not so cocky
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Monday, March 28, 2011
Kill Team
My 12y/o wanted to go out but we wouldn't let him until his room was clean. And really clean this time. Because for the last month instead of picking up his room he has been hiding the mess. Now he has a giant mess that will take forever for him to finish. My words of advice "Problems don't go away if you ignore them they get bigger. It is a good metaphor for life".
This morning the top story in the news is that there was a 'Kill Team' in Afghanistan. It shouldn't be shocking that there are soldiers committing atrocities on their civilians. It happened in Veitnam and it happened in World War II and it'll happen in Libya if we send ground forces there.
This is the result of several problems that politicians and the military keep hoping will go away on their own.
PTSD
For the vast majority of people suffering from PTSD it will just make them a little out of synch with the rest of us. It's something I've observed my whole life but don't entirely understand since I've never experienced it personally. The military, for most of it's history, has hoped the problem would go away without blowing up in their face. They should not be surprised that it hasn't.
You know the expression, 'going postal'? It came from the fact that there were postal workers snapping and shooting up their work from THE STRESS OF WORKING AT THE POST OFFICE. It doesn't take a futurist or a psychic to have predicted what THE STRESS OF THE BATTLEFIELD could lead to.
Politicians and top brass don't think about this stuff when they are busy pounding their chests and the war drums.
FORGETTING THE HEARTS AND MINDS
That twat Giuliani used to taunt liberals for not being willing to say "Islamic Extremist". What was forgotten in Afghanistan is that we were supposed to be "winning the hearts and minds" of the people. This is why we bombed them with food and propaganda instead of with bombs before we invaded. Bush had promised to send the peace corps in after the Taliban were ran out. What happened to that? Either Bush forgot about it or his understanding of war was too naive to realize it wouldn't work until it was too late.
I would go into more ways Bush screwed it up but I don't want those criticisms to be taken as props for Obama. The current administration is so afraid of making a political mistake they continue the inertia of what the previous administration begun.
Back to the point: You can not talk about the people you are trying to kill, while lumping them in with the people you are trying to protect. Especially if winning over the people you are trying to protect is the cornerstone of your strategy.
PRETENDING WE ARE BETTER
I find it funny that Americans can be so suspicious of their neighbors ("that guy was talking to my kid, he's probably a pervert") but if you send him to another country in uniform he is only suspected of sainthood ("look at that soldier giving those afghan kids candy on the news"). Many people in the military are there because they are trying to fulfill a calling. There is nothing I can think of more noble than that. But that does not mean that they are not human or can not fall.
Nor can we pretend that the people who grew up in countries other than ours are lesser. Yes because of our constitution and it's evolution Americans are exposed to a wonderful philosophy of liberty. But that does not mean that the people of other countries do not aspire to many of the same values.
Not every American is morally superior to other people in the world even if those people come from a country were they have many terrible aspects of their culture. This is especially true of the politicians who send our soldiers to war.
IGNORING HISTORY
As I said before. This kind of thing has happened before. Pretending it didn't happen in previous campaigns not only stops us from preventing future atrocities but it makes us opposed to war imagine it probably happens far more that it does and those who support war to imagine it happens far less.
There is another problem that is tied in with this issue, but I will present it as a solution. We tend to treat other countries as lesser. We tend to treat their sovereignty as less than ours. I propose that these twelve soldiers that killed random Afghans be available for extradition if the military finds that they are guilty. We didn't let the Japanese or Germans try their own soldiers after WWII. There is no reason why these guys should get that privilege.
This morning the top story in the news is that there was a 'Kill Team' in Afghanistan. It shouldn't be shocking that there are soldiers committing atrocities on their civilians. It happened in Veitnam and it happened in World War II and it'll happen in Libya if we send ground forces there.
This is the result of several problems that politicians and the military keep hoping will go away on their own.
PTSD
For the vast majority of people suffering from PTSD it will just make them a little out of synch with the rest of us. It's something I've observed my whole life but don't entirely understand since I've never experienced it personally. The military, for most of it's history, has hoped the problem would go away without blowing up in their face. They should not be surprised that it hasn't.
You know the expression, 'going postal'? It came from the fact that there were postal workers snapping and shooting up their work from THE STRESS OF WORKING AT THE POST OFFICE. It doesn't take a futurist or a psychic to have predicted what THE STRESS OF THE BATTLEFIELD could lead to.
Politicians and top brass don't think about this stuff when they are busy pounding their chests and the war drums.
FORGETTING THE HEARTS AND MINDS
That twat Giuliani used to taunt liberals for not being willing to say "Islamic Extremist". What was forgotten in Afghanistan is that we were supposed to be "winning the hearts and minds" of the people. This is why we bombed them with food and propaganda instead of with bombs before we invaded. Bush had promised to send the peace corps in after the Taliban were ran out. What happened to that? Either Bush forgot about it or his understanding of war was too naive to realize it wouldn't work until it was too late.
I would go into more ways Bush screwed it up but I don't want those criticisms to be taken as props for Obama. The current administration is so afraid of making a political mistake they continue the inertia of what the previous administration begun.
Back to the point: You can not talk about the people you are trying to kill, while lumping them in with the people you are trying to protect. Especially if winning over the people you are trying to protect is the cornerstone of your strategy.
PRETENDING WE ARE BETTER
I find it funny that Americans can be so suspicious of their neighbors ("that guy was talking to my kid, he's probably a pervert") but if you send him to another country in uniform he is only suspected of sainthood ("look at that soldier giving those afghan kids candy on the news"). Many people in the military are there because they are trying to fulfill a calling. There is nothing I can think of more noble than that. But that does not mean that they are not human or can not fall.
Nor can we pretend that the people who grew up in countries other than ours are lesser. Yes because of our constitution and it's evolution Americans are exposed to a wonderful philosophy of liberty. But that does not mean that the people of other countries do not aspire to many of the same values.
Not every American is morally superior to other people in the world even if those people come from a country were they have many terrible aspects of their culture. This is especially true of the politicians who send our soldiers to war.
IGNORING HISTORY
As I said before. This kind of thing has happened before. Pretending it didn't happen in previous campaigns not only stops us from preventing future atrocities but it makes us opposed to war imagine it probably happens far more that it does and those who support war to imagine it happens far less.
There is another problem that is tied in with this issue, but I will present it as a solution. We tend to treat other countries as lesser. We tend to treat their sovereignty as less than ours. I propose that these twelve soldiers that killed random Afghans be available for extradition if the military finds that they are guilty. We didn't let the Japanese or Germans try their own soldiers after WWII. There is no reason why these guys should get that privilege.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Smoking ban X-Prize
A good chunk of my political philosophy is to find compromise. And not the kind Obama is doing- that is called caving. Currently here in Springfield MO there is a push to ban smoking. Part of me loves smoking bans. They instituted a smoking ban in Chicago when I lived there and it worked out really well FOR ME because I could go see a local band without smelling like ass.
But I have a libertarian streak in me that doesn't like the idea of telling business owners what they can do or allow their patrons to do. I am focused on the business owners because I have no interest in protecting what a guy from my home town refers to as "about the only thing you're allowed to do that makes other people smell".
My first idea for a compromise to an outright ban would be to propose a smoking license as an alternative. Businesses would then have a financial incentive to try a non smoking policy (and generate a little revenue). This still seemed a little big brother-y but at least offers another option if the ban is approved.
My new idea would be to create a competition amongst local bars to be smoke free. Through private donations the community could collect a pot of money. All the bars would be competing to see how long they could go smoke free without hurting their business- the business that lasts the longest gets the pot.
The hope would be that a few of the competing bars would get enough new business that it would make up for the smokers that they lose. Yes there would still be bars but it may diversify the market enough to get non-smokers to go out more often and for businesses to innovate to find ways to get people out for something other than a place to smoke.
But I have a libertarian streak in me that doesn't like the idea of telling business owners what they can do or allow their patrons to do. I am focused on the business owners because I have no interest in protecting what a guy from my home town refers to as "about the only thing you're allowed to do that makes other people smell".
My first idea for a compromise to an outright ban would be to propose a smoking license as an alternative. Businesses would then have a financial incentive to try a non smoking policy (and generate a little revenue). This still seemed a little big brother-y but at least offers another option if the ban is approved.
My new idea would be to create a competition amongst local bars to be smoke free. Through private donations the community could collect a pot of money. All the bars would be competing to see how long they could go smoke free without hurting their business- the business that lasts the longest gets the pot.
The hope would be that a few of the competing bars would get enough new business that it would make up for the smokers that they lose. Yes there would still be bars but it may diversify the market enough to get non-smokers to go out more often and for businesses to innovate to find ways to get people out for something other than a place to smoke.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Great minds (short reviews)
I found a great 'poem in comic form' on stumble upon. I've been interested in comic poems for a while and have done a number of them. This piece is also similar to my anthropomorphic work. It's from Deviant Art but I haven't figured out who actually created it yet. The drawing is lovely and over all done more elequent than I would have done it http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2010/232/3/f/3f50ac973aa4a2fcff7164dd48878923.jpg
Another seemingly familiar comic I found is Toilet Genie. It reminds me of my series Weight Of Eternity only it is going for a lighter side of macabre. Visually my work doesn't compare. Toilet Genie is a gorgeous series but it is weird to the point of confusion (WOE had the same problem), but that may fix it's self as the series progresses.
http://www.storyofthedoor.com/comics/729570/chapter-1-cover/
Another seemingly familiar comic I found is Toilet Genie. It reminds me of my series Weight Of Eternity only it is going for a lighter side of macabre. Visually my work doesn't compare. Toilet Genie is a gorgeous series but it is weird to the point of confusion (WOE had the same problem), but that may fix it's self as the series progresses.
http://www.storyofthedoor.com/comics/729570/chapter-1-cover/
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
The almost nuclear agnostic
I am very close to being a nuclear agnostic. This has been a position I have held since the seventh grade when my science teacher Mrs. Powers (haha awesome) asked us which side we would like to debate. I said I didn't care and she put me on the pro-nuclear. Beth Richardson of the opposing camp got so enraged she continued following me around into the next period to continue the debate until I sicked my math teacher on her.
I say I am an almost nuclear agnostic because I do not have especially strong feelings one way or another on the issue, but the feelings I do have are against all things nuclear. My energy plan as a 2010 Congressional candidate was to focus on decentralized renewables http://www.nilvsdcbs.com/energypolicy.html
What confuses me on this issue is the Republican love of nuclear power. I'll assume it isn't a lobbying thing because it is the position of so many Republicans. They tend not to care or even believe in global warming, so I know it isn't that nuclear doesn't contribute to global warming (or at least directly).So I don't see any particular reason to be for it yet there is a very big anti-conservative reason not to be for it. No nuclear power plant in the history of ever has run without taxpayer dollars.
Last presidential election cycle John McCain was fond of pointing out that France is big on nuclear power, somehow forgetting that France is big on public funding of everything. I get and agree with the arguments against nuclear power, but I don't even know what the arguments for nuclear power is other than "it's not coal". We have plenty of alternatives to coal.
related article in local news today
http://politicmo.com/2011/03/21/nixon-tilley-together-on-nuclear-power/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
I say I am an almost nuclear agnostic because I do not have especially strong feelings one way or another on the issue, but the feelings I do have are against all things nuclear. My energy plan as a 2010 Congressional candidate was to focus on decentralized renewables http://www.nilvsdcbs.com/energypolicy.html
What confuses me on this issue is the Republican love of nuclear power. I'll assume it isn't a lobbying thing because it is the position of so many Republicans. They tend not to care or even believe in global warming, so I know it isn't that nuclear doesn't contribute to global warming (or at least directly).So I don't see any particular reason to be for it yet there is a very big anti-conservative reason not to be for it. No nuclear power plant in the history of ever has run without taxpayer dollars.
Last presidential election cycle John McCain was fond of pointing out that France is big on nuclear power, somehow forgetting that France is big on public funding of everything. I get and agree with the arguments against nuclear power, but I don't even know what the arguments for nuclear power is other than "it's not coal". We have plenty of alternatives to coal.
related article in local news today
http://politicmo.com/2011/03/21/nixon-tilley-together-on-nuclear-power/?utm_campaign=twitter&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter
Friday, March 18, 2011
Conspiracy Theories (memenaut)
I believe in giving every conspiracy theory a fair shake. 9/11 was an inside job? That's interesting, tell me more. There was a second gunman? Hmm. Fluoride is a scam? That isn't shocking. Vapor trails? Okay, I just don't get that one..
Most of the conspiracy theories don't survive any scrutiny. Obama wasn't born in this country? How long has the plot to make him president been in the works? Obama is a secret Muslim? Then why was he going to the Reverend Wright's church for twenty years.
Some conspiracy theories are trickier to dissect. The 9/11 truth movement had a wide variety of people in it. On one end there are people who believe that the towers were shot down by helicopters and that the airplanes were holograms (I have never met one of these people and didn't even hear of them until South Park spoofed them). On the other end you have people that say "I don't know what happened I just know that Bush is lying about 9/11."
So why not just dismiss these people and save ourselves some time? Most people forget that in the story of the boy who cried eventually did see a wolf. And no one looked because they were too proud. They didn't want to feel stupid for falling for it again. I've never worried about looking a fool.
In my willingness to look foolish I have found the shades of truth. Life isn't binary. Listening to crazy ideas has showed me there are truths being lost in the momentum. There are facts between what is on the for profit media that covers the for profit politicians and the crazy nut jobs. Questioning the status quo doesn't automatically make you a kook or an idiot.
What makes one a kook or an idiot is when you don't back down when you're proven wrong. It's easy to become a kook or an idiot because something in our culture or nature tells us to attack when someone is backing down. In the controversy over vaccines I have heard scientist criticize anti-vaccination groups as moving the goal post, but isn't that what they are supposed to do when they start losing an argument?
There is an anti-intellectual movement in this country and the way to combat it is not to get our collective panties in a bunch because our sensibilities have been offended or we're tired of flame wars online. The only chance reason has to prevail is to be more rational than the person we are arguing with and be willing to take what we can get from the experience. Telling anti-vaccine people that there is no danger to vaccines as absurd as how unlikely those dangers are against the benefit to society for vaccination (I do have reservations about the seasonal flu vaccine but that is for another time).
We need to encourage people to think outside the box, because being paranoid doesn't mean that no one is out to get you. And only the paranoid can keep the outrage up enough to pay attention to things the rest of us have brushed aside.
Oh guess what these conspiracy theories turned out to be true:
5) The NSA now says that the attack on American ships that got us into Vietnam- probably didn't happen.
4) The benefits to fluoride are bullshit.
3)The Bulderberg group does try to influence politicians while they are still up and coming.
2) There were not any WMDs but there were no bid contracts
1) The media is oddly silent about the Bohemian Grove even though it is a hangout of the most powerful people in the country.
Most of the conspiracy theories don't survive any scrutiny. Obama wasn't born in this country? How long has the plot to make him president been in the works? Obama is a secret Muslim? Then why was he going to the Reverend Wright's church for twenty years.
Some conspiracy theories are trickier to dissect. The 9/11 truth movement had a wide variety of people in it. On one end there are people who believe that the towers were shot down by helicopters and that the airplanes were holograms (I have never met one of these people and didn't even hear of them until South Park spoofed them). On the other end you have people that say "I don't know what happened I just know that Bush is lying about 9/11."
So why not just dismiss these people and save ourselves some time? Most people forget that in the story of the boy who cried eventually did see a wolf. And no one looked because they were too proud. They didn't want to feel stupid for falling for it again. I've never worried about looking a fool.
In my willingness to look foolish I have found the shades of truth. Life isn't binary. Listening to crazy ideas has showed me there are truths being lost in the momentum. There are facts between what is on the for profit media that covers the for profit politicians and the crazy nut jobs. Questioning the status quo doesn't automatically make you a kook or an idiot.
What makes one a kook or an idiot is when you don't back down when you're proven wrong. It's easy to become a kook or an idiot because something in our culture or nature tells us to attack when someone is backing down. In the controversy over vaccines I have heard scientist criticize anti-vaccination groups as moving the goal post, but isn't that what they are supposed to do when they start losing an argument?
There is an anti-intellectual movement in this country and the way to combat it is not to get our collective panties in a bunch because our sensibilities have been offended or we're tired of flame wars online. The only chance reason has to prevail is to be more rational than the person we are arguing with and be willing to take what we can get from the experience. Telling anti-vaccine people that there is no danger to vaccines as absurd as how unlikely those dangers are against the benefit to society for vaccination (I do have reservations about the seasonal flu vaccine but that is for another time).
We need to encourage people to think outside the box, because being paranoid doesn't mean that no one is out to get you. And only the paranoid can keep the outrage up enough to pay attention to things the rest of us have brushed aside.
Oh guess what these conspiracy theories turned out to be true:
5) The NSA now says that the attack on American ships that got us into Vietnam- probably didn't happen.
4) The benefits to fluoride are bullshit.
3)The Bulderberg group does try to influence politicians while they are still up and coming.
2) There were not any WMDs but there were no bid contracts
1) The media is oddly silent about the Bohemian Grove even though it is a hangout of the most powerful people in the country.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Review: Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic.
Storyboard artist Rich Morris guides us through the politics of Dungeons and Dragons and the like. Being a storyboard artist Morris renders the comic series with loose yet dynamic sketches. The story spans several kingdoms and species with an ever growing cast of characters though most of the focus is on the evil creatures of the Black Mountain.
YAFGC very rarely misses at progressing the story while being a gag-a-day comic strip. This is quite the feat when you consider how long the comic has been running, how often it is updated, and how much the story has progressed.
http://yafgc.net/?id=1
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Monday, March 14, 2011
Riceburner
When I was a kid I always heard adults refer to small cars as rice burners. I interpreted it as saying that them saying that the cars were so small and weak in asia run on rice wine they don't compare to our big strong America run on gas. I forgot about the term rice burner for the next twenty years until I was at a car dealership for the first time in my life and the woman asked me what I was looking for, I said "I just want some little rice burner."
It slowly dawned on my adult mind that rice burner is probably more racist than a cultural statement. And then I realized that I just said it to an Asian saleswoman. I apologized to the woman for my naivety though she didn't at all show any reaction to what I had said.
Making a clean start (or attempting) I explained that my priorities were price and fuel efficiency. Though color did end up playing a role I am ashamed to say.
Fast forward a few years and I have a family with 2.5 kids (we have the five year old part time) and I am sometimes wishing I had a SUV instead of a sedan (the were all out of riceburners in my price range and I didn't have the time to shop around too much).
This doesn't mean that I am a hypocrite or something. It means my reality has changed. I went from being a single guy who had just Fed Exed all his earthly possesions to himself to a married man with kids and a house.
It is important to examine our lives and ask questions about our values and our behaviors line up. One of my big struggles is with eating meat. I don't like the way the food industry treats animals. So I prefer to buy local/organic meat. But the kids like McDonalds and I'm also a tight wad/low income.
One of the most divisive things in this country is the one-size-fits-all mentality. Some people feel great eating vegetarian so they think everyone should be a vegetarian. Some people get a lot out of going to church and think everyone should go to the same church they go to. And some people bike and take public transit everywhere and think everyone else should too.
I personally feel horrible on strict vegetarian. Going to church never did anything for me and even as a little kid I couldn't make myself believe. And when I lived in Chicago and San Francisco I sold my car but when I moved to Rogersville then Springfield I needed one again.
The trick is to do what will feed our needs without confusing them with what we simply want. For example I don't need a Playstation and/or Wii but I have both even though it kinda conflicts with my economic situation and my enviromental values.
It slowly dawned on my adult mind that rice burner is probably more racist than a cultural statement. And then I realized that I just said it to an Asian saleswoman. I apologized to the woman for my naivety though she didn't at all show any reaction to what I had said.
Making a clean start (or attempting) I explained that my priorities were price and fuel efficiency. Though color did end up playing a role I am ashamed to say.
Fast forward a few years and I have a family with 2.5 kids (we have the five year old part time) and I am sometimes wishing I had a SUV instead of a sedan (the were all out of riceburners in my price range and I didn't have the time to shop around too much).
This doesn't mean that I am a hypocrite or something. It means my reality has changed. I went from being a single guy who had just Fed Exed all his earthly possesions to himself to a married man with kids and a house.
It is important to examine our lives and ask questions about our values and our behaviors line up. One of my big struggles is with eating meat. I don't like the way the food industry treats animals. So I prefer to buy local/organic meat. But the kids like McDonalds and I'm also a tight wad/low income.
One of the most divisive things in this country is the one-size-fits-all mentality. Some people feel great eating vegetarian so they think everyone should be a vegetarian. Some people get a lot out of going to church and think everyone should go to the same church they go to. And some people bike and take public transit everywhere and think everyone else should too.
I personally feel horrible on strict vegetarian. Going to church never did anything for me and even as a little kid I couldn't make myself believe. And when I lived in Chicago and San Francisco I sold my car but when I moved to Rogersville then Springfield I needed one again.
The trick is to do what will feed our needs without confusing them with what we simply want. For example I don't need a Playstation and/or Wii but I have both even though it kinda conflicts with my economic situation and my enviromental values.
Sunday, March 13, 2011
It came from Facebook
I wrote this in response to a woman on Facebook who said she didn't like being treated as lesser for being a Christian (by libertarians).
"I don't think you should think of being asked to be considerate of others as being treated as "less than". No one has a problem with the Christian values that relate to honesty and fellowship. It is only the values that prevent others from the pursuit of happiness that there are any objections to. And even then it is only when you try to make those values law.
I hope you'd consider "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." when putting your christian values ahead of your libertarian ones. Because I would argue that in this country The Constitution is our Caesar."
"I don't think you should think of being asked to be considerate of others as being treated as "less than". No one has a problem with the Christian values that relate to honesty and fellowship. It is only the values that prevent others from the pursuit of happiness that there are any objections to. And even then it is only when you try to make those values law.
I hope you'd consider "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." when putting your christian values ahead of your libertarian ones. Because I would argue that in this country The Constitution is our Caesar."
Friday, March 11, 2011
Make them pee blood.
I have a lot of family in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and every three years we have a family reunion up there, that has a crazy big bonfire that burns for three days. I actually haven't been up there since I was sixteen, but I'm pretty sure that hasn't changed.
But when I was a teenager we ran out of wood to throw on the fire, so all the males went on an trek into the woods to cut down another tree to throw in there. There were trees everywhere on the property but it took us a while to find the perfect one. We were not looking for the biggest tree. We were looking for the most unhealthy. Part of it I'm sure is because it would burn better with less moisture in it, but what my cousins and I were told was that, we needed to do as little harm to the forest as possible so there will always be a forest for us to get trees from.
Wall Street doesn't seem to get this. Big Oil doesn't seem to get this. Because they are kicking America while we're down. They are living in a delusional world of infinite growth instead of ebbs and flows, and they are not going to stop until the house of cards falls.
How did we get here? Wall Street and Big Oil have rigged the system so that it is no longer a free market. The house rules have been manipulated to keep the big dogs on top no matter how badly they play. Competition doesn't work as a control when the rules are not the same for everyone or there is cooperation between competition. In a free market you would not see multiple companies each offering nearly identical
bad services.
How do we fix it? The referees need to start doing their jobs. Crack down on price fixing and hold companies accountable. In the case of Big Oil they are somewhat limited on price based on the price of oil which is set outside the country, but they are obviously making more money than should naturally happen in a freemarket with so many companies supposedly competing.
If Obama wants to win re-election he needs to remind them that he has them by the balls. Ethanol and Petroleum are both HEAVILY subsidized. Regulators regularly turn a blind eye to shenanigans. Enviromental law is rarely enforced. The President needs to make them believe that Republicans fear the Tea Party more than they fear being cut off from campaign contributions. Make them believe that Democrats fear Twitter and Facebook more than traditional media.
We are only in this for as long as it takes our elected representatives to realize that we are no longer just complaining, we're ready to do something about it.
But when I was a teenager we ran out of wood to throw on the fire, so all the males went on an trek into the woods to cut down another tree to throw in there. There were trees everywhere on the property but it took us a while to find the perfect one. We were not looking for the biggest tree. We were looking for the most unhealthy. Part of it I'm sure is because it would burn better with less moisture in it, but what my cousins and I were told was that, we needed to do as little harm to the forest as possible so there will always be a forest for us to get trees from.
Wall Street doesn't seem to get this. Big Oil doesn't seem to get this. Because they are kicking America while we're down. They are living in a delusional world of infinite growth instead of ebbs and flows, and they are not going to stop until the house of cards falls.
How did we get here? Wall Street and Big Oil have rigged the system so that it is no longer a free market. The house rules have been manipulated to keep the big dogs on top no matter how badly they play. Competition doesn't work as a control when the rules are not the same for everyone or there is cooperation between competition. In a free market you would not see multiple companies each offering nearly identical
bad services.
How do we fix it? The referees need to start doing their jobs. Crack down on price fixing and hold companies accountable. In the case of Big Oil they are somewhat limited on price based on the price of oil which is set outside the country, but they are obviously making more money than should naturally happen in a freemarket with so many companies supposedly competing.
If Obama wants to win re-election he needs to remind them that he has them by the balls. Ethanol and Petroleum are both HEAVILY subsidized. Regulators regularly turn a blind eye to shenanigans. Enviromental law is rarely enforced. The President needs to make them believe that Republicans fear the Tea Party more than they fear being cut off from campaign contributions. Make them believe that Democrats fear Twitter and Facebook more than traditional media.
We are only in this for as long as it takes our elected representatives to realize that we are no longer just complaining, we're ready to do something about it.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Still support torture?
The progressive movement has consistently been against torture. They (or we) will site that the techniques used are the same as the Spanish Inquisition and that the US has prosecuted others as committing war crimes for the same acts. And the main rebuttal has been to invoke 9/11 and accused of being soft on terror.
It has been considered legal up to this point because it is being done out side the states. This argument doesn't fly for me for two reasons. First John McCain was born in Panama, but because it was born on military base, he is considered a natural born citizen. So when babies are born on base it's America but if we torture there it isn't.
The second reason I don't accept that it's okay if it's in Cuba is that it sounds too much like the "rule" that if you have an affair in a different timezone it doesn't count as cheating.
Now there is a new problem. Bradley Manning is a US soldier accused of providing classified papers to Wikileaks and he is being in much the same way as terror suspects. This flies right in the face of the Constitution and it would have never happened if we didn't allow the military to get away with it before.
Manning has been imprisoned for months without trial. Most of it has been in solitary confinement and he has been forced to strip his clothes as a breaking technique.
I have a hard time believing that if the military had been reprimanded for the abuses at Gitmo that they would be trying the same kind of thing to this US citizen.
Some reading this article may not have a problem with this because of what Manning allegedly did. But let us not forget that several of the people held in Guantanamo Bay were actually innocent. That is the reason we have a court system is to confirm guilt before we punish people.
I urge the justice department to live up to it's name and do something about this pissing in the face of due process. And if the military commanders are outside their jurisdiction go after their civilian leaders.
PS
I don't care if Guantanamo stays open or not as long as the behavior is corrected. But if they do close it I also have no problem with the prisoners being put in the prison hospital a block from my house. I know that prison breaks are rarer than tv would have you believe and I think my town is just about the last place a potential terrorist would want to escape.
It has been considered legal up to this point because it is being done out side the states. This argument doesn't fly for me for two reasons. First John McCain was born in Panama, but because it was born on military base, he is considered a natural born citizen. So when babies are born on base it's America but if we torture there it isn't.
The second reason I don't accept that it's okay if it's in Cuba is that it sounds too much like the "rule" that if you have an affair in a different timezone it doesn't count as cheating.
Now there is a new problem. Bradley Manning is a US soldier accused of providing classified papers to Wikileaks and he is being in much the same way as terror suspects. This flies right in the face of the Constitution and it would have never happened if we didn't allow the military to get away with it before.
Manning has been imprisoned for months without trial. Most of it has been in solitary confinement and he has been forced to strip his clothes as a breaking technique.
I have a hard time believing that if the military had been reprimanded for the abuses at Gitmo that they would be trying the same kind of thing to this US citizen.
Some reading this article may not have a problem with this because of what Manning allegedly did. But let us not forget that several of the people held in Guantanamo Bay were actually innocent. That is the reason we have a court system is to confirm guilt before we punish people.
I urge the justice department to live up to it's name and do something about this pissing in the face of due process. And if the military commanders are outside their jurisdiction go after their civilian leaders.
PS
I don't care if Guantanamo stays open or not as long as the behavior is corrected. But if they do close it I also have no problem with the prisoners being put in the prison hospital a block from my house. I know that prison breaks are rarer than tv would have you believe and I think my town is just about the last place a potential terrorist would want to escape.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
Wisconsin solution
Around the time the hullabaloo in Wisconsin started, I watched "Waiting for Superman", which put a lot of the blame of the education system on the teachers union. I think there is plenty of blame to go around and not generally a fan of the education system because it pretty much teaches kids that seeking knowledge is an unpleasant experience. I'm using my kids as lab rats for strategies on how to get around this. I'm having limited success. We'll get into that some other time.
My approach to any given issue is that I look at the merits of each sides arguments (and sorting out the intellectual dishonesty aka bullshit) and trying to incorporate as many of them as possible. In this case Unions are right to want to protect collective bargaining and Walker is right that collective bargaining forces the state to overpay under performing employees.
One solution I have come up with would be a tiered collective bargaining. The Unions and the state should come up with, say three, levels of collective bargaining. Each tier should be negotiated separately so that the state is not treating under performing employees as well a high performing employee. Deciding which employees sit at what tier should be decided by the state but with some sort of control built in to keep it honest. A possible control could be that at least a third of employees must considered high performing and at least two thirds be considered above low performing.
The next mechanism needed is a system for firing bad teachers that does not create financial incentives for firing good teachers. Not sure how that one would work...yet.
My approach to any given issue is that I look at the merits of each sides arguments (and sorting out the intellectual dishonesty aka bullshit) and trying to incorporate as many of them as possible. In this case Unions are right to want to protect collective bargaining and Walker is right that collective bargaining forces the state to overpay under performing employees.
One solution I have come up with would be a tiered collective bargaining. The Unions and the state should come up with, say three, levels of collective bargaining. Each tier should be negotiated separately so that the state is not treating under performing employees as well a high performing employee. Deciding which employees sit at what tier should be decided by the state but with some sort of control built in to keep it honest. A possible control could be that at least a third of employees must considered high performing and at least two thirds be considered above low performing.
The next mechanism needed is a system for firing bad teachers that does not create financial incentives for firing good teachers. Not sure how that one would work...yet.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Evolution of a Comic Artist part 4 (24 hour day challenge)
Today I'm going to look at my attempts at the challenge of drawing 24 pages in 24 hours. Moving to Missouri has put a damper on this but I've been trying to get one going. I've attempted a few variations on the challenge as a way to see how I do under pressure.
2003 from Skokie IL HQ
tarot
The year before the first official 24 hour comic day I did make an attempt. Ideally in a 24 hour comic you create every aspect of the comic within 24 hours including the writing. I woke up at 5:30AM with the idea. Tried to write it at work then start drawing when I got home at 5PM. It isn't surprising that I fell asleep and the comic took 36 hours.
The comic itself holds up well. I used to think it was too weird to understand but reading it all these years later makes me think it is better than I gave myself credit. I think before I felt guilty that I got the idea from a Neil Gaiman story about a murder in heaven.
The art is sketchy pencil renderings. Stronger in some places than others but overall a good way to save time. I see a lot of my layout skills here. At the time I had no idea that was something I'm ahead of the curve on.
2004 from Dreamland Comics Shaumburg IL
eighteen in 24
First official 24 hour comic. This time staying awake wasn't a problem because I actually slept and I wasn't locked in a room alone for the duration. There is only 18 pages because I ran out of time trying to figure out how to paint a comic in this style and I was fighting the work on the Jesus section (stuff I'd been thinking about doing for a while).
My real critique to myself on the art is that as nice as the painted stuff is I wish I had done more drills in the straight to ink style I see on the "Grim's Game". It might have taught me to spot blacks better. If you haven't figured it out yet I do a lot of "post game analysis."
Also note the previous one was formatted sideways for the web while this one is formatted for print because there were rumors that the best entries would be in an anthology.
2005 from BuyMeToys.com store in SouthBend IN
envelopes
Second official event. Previous years I didn't complete the challenge in time because I was hung up on doing new ideas. What I did this time was to have my friends write ideas in sealed envelopes. I would draw comics about those things as I needed new inspiration. It was an interesting challenge but I am not particularly happy with any of the comics that it resulted in. I finished with 20 minutes to spare but when I got home I realized I had miscounted and only completed 23 pages. What's really bad is that the alternative rule is to make 100 panels in 24 hours. There are 99 panels in this comic. That's right one panel short.
2006 from Dirk Tiede's pad Chicago IL
Astro-naught
This time I was on a mission. It would be random. It would be 24 pages. It would be within 24 hours. There were three other people there I asked (now Explorers of the Unknown writer) Seth for a place. He gave me Ruined Castle. I asked Dirk ( Paradigm Shift ) Tiede for a who and he gave me astronaut. And I asked Emily (real life LASER SCIENTIST) for a what and she gave me 'anti-werewolf uzi'.
One thing my mind is good at is making scenarios unfold. Person Place Thing trick made it very easy.
2008 from SFCA HQ
Hella Coachella
This one almost doesn't count. I felt bad about not getting in a 24 hour comic day for '07 so the plan was to do one page a day under an hour for 24 days then later in the year participate in one of the 24 hour events in San Francisco (but I didn't last in SF long enough to actually do that). Also for this challenge I decided to use the bamboo quill I had bought back in art school but never used. I'm not only cheap I hate wasting money so I decided to get my money's worth of this thing. I hate it by the way.
Every spring I get a bunch of hits for this comic because people come across it when looking for info on the music festival it features.
2003 from Skokie IL HQ
tarot
The year before the first official 24 hour comic day I did make an attempt. Ideally in a 24 hour comic you create every aspect of the comic within 24 hours including the writing. I woke up at 5:30AM with the idea. Tried to write it at work then start drawing when I got home at 5PM. It isn't surprising that I fell asleep and the comic took 36 hours.
The comic itself holds up well. I used to think it was too weird to understand but reading it all these years later makes me think it is better than I gave myself credit. I think before I felt guilty that I got the idea from a Neil Gaiman story about a murder in heaven.
The art is sketchy pencil renderings. Stronger in some places than others but overall a good way to save time. I see a lot of my layout skills here. At the time I had no idea that was something I'm ahead of the curve on.
2004 from Dreamland Comics Shaumburg IL
eighteen in 24
First official 24 hour comic. This time staying awake wasn't a problem because I actually slept and I wasn't locked in a room alone for the duration. There is only 18 pages because I ran out of time trying to figure out how to paint a comic in this style and I was fighting the work on the Jesus section (stuff I'd been thinking about doing for a while).
My real critique to myself on the art is that as nice as the painted stuff is I wish I had done more drills in the straight to ink style I see on the "Grim's Game". It might have taught me to spot blacks better. If you haven't figured it out yet I do a lot of "post game analysis."
Also note the previous one was formatted sideways for the web while this one is formatted for print because there were rumors that the best entries would be in an anthology.
2005 from BuyMeToys.com store in SouthBend IN
envelopes
Second official event. Previous years I didn't complete the challenge in time because I was hung up on doing new ideas. What I did this time was to have my friends write ideas in sealed envelopes. I would draw comics about those things as I needed new inspiration. It was an interesting challenge but I am not particularly happy with any of the comics that it resulted in. I finished with 20 minutes to spare but when I got home I realized I had miscounted and only completed 23 pages. What's really bad is that the alternative rule is to make 100 panels in 24 hours. There are 99 panels in this comic. That's right one panel short.
2006 from Dirk Tiede's pad Chicago IL
Astro-naught
This time I was on a mission. It would be random. It would be 24 pages. It would be within 24 hours. There were three other people there I asked (now Explorers of the Unknown writer) Seth for a place. He gave me Ruined Castle. I asked Dirk ( Paradigm Shift ) Tiede for a who and he gave me astronaut. And I asked Emily (real life LASER SCIENTIST) for a what and she gave me 'anti-werewolf uzi'.
One thing my mind is good at is making scenarios unfold. Person Place Thing trick made it very easy.
2008 from SFCA HQ
Hella Coachella
This one almost doesn't count. I felt bad about not getting in a 24 hour comic day for '07 so the plan was to do one page a day under an hour for 24 days then later in the year participate in one of the 24 hour events in San Francisco (but I didn't last in SF long enough to actually do that). Also for this challenge I decided to use the bamboo quill I had bought back in art school but never used. I'm not only cheap I hate wasting money so I decided to get my money's worth of this thing. I hate it by the way.
Every spring I get a bunch of hits for this comic because people come across it when looking for info on the music festival it features.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Sharia isn't as bad as you might have heard.
From the political right I've been hearing some fear mongering over Islamic/Sharia law and how horrible it is. I'm about the last person who would want to live under religious rule but even I am not afraid to see what it's all about. A little skimming through some pages on Sharia and I found two things that don't make it sound evil.
The first isn't something I'd want to implement but it shows that Christians do not own the market on compassion for the poor. Zakat is a tax on the wealth (not income) of everyone who can afford to feed themselves. The tax is used to ease the suffering of those in extreme poverty.
The second is something that I hope catches on more in America. Islamic law forbids interest on loans. Banks adhering to Islamic law share the risk on any loan or investment by partnering with the person looking for the loan and selling their 'shares' to the client over time. Charging a percentage owed is considered amoral. The bank makes it's money from a negotiated flat rate.
Islamic style loans are not immune to exploiting the clients ( someone will always try to beat the system). But in a 'free market' we are supposed to have purchasing power from having a variety of choices. The problem is that the corporate environment is to make us believe that purchasing power comes from a lot of companies offering more or less the same deals. It is much better if they would offer us different solutions for the same problem.
Instead of fear mongering ideas like we should be dissecting them. We should take the parts we like and discard the rest. The constitution it's self 'borrows' from earlier language of older documents (pursuit of happiness wasn't an original idea) and improved on them. We should continue to do that with taboo ideas like Sharia. And as a side effect people who are being taught to hate the west will find that harder to do when they see pieces of their culture assimilated into ours.
The first isn't something I'd want to implement but it shows that Christians do not own the market on compassion for the poor. Zakat is a tax on the wealth (not income) of everyone who can afford to feed themselves. The tax is used to ease the suffering of those in extreme poverty.
The second is something that I hope catches on more in America. Islamic law forbids interest on loans. Banks adhering to Islamic law share the risk on any loan or investment by partnering with the person looking for the loan and selling their 'shares' to the client over time. Charging a percentage owed is considered amoral. The bank makes it's money from a negotiated flat rate.
Islamic style loans are not immune to exploiting the clients ( someone will always try to beat the system). But in a 'free market' we are supposed to have purchasing power from having a variety of choices. The problem is that the corporate environment is to make us believe that purchasing power comes from a lot of companies offering more or less the same deals. It is much better if they would offer us different solutions for the same problem.
Instead of fear mongering ideas like we should be dissecting them. We should take the parts we like and discard the rest. The constitution it's self 'borrows' from earlier language of older documents (pursuit of happiness wasn't an original idea) and improved on them. We should continue to do that with taboo ideas like Sharia. And as a side effect people who are being taught to hate the west will find that harder to do when they see pieces of their culture assimilated into ours.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Cuteness counts (rant/review)
Short read for you busy people. The artist got hired away for a paying gig drawing the new Fraggle Rock comic. Because it is so short I don't have a lot to say about it but the art is really good and the story isn't snarky. It's hard to find a webcomic that isn't snarky. Even Crawlers is kinda snarky.
Webcomics has diversified the genres of comics (in print it's almost exclusively superheroes), but it sometimes seems that we are regressing to a medium where you have to have people talking about video games in a coffee shop.
The Last Polar Bear
Webcomics has diversified the genres of comics (in print it's almost exclusively superheroes), but it sometimes seems that we are regressing to a medium where you have to have people talking about video games in a coffee shop.
The Last Polar Bear
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
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