Death to Writer’s Block

The definitive difference between Creation and Destruction, is that destruction is very hard (often impossible) to undo.

Invention?

User interface to specify time using a mouse.

Similar to the way that users are prompted with a calendar when they need to enter a date, users are presented a standard clock. Clicking on the location of the “little hand” sets the hour and approximates the minute. Then users can drag the minute hand for more accuracy.

You could use a 24 hour clock if AM pm can’t be guessed. Within “business hours” we know which are AM and PM.

-sh

I think what we forget when we consider corporations, is that for some reason we think they are different from other earlier forms of human groups. We discuss their internal cultures like they are tribes, but we don’t think about what happens when tribe expand into nations with governments. Corporations are effectively localized dictatorships, and thus have the same efficiencies that dictatorships display, and the same weaknesses to corruption and perversion. The American bargain has been to attempt to harness the efficiencies of totalitarianism within the workplace while separating out from our social lives. The problem is that of all regimes aimed at “efficiency” and “efficacy”; they always benefit (or at least think they benefit) from expanding their spheres. We have to think of corporations as limited governments, much the same way that the mafia is/was a competing government. Corporations have replaced the mafia, because some of the “organized” behaviors have become legal, and the organizations can profit more efficiently for “going straight” or twisting the rules so that straight is redefined.

The problem we have fallen into is the statement that “there are a lot of things that the private sector can do more efficiently” without asking ourselves, “Why can they do it more efficiently?” It has become fairly common to ask or at least imply the question “When can they do it more efficiently?” But if we don’t address the source of that efficiency we cannot predict before we sell a contract.

Notes: The main difference between a nation and a corporation is HR. Corps can choose who they hire to a greater degree than most Nations, but not much. If we look at full blown dictatorships, they can “fire” unproductive or uncooperative “employees”. They can recruit immigrants. They suffer from competition with other countries, so their biggest constraint is often public opinion and the willingness of the best workers to join them. If we look at the failed dictatorships, you will find that they lose more of their skilled workforce than they can recruit. The ones that haven’t failed, we don’t think of much, because they maintain a positive outward appearance. Those dictatorships can recruit enough skilled labor, because they pay them.

So instead of a Right vs Left political spectrum which gets confused all the time, and where it isn’t possible to tell the difference between ultra-left and ultra-right, because they both end up totalitarian dictatorships. [The Ultra takes precedent.] I suggest we start using a two axis spectrum that has actual meaning, and not just historical reference.

The Axis are:
Individualism vs Communalism
Anarchy vs Totalitarianism

All “Ultra” governments tend toward totalitarianism.

Left would be Communalism and Right would be Individualism, in a sensible world, but you might notice that we don’t have that clear of a definition in practice.

It’s probably important to note the difference between communalism and communism. Communism would be Communalist Totalitarian.

Corporatism is actually the most interesting variant, because it is a group acting like an individual for the exclusion of other groups and actual individuals. So the groups are Communalist-Totalitarian internally, supporting Individualist-Anarchy externally.

Most of the significant contemporary problems can be reduced to the problem of Scale. One piece of little will

The strongest argument against Nihlism is that it is horribly depressing. Its greatest strength is that it argues that any refutation of itself can be successful based upon the merits of the refutation. Thus believing anything is better than believing nothing for the sake of our mental health.

The problem of course is that this preference for belief can be and has been perverted. Sociopaths who believe only in scoring points for themselves, have literally challenged themselves to find out how far they can push the beliefs of others. Societies problem is that it is very hard to discriminate between a believer and a con man.

Now, the question was, “How do you feel about $700 BILLION for the Wall St Bailout?” and McCain returns to his complaint about a $3million earmark to study bears.

Now, If Congress is trying to decide upon how to progress with the Endangered Species Act, and they need more information to make those decisions, That is what earmarks ARE FOR. Congress wants an answer, so congress pays for it.

Maybe they didn’t need to earmark $3million. Maybe $2million would have been enough. Maybe they really needed $4million in order to develop a comprehensive method of answering more than just bears. I don’t know. I can’t answer that question. What I can say is that if the question is $700 Billion and your only solution is $3million, you have a problem of scale.

Let me put this into perspective that my brain can actually hold. Because million and Billion are kinda hard to keep straight.

Imagine my fifteen-year-old son wants to buy a broken down Ford for $7,000, and I ask him, “Does it have an engine?” If his response to me is that I spent three cents discovering if my dinner chicken has food poisoning, he has a problem with scale.

This is the scale we are talking about here. A seven-hundred-thousand difference between the question and McCain’s petulant answer.

If McCain wants to micromanage the Senate Appropriations committee, then he should stay in the Senate. His complain that he wasn’t able to actually succeed in controlling spending, when that was his job, is not a reason for us to give him a more important job that he can fail to do.

McCains pitch was that the workers of America are our “Fundamentals” and those workers are committed and hardworking. The problem is that he supports policies that decrease the likelyhood of those workers having work. You can’t tell me our fundamentals are strong because people are working more hours for less pay.

Yes, Americans are hard-working and they deserve better than to have their jobs shipped overseas.

The bible says that God created us in his image. Why? What does that mean? If you argue that our allegiance to God (and to Good) is through Obedience. If we are only here to Obey, then we might as well be dogs.

The speaker just spent 15min telling us that the government had to restrict our rights to protect our rights.

Argh!

I so want to be able to claim to be schizophrenic or multiple-personality to explain my shifts between aggressive persona and weak persona. However, I’ve met people with these issues, and I’ve not got them. No; I must admit that the truth is that I’m just a coward with occasional delusions of grandeur. Sometimes I think I can do it. I think I can be mean and powerful. Mainly it’s when there is no need to be such, so it’s just idle posturing. I feel like a fop. I’m sure the better people can see through me, but I feel that I have to display that I can so that they might give me a chance. I’m getting better at it.

So we’ve proven that I am not a good ball breaker. I like to lead. To lead by example. I just keep thinking that people will follow, and many of them do. However, the ones who don’t want to work. I don’t seem to be able to make them work, unless I have financial power over them.

I understand how these people exist, but I don’t understand why there are people in minimum wage jobs who want to work and can’t advance, while aggressively lazy people make $75/hr.

I object to the situation that the only way not to become horribly jaded and cynical is to retreat to a state of obliviousness. When people behave in such ways that this appears necessary, I find it extremely unpleasant. How much of the population are low-grade sociopaths, and why does that force so many of our institutions to pervert themselves into crucibles of pain?

In theory sufficient information should make any market transparent and fair. However, making everyone’s life and behavior fully apparent just goes straight to the “No.”

We get back to human imperfection as a the root cause. Religion and The State originate as attempts to confront and control these weaknesses. Yet, institutions can be too easily perverted by the very forces they were intended to address. It is possible that no institution can be lasting. That the only stable society is one that is constantly destroyed. All institutions must be replaced when they become corrupt, and it is only that threat of replacement which slows the corruption. All governments must fall, all gods must die. Thus we must ask ourselves, during each transition, “Who are we?” If our sense of self is defined by our institutions, who we are at our most core is threatened by the very evaluation of our institutions.

Corruption is inevitable. Only those who’s selves are not dependent upon the corrupt institution, can see, address or correct the corruption. Therefore, we must maintain our selves separately/internally that we can maintain our institutions, or we must allow that an outside force will destroy them for us. Once we lose the ability to discriminate between our selves, our values and our institutions, we lose the ability to govern ourselves.

I always thought that headhunters insisted on Word resume’s so that they could run them through Word scanning programs. I wanted to know why they couldn’t scan my PDFs. Now I know. They want to be able to stick their letterhead on your resume, (taking your contact info out) and they don’t know how to use PDF edit. [Plus maybe they’d be breaking the DMCA.]

Occasionally in biographies you will here someone say ”… and he would do things like that.” The trick, however, is not to develop a notoriety of action, but to develop the ability to get away with it, and the notoriety of getting away with strange behavior.

And we see that this medium has ceased to be transparent

What’re you doing here?
Go on, Git.
These writing moments are all twisted up.
It’s not like the words are gonna flow in some sensible pattern.
They’ll just swirl around and puddle in some philosophy
Cry some pointless metaphor

I can’t tell you how to live
I can’t guide you
I can’t even give you hope that the next page won’t tear you in two
I just try to say– sometimes
That I am here, and– maybe
You are here
Here
Hear
Real
There is a reason for this
The meaning we paint into life
Is “The Meaning of Life”
Nothing more is needed

Some days I can’t see the ink for the page
I’m referencing puns even I’ve never heard
And you come and you listen to me and I don’t know why

I want
Well, a lot of stuff, but that’s kinda cliche and trite

I know some of you are robots
You’re not really people
You don’t really read this
Just file it away in the bits
But one of you is real

You didn’t come here to be inspired by me
You want to know if I’m crazy
You want me to do math
You’re only here by accident

I don’t care

In order to subdue an audience you must first….
The narrator trails off
Get their attention
Teach them to follow you words
Bribe them with ideas and dreams
Anything to keep them reading

Speak their words
Allow them to live in yours

We stand in the word of our creator
We shall not want
but we do

And we spin full– Is that really a circle
Didn’t I tell you to go away
I have laundry to do.

building a society revolves around building common myths.

Education is what ties our country together.

Even if you have no children, you need a well functioning school system, because without it, you can’t have a well functioning society.

Democracy like a fair market assumes an efficient dissemination of information. This isn’t true in real life.

Drafting

You can fill out forms on the web that give you legal status to perform marriage.

“You” have the right to marry—to convey the status of marriage. It is not any degree or office that gives you the right to preside over a wedding. Rather it is the acceptance by the community that makes the marriage binding.

As far as the law is concerned, the only difference between a church and a cult is tax status.

I really do care about maintaining and creating the tangible. Things that stay and add to the net value of our society. This feels so tenuous because I work with the virtual. At the same, the virtual is real, almost concrete, compared to the marginalia of finance. The words and the code can add to the aggregate knowledge. They depend on the physical, on the silicon and the copper, but the shared knowledge is the reason for the infrastructure.

What if we gave the whales torpedoes and let them settle the issue with Japan and Norway.

People talk like spending money on art is a waste, but if we do not have art, why do we have life?

So the real question is not, “Should we support ‘The Arts’?'’ but rather, “What art should we support?” or better, “How do we decide?”

Do I really want to be a political? Do I have a choice?

Evo Morales ==> Creating a dictator? Is grass roots becoming LAPopulism/Clientalism?

Declaration of Idiginous Rights==> Analysis.

It’s the “Hi. I’m a geek.” clause.

“Just Google me.”

“Give unto Ceasar…”
Separating Church and State since 0AD.

HIPPA enforcement on subQ is going to be interesting. Do I have to encrypt ALL the hard drives in case of physical theft?

In order to run a free election, a fair election, We have to be able to do very simple things– like decide who is on the ballot.