Festive Wintertime!
I am writing to all those friends that may now read my journal but never see me anymore. To those in LV and AZ and wherever else. As I go to celebrate some holidayness with Paul's family I just want everyone, especially my own family, to know that I miss you and wish I was a richer man and could fly around to see you all more. It's not fair, I live by Paul's family so I see them all the time but only get the chance to visit my 'roots' once a year or so. I wish it were different, and maybe soon we'll be changing locations to be nearer. Until then, I love and miss everyone wherever you are. I hope everyone had a great solstice and the days are getting longer now!
Terry's Journal
My Podcast Link
12/24/2003 13:39 #35389
Shoutout to all those somewhere else12/24/2003 13:31 #35388
Who really captured Saddam?According to one reporter, Yvonne Ridley, Saddam was not captured by American Forces as has been recently reported by military sources and repeated by the media, but was taken by Kurdish forces and then delivered into American custody. This story has been quelled because of fear of potential clashes between Kurdish forces and pro-Saddam factions in Iraq if news got out. Democracy Now! has the full story on their Dec 23 show 
.
Other crazy/scary new items: Mad Cow Disease in America (one case means there might be many many more, stop eating the beef now!), and Judge orders Army to stop "experimenting" on US troops with trial Anthrax vaccinations (they've been requiring certain individuals to take the shots even though many have become very ill and a minimum of six have died from the innoculations).
.Other crazy/scary new items: Mad Cow Disease in America (one case means there might be many many more, stop eating the beef now!), and Judge orders Army to stop "experimenting" on US troops with trial Anthrax vaccinations (they've been requiring certain individuals to take the shots even though many have become very ill and a minimum of six have died from the innoculations).
12/23/2003 20:29 #35387
Somber MienToday passed hazily away
with rain misting sidewalks
my steps meandered
but ever the same direction.
Eventually a destination
was reached? where we played
the music and the echo
transversing twixt time.
Rude awakenings lead
to somber enchantments?
back to beginning
beginning to end.
with rain misting sidewalks
my steps meandered
but ever the same direction.
Eventually a destination
was reached? where we played
the music and the echo
transversing twixt time.
Rude awakenings lead
to somber enchantments?
back to beginning
beginning to end.
12/22/2003 19:08 #35386
Where the focus belongsI don't really want to say much more about prisons or about the army, as plenty has been said on both sides. What I want to do is describe a wider epidemic and demonstrate that blaming individuals does nothing to help the "greater good" and in many cases acts as a diversion and an excuse.
It is a matter of focus. Take any situation and first you must describe the problem and then who is facing it. In our recent examples we discuss the army recruits and the prison wardens (the killers as Paul puts it). Paul argues that whatever their circumstance, each person must individually make a choice that may in the future lead to killing and it is this choice that lays blame on them. I agree that each person must make the choice, and to some degree be held responsible, but feel that it is disingenuous to look at this choice in terms of its right/wrongness. If we take for granted that there is a certain moral humaneness that comes with being human (Paul does this when he says we all know it is wrong to kill) then we need to look at how this can become twisted to make individuals who kill, cheat, take advantage, and steal elections. This is where the focus should lie, why are these individuals taking a path that leads to possible killing? What is it in them that makes them prone to "evilness"?
Conveniently when we look at the statistics we find that some gigantic percentage of African Americans are making these choices compared to white people (African Americans in US ~12%, in armed forces ~20-30%). We can infer then, that black people are more prone to evil than white people. Of course we cannot infer this, and I don't even think Paul believes it. So if we assume that black people are not more inherently prone to killing, the next step becomes cataloging the differences between the two groups that might lead to their choices. We look at socioeconomics and find that black people are, on average, poorer than white people, they are more likely to not have adequate food and shelter, they are, again on average, less educated. These are the facts that are directly affecting the choices available to any particular group, and are what lie at the root of why many take up these "evil" jobs.
The worst part of focusing on the individual is that it actually acts as a buffer between the symptoms of the problem and its root causes. If we blame the individual for choosing poorly then we are in some way absolving the society of that same guilt. Society is responsible for the individuals that it creates to a very fine degree. I am not arguing that every crackpot out there is insane only because of their environment, but would point to the numbers of people in similarly affluent countries that don't share their plight. Why is the homicide rate in every other industrialized nation so far below ours? Why do we have 100s-1000s times as many people in prison? These are questions that may lead to appreciable changes in our culture and society, whereas qestioning the "evil" in any one individual leads only to segregation, separation, and excuses (if we add Paul's panacea of religion we get Crusades, Whoopie!)
PS: Terror Warning Level has been increased to Orange, and what does Google Image search show us for "orange terror":
Be afraid, be very afraid. Meow! Meow! Meeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllaaaaahhhhhh!
It is a matter of focus. Take any situation and first you must describe the problem and then who is facing it. In our recent examples we discuss the army recruits and the prison wardens (the killers as Paul puts it). Paul argues that whatever their circumstance, each person must individually make a choice that may in the future lead to killing and it is this choice that lays blame on them. I agree that each person must make the choice, and to some degree be held responsible, but feel that it is disingenuous to look at this choice in terms of its right/wrongness. If we take for granted that there is a certain moral humaneness that comes with being human (Paul does this when he says we all know it is wrong to kill) then we need to look at how this can become twisted to make individuals who kill, cheat, take advantage, and steal elections. This is where the focus should lie, why are these individuals taking a path that leads to possible killing? What is it in them that makes them prone to "evilness"?
Conveniently when we look at the statistics we find that some gigantic percentage of African Americans are making these choices compared to white people (African Americans in US ~12%, in armed forces ~20-30%). We can infer then, that black people are more prone to evil than white people. Of course we cannot infer this, and I don't even think Paul believes it. So if we assume that black people are not more inherently prone to killing, the next step becomes cataloging the differences between the two groups that might lead to their choices. We look at socioeconomics and find that black people are, on average, poorer than white people, they are more likely to not have adequate food and shelter, they are, again on average, less educated. These are the facts that are directly affecting the choices available to any particular group, and are what lie at the root of why many take up these "evil" jobs.
The worst part of focusing on the individual is that it actually acts as a buffer between the symptoms of the problem and its root causes. If we blame the individual for choosing poorly then we are in some way absolving the society of that same guilt. Society is responsible for the individuals that it creates to a very fine degree. I am not arguing that every crackpot out there is insane only because of their environment, but would point to the numbers of people in similarly affluent countries that don't share their plight. Why is the homicide rate in every other industrialized nation so far below ours? Why do we have 100s-1000s times as many people in prison? These are questions that may lead to appreciable changes in our culture and society, whereas qestioning the "evil" in any one individual leads only to segregation, separation, and excuses (if we add Paul's panacea of religion we get Crusades, Whoopie!)
PS: Terror Warning Level has been increased to Orange, and what does Google Image search show us for "orange terror":
Be afraid, be very afraid. Meow! Meow! Meeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllaaaaahhhhhh!
12/20/2003 22:49 #35385
You know you wanna touch 'em
I got some cool spectackles. See um? They are with the blossoming lipstick plant, whose imminently budding tubes kindle startling urges from repressed desires. I love my lipstick, I sang about her on the radio for a little minute, she's worth it, is she not? I am just arrived from an epic. Pretty numb on the inside, my dopamine has been drained as if by narcotic overindulgence. I also cannot help but superenunciate ever ringing syllable that my fingers scribe into this infernal machine. Take thee and thine ring to everlasting damnation!!! Whoa. Gimli rules, and Legolas, c'mon... between him and them other two elf broads there were more "BEAUTY" shots than I've ever seen before.
"Anun nguy afolondadawoe..." whispers sweet Arwyn to her beloved Ranger, "anogorathanto elusily..." and the camera hovers over her beaming radiant blemishless divine face for a full minute. I am beautiful, beautiful, beauti...
Okay and last, inspired maybe by my newfound sight or more probably prancing elves racing through my thoughts, I give to you a turtle with lippies. Voila.
