers. What we have right now is a goo, and having people throughout the country crowding around TV sets to watch "American idol"-- sorry, that's not a "unified culture" in any sense.

Hi, i was looking over your blog and didn'tquite ...

2006-09-13T23:52:00.000-07:00

Hi, i was looking over your blog and didn't
quite find what I was looking for. I'm looking for
different ways to earn money... I did find this though...
a place where you can make some nice extra cash secret shopping.
I made over $900 last month having fun!
make extra money