FAIR and a Lapel Pin

I'll be the first to admit that I am currently out of the loop with the presidential campaign; albeit it has been going on since the last re-election and one can get out of the loop in one day (or one hour it seems) I am woefully under informed. I wish this wasn't the case, but honestly term papers and mid terms are taking a priority at the moment. But I did watch the Daily Show today! Besides the fact that Lynne Cheney is going to be interviewed tomorrow--and I am excited about that--I took away the knowledge that Mr. Obama is catching hell for not wearing an American flag pin on his lapel. Somehow this has made it evident that he is not ready to be president. In my email I got a report from FAIR (10/10/07) criticizing reports for reporting on such a petty issue:

The New York Daily News (10/5/07) similarly compared Obama to "the average college sophomore who has lately discovered political activism," and also suggested that Obama "did more damage to his White House hopes than a bomb bursting in air."

and later:

Actually, if candidates' "position papers and stump speeches" did receive serious and probing attention from the press, attention spent on frivolous issues like Obama's missing pin or Hillary Clinton apparently bizarre laughing wouldn't be so distressing. Serious political issues are on the table: possible war with Iran, new revelations about the White House sanctioning torture, congressional debate about warrantless wiretapping and so on. Does anyone in the media really think that Barack Obama's years-old decision about wearing a flag pin really compares to those stories?

While the New York Daily News compares Obama to a sophomore I would consider the reporter of the same mind of that stereotypical newb reporter who turns an issue of style into an issue of a candidates credibility. Isn't the media as a whole acting like a gossip mill by drawing attention to something that would have more relevancy in a high school election?

Yes, I am under informed, but do I really need to know that a presidential candidate isn't wearing an American flag? Should my decision on the leadership of my country be based upon this? The media seems to be answering with a "Yes! How dare you even ask that question?"

Well, maybe they just don't want to talk about the possible war with Iran or the White House sanctioning torture because they think it wouldn't interest me. Well, whether it would interest me or not, I would feel rather secure knowing that the media is telling us important things that we should know even if we don't want to know instead of supplying more sophomoric conversation pieces made for the water cooler. I get enough water cooler conversation from the Daily Show.

Something

It's now been 8 days since I have smoked a cigarette and I am quite the guy to get along with now. I have threatened immediate death to no less than three people, thrown pens, bottle of water, and other random objects. The worst part is I miss half the time because my nerves are so shot. My foosball skills have gotten better, but I'm afraid it's just because I am really mad whenever I play. I never understood why my brother always was such a jerk when he quit, but now I do. So if you encounter me, and you get my good side, you should consider yourself blessed: the people I live with find me insufferable at the moment. Not that I care what they think (sorry Jez, Kevin, it should be temporary).

On another note, I have decided that foosball is the ultimate way to improve your reactions and reflexes. Paul Winzer is the master at the reflex shot against me. He has scored no less than 15 reflex goals against me on defense. This has of course inspired me to learn the reflex shot. I got three off on Oki-san (Onisan) just a couple hours before present. I won that game 10-9. I had to come back from 6-9, which I did. Hmmmm, coming back from 6-9, anyone care to psychoanalyze this?

I am currently reading Emma for my Novel Theory class and Pamela for my English Novel class. They are 400 pages and 500 pages respectively. And since I am so behind on my reading I will no doubt spend the next few days and nights in the library instead of going to an invite, or a bar night, or any kinds of nights. This is a great idea.

What Interests Me Today

So since it is officially summer break for me I find myself with a bit more time on my hands than I am used to. And since I can only milk goats, go on nature walks, and drive quad-runners around for so long I am back to my intellectual pursuits regarding information, the flow of information and the presentation of content with the primary goal to be a more active, involved and informed member of society. So I am going to blog about a couple issues that are interesting to me right now.

Net Neutrality:

The basic idea of net neutrality as I understand it is that all information on the internet is treated equally as far as how it gets from one point to another. So no information is given priority treatment over others. This means my email travels from my computer through the internet to whatever agency I am sending it to as fast as whatever agency I am contacting would send information to me. This end-user relationship means that no data in any data stream is treated differently right? Ok, so that may all be coming to an end since the FCC is no longer enforcing this policy. What is the FCC good for these days anyway? So what would this mean? One example I can think of would be this: I use the Berkeley server for my internet, and Berkeley for whatever reason likes Google more than Yahoo, and they create a system so that all Google data is delivered faster than Yahoo data, making Google the faster search engine. That example is only a hypothetical, but it is possible. It is far more likely that a company such as Sprint or SBC will allow websites and corporations to pay for this preferential treatment in order to gain an edge on their competition. This makes me ask the question, is this fair in a capitalist market? From a capitalist perspective I would assume that the market for this type of system would be one sides. As a user I would not be interested in using an internet provider that does not support net neutrality. So if I was an ISP, and I knew selling bandwidth priorities would open one market while closing another I might not take this course of action. There would be a cost benefit analysis of course, and if every other ISP was selling bandwidth priorities I would know that there would not be an alternative choice for my users to go to. This would make me consider selling the priorities if the profits were high enough.

But here is the problem. Without multiple ISPs competing in one area, there will be cases where a user has no other place to go in order to get broadband internet access. This makes it unfair in my opinion. Since the broadband market is still establishing itself, when users have only one choice it is unfair to force them to deal with an ISP who does not subscribe to net neutrality. This could easily lead to a situation where what you see on the internet is filtered by your ISP because some websites paid for priority in an exclusive contract (i.e. one search engine or news site) while other websites were left wondering where their traffic went. In essence, this controls the information we are able to access. In my opinion limited access to information leads to an uniformed and woefully ignorant public. This may be just fine for some people, but I happen to believe the world will be a better place when the general public is as informed as possible on all issues.

Now, here is an interesting discussion of the topic: http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=392

There is a lot more here than I can offer in my simple ramblings. It just seems to me that some people want to be ignorant and some companies want people to be ignorant. I want people to not be ignorant. The lack of net neutrality would lead to greater ignorance. If you agree with me, you should let your member of congress know because they don't think it is important. Yes, I am linking to the openleft, and I am conservative. It seems lately to me that the left is more informed than the right, and also more concerned with the general public being informed. I think EVERYONE should be informed, left, right or center.

Mountaintop Removal:

So I don't know much about this, but I am looking stuff up about it because my dad is interested. So I went to the first place I always go when I want a broad overview of something I don't know anything about, wikipedia. After I type in mountaintop removal it links me to a site (link) that tells me that this is a new form of coal mining where up to 1000 feet of mountaintop are leveled using explosives and the debris are dumped into the river. This happens mostly in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky. It went on to say that Hose bill H.R. 2169 would effectively stop valley fills, though it does not mention anything about mountaintop removal for the mining of coal itself. Just what is done with the debris. Some of you may be thinking that you don't care about what happens in TN, WV, VA and KT. The excess mineral deposits in dump sites alone is killing species of aquatic life in the rivers, lakes and streams around these sites. A decrease in population spreads out from the center affecting every habitat involved in the same ecosystem. If I lived around where this was happening, and I saw my rivers getting filled up with dumped rubble from mountaintops in order to get a small amount of coal, I would be pissed. Anyway, I plan on telling my member of congress all about it. Besides, if we let it go in these states, it will surely spread. Reckless disregard of the state of our ecosystems and the impact we have on the planet is what leads to the loss of habitat, the extinction of species, and the weakening of life in general. I really am reminded of the commercial where the lumberjack cuts down a tree, and the domino effect comes full circle and lands on him. Drastic changes are never good. One of the many sites offering information and ways to get involved is ILoveMountains which is what my dad linked to me in order to get me informed on this particular subject.

I think that's it for now. Back later when I have more free time.

Summer Post CalSO

The first step is the hardest. Isn't that the way it goes? Everything in our lives started with a first step, every accomplishment, every failure, every detail long forgotten, every friendship and everything else all has a beginning. I have to remind myself every day that nothing can be done without being started. But at the same time, I have to remind myself that if I think too much about that first step it doesn't get done. I wont take the step if I have to do it. Anytime someone tells me to do something, I will resist, fight back, try and be intimidating and create mean faces. I do this to myself when I tell myself I have to do something. This is a thought that has a recurring role in my life. In order for me to get something done, I have to let go of wanting it done.

This is a dedication to my fellow counselors. I am uncharacteristically a jumble of emotions today because I think I wasted my summer. I am the one who is saying at the end of it all how I wish I got to know you all better, how I wish I let you all get to know me better. I've been told that I come off as "too cool." For the first time I wish this wasn't the case. Against my better judgment I have fallen in love with you all, and never let any of you know it. I guess that means that it has finally hit me. I'm not too cool.

I remember something Meegan said at the beginning, when she asked me why I was doing this (a good question at the time). I didn't really have an answer, but I will get to that later. One thing she said after I told her the answer was "I think you are the only one who looks at this like a job." I don't know if I was the only one, but CalSO was a job for me. I would say it was a job for me until there were about 4 programs left. Then it was a passion. And at some point it became something more. I was there for the students, but I was really there for the counselors. I would do anything for you all. I don't know how this happened, because I really didn't want this to happen. I think I would have been happy either feeling this way in the beginning, or not feeling this way at all. All I want is to go down the hall and visit Scott, Eric, Irene or Jen, or go downstairs and see the people that I didn't visit as often like Anna, Tristan (either), Minisha or Jean. I want to spend time with every single one of you. And I have to wait. This is more than annoying. So how much of my summer did I waste by not doing this? In the end I wish I payed less attention to my job and more attention to my coworkers. So I am going to ask you all a favor, when I call you and ask you if you want to hang out, say yes. I NEVER do this, it's a huge stretch for me. If you say no I probably wont ask again. It's part of the whole "too cool" thing I am so good at. If any of you think I am a cool guy (and I'm sure almost all of you do) you need to get to know me better. Ask Jen A., who knows me the best probably, if I am cool and she will probably say "Yes, but not in the way you think."

This can't be the end for you and me. Letting go without more would be a crime. I'm good at writing people off; I don't want to write any of you off.

Busy Summer

So since I am working from 9am to 10pm every day I am not able to find much time to post. I am actually in between lectures right now and my boss could yell at me at any minute. So hopefully I will get around tonight and post some updates. See you soon.

First Post

I think it's time for a change in my life. I believe that posting that change on the web will make it more real, and make me more likely to succeed in this change.

The change is thus: stop wasting time, start making life the way I want it to be.

Now then, this hopefully will not be a Franklin/Gatsby type of list and schedule to conform my life into the life I want it to be. I believe that my life is how I want it to be all the time, and putting time constraints on what and where I do and go is more restricting than freeing. I am hoping that this transformation will be more organic, and more action oriented than plan orientated. With that being said I will go ahead and tell you my goals for this website in particular, not the goals of my changing life which I will keep private for now.

I want to create a place for me to describe the processes I am going through, and a place to sound off on my beliefs, actions and passions.

So since I am talking about changes, I am going to rant a little about how I think change occurs. Change happens either from an internal motivation or an external motivation. Those from external motivations are the simple sort (i.e. putting on more blankets when it is cold). Internal motivations deal more with our emotions, passions, beliefs, goals, desires, and thoughts. Internal motivations are necessarily more complex than external motivations. Most often my internal motivations center around pain, dissastisfaction and dissapointment in myself and others. A mentor once told me that you will learn from either pleasure or pain. Clearly, I learn from pain more than pleasure. This is not a bad thing, as long as there is learning taking place. Going through the same pain over and over again is what happens when you don't learn. After you learn you can take actions to change based on your internal motivations. Actions is what makes changes. Actions over a long period of time creates new habits, and this is the change.

My final thought on change and motivation is that change is not easy even though it occurs every second of every day. It is the fact that it is always happening that makes it hard; this is because for every change you make in one direction there will be another change that you might not be willing to live with. If you change your nutritional habits, it will create a change in your thought process and many of your physical processes. Not only that, but it will create cravings, strong physical effects such as hunger, and it will make you want to go back to your old diet which was homeostasis for you. Going from homeostasis into any change is resisted by every cell of your body, even if it is a beneficial change.

Right now, I am very hungry, cranky, and generally mad at the world. I better get used to this. I've been told to feed off the anger. Hopefully that will mute some of the pain. That and a lot of good punk rock: punkradiocast.