What You Can't See

Boca Raton, Fla.

The dark spots are sharks gathering. The three people in the upper left... time to get out of the water! And if those are not three people... it's still time to get out of the water.

Soon.

Child Nutrition in Iraq

Malnutrition for children in Iraq is being reported as twice what it was under Saddam. Now, this should not be interpreted politically. This is a simple issue, reducable to facts... shall we pretend it's not worse, since getting rid of Saddam made things better? Shall we pretend that it's not true because democratic election have been held? What shall we pretend.

Nothing, we shall know that we need to improve conditions, and not pretend.

The Hunt Begins

Hunter wears orange hat. :(

Clubbings to follow.

Progressive and Regressive, p.2

Political philosophy is the most material of all philosophies, it's the place where philosophy meets engineering, philosophy to politics as science to engineering. Just as with mathematics to reality, it is gross when the approximations take place, violating your pure theory with reality and error... especially if including a system of justice according to a theory of justice. I myself enjoy the knowledge that pure theory does not fit reality, and adopt an theory that it probably never can nor should, and that in the end reality is the instructor, not theory. It could be no other way.

The idea of progress is a basic idea regarding human types, some want to improve the situation, some maintain it. By and large there is nothing automatically to advocate that one or the other of these modes is superior. To live in a way that sustains a regular lifestyle is to celebrate life in its daily rhythm, to have found the tone for Epicurus' tuning fork for your particular life. To live for change is to learn and adventure, to improve conditions for all. Individually these philosophies coexist beautifully, the migratory and sedentary can coexist especially in a modern civilized setting where cultures are composed of both sorts and every hybrid.

But politically this becomes an issue, are you trying to use the political system to improve conditions? If so, you are a progressive in the natural language sense of "progressive". If you want to go back to some past date... you are regressive, but note, this is really just a handy type of term for a certain kind of progressive, because they are in fact so distinct although they want reform which they say will improve things. Firstly, all any progressive has going for them is the hope to improve things, and what makes this liberal is a tradition that improvement means for all, not just the point of reference individual, so that social progress is fundamental to progress in a political system.

Personally, I do not think there was any past time usually associated with most regressive movements. As with childhood, often the golden land was merely a matter of perspective and memory. Inspection of history show many golden ages, but never any not wrought with injustices which prohibit the theory that progress lies in regression to those states. Neither do I believe it likely that one can hope for things to stay the same, because all things change and become something else which is related to the last.

Progressive and Regressive

More on clarifying why I like progressive. Firstly, to repeat, I like both the fact that it has a historical sense which means "very liberal"... but also that the natural language sense survives, which is very practical. To me this makes sense. The progressive mind can imagine a far ranging idealization, but also have pragmatism to compromise on those ideal vision in the here and now. Not only is it practical, but it's fair, because it takes other peoples ideas in to consideration, the people that disagree with the progressive. It is an act of humility that the progressive, me, doesn't really know what it's going to be like in 100 years or 1000 years or, indeed, what would actually be best. The whole thing is an excersize of visualization for the same old reasons: art, engineering, and philosophy.

Progressive

I've been asked by mother (resident conservative and RIARB silent partner) what I mean when I say I'm a progressive. First, I should clarify, I have always felt a revulsion at being labeled, but even more so at a lying coyness which refuses to be pinned down to a position. So fine... I've given up on saying no category suits me... even though they don't... I'm consistently progressive.

So what is that, and especially why not be a liberal. Unlike many it's not that I think liberal has been made a bad word and now I don't want to be hung with it... no, I'm more like one of the people that let it become a bad word, at least for politics.

Two reasons... one, natural language... sometimes it's good to be liberal, sometimes not... when giving portions of grandma's casserole, liberal is good. When doling out rations on a boat lost at sea... liberal is bad. Similarly, I believe in conservation, I believe in caution and realism, I believe in a conservative approach to risk.

But there is another reason. Liberal and conservative, to me, are the good cop/bad cop approach to manipulating the masses. They work together, either philosophy collapses without the other. The liberal society, still not granting freedom, falls into the hands of the bad cop who must make people feel lucky for the freedoms they are given. The bad cop authoritarian approach collapses as the masses will rise up and change those in power, and falls to the liberal approach to let off steam.

It's a bit of a racket to avoid giving actual freedom, and by freedom I mean either a kind that appeals to "conservatives" or "liberals", either social or libertarian freedom. So I prefer progressive because it is a philosophy that seeks to break this cycle, and I am a libertarian progressive because I believe in civil liberty and that the role of a government is to stay out of most affairs and secure the rights in the hands of individuals.

A position you don't want to be in...

How many times have I said be careful when you trim trees... it's dangerous.... you don't want to be in Harold White's position... I take this as a political metaphor of some kind but I'm not sure how it works out for us.


PS: a crane came to save Harold in his case... OK, but still in critical condition.

Conservative Muslim

I'm philosophical, I like language... I like idle questions, especially potentially controversial ones (mom might say I'm a bit of a "shit disturber" for that...)

So this term came to me and I was wondering. Which is the conservative Muslim? Is the conservative Muslim pro-terrorist? Or against the terrorists?

Are they peace loving, do they tolerate or not tolerate? What does this word conservative mean anyway? What about a liberal Muslim?

Are fundamentalists extremely conservative, or merely fanatical... out on a wing not shared by anyone of reason?

Worth Reading... I don't know -exactly- where the line should be...

New York Times on the many examples of the Federal Government blurring propaganda and news... such as government PSAs that look and are broadcast as local news segments.

Article Here.

Good Samaritans

I have a news alert set for "good samaritans"... and by far the most common theme is good samaritans that are killed after helping people that are pulled over. They are struck by cars crossing highways or trying to warn traffic of an accident. Sort of sad.

So the news of some bunnies being saved stands out.

Real Bravery

This is the height of mankind. Does this guy look brave?

Corporate Welfare

I'm seeing more and more stories like this... it's easy prey for local reporters.

They just go figure out how much welfare and public assistence the working poor are collection, and account that against the employers that live off their productivity and basically enjoy a subsidy.

Clever Energy Source

being built in Autstraila... behold the Solar Tower... they plan to have one in operation in 2006 in Australia.