Am I a Terrible Person Because of This?

Many colleges have t-shirts made which not only let you know what college the wearer wants to be associated with, but usually some other identifier with which you're supposed to glean some worthwhile information. T-shirts that I have seen include (Duke is just used as a random university): Duke Rugby, Duke Engineering, Duke Liberal Arts, etc. etc.

I think this is the first time I have seen a shirt, and had a serious negative reaction towards it. A girl was wearing a shirt that said , "Duke Latina".

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy some seriously wrong shirts:
Baby's shirt says: "Daddy drinks because I cry."
Shirt Says: "What Would Jesus Do For a Klondike Bar?"
Shirt Says in different colored bubbles: "Fuck the Colorblind"
Shirt with an outline of a guy that looks like he's dancing: "I'm not getting jiggy wit' it. I have parkinsons..."

These are seriously insensitive shirts. I love them. I am seriously repulsed by this racial shirt though. I don't really know why. Is it because I could be socially ostracized for wearing a shirt saying: "Duke Caucasian"? Maybe I'm over-compensating for the fact that I'm not supposed to be proud of being white. I don't know. I'm going to have to do some serious introspection though.
Some of the things that are bouncing around in my head though relate to some of the things I've been taught:

• It's not right for me to think of race as a distinguishing factor in anyone's ability to get ahead.
• I should love everyone else's differences, and applaude their "diversity".
  
• By saying that I'm for diversity, I should have a wonderful feelings just explode in my head, akin to a "morals-gasm" of overflowing love for everyone else and their differences.
  
• Because I'm a white male, there is nothing about me that could ever be considered different or diverse.
• I should feel an underlying guilt behind every positive thing that ever happens to me (because I'm a white male).
  

Maybe I should follow along and "stay true to my roots". Ah, shit. Can't do that either. Thanks Hitler...

* Duke is just used as an anonymous identifier.

Caffeine Test

Created by OnePlusYou

I usually don't put these through, but this one hits a little close to home...

They're Taking Our Jorbs!

Reason.com has a video out now about free trade and how our jobs are being shipped out of this country. They think it's a good thing. I think it's a good thing. If we were as concerned with utilizing more efficient forms of labor, why don't we wring our hands and decry the advent of robots? Give the video a watch, it's about 8 mins long; well worth your time.





Hurley from Squidbillies: I don't care to consort with those of the robot race!

The Entire Internets is Going to Hell

If you have any doubt that the internet is nothing but a festering sore of rude, stupid, terribly atheistic, yet funny ass-holes, one need go no further than fark.com. Drink, read, and be merry.

If this level of intelligent banter existed in a public forum somewhere in real life, I don't think I would ever leave that bastion of stupidity.  The forums can be especially ridiculous / insightful.  Put on your hip-waders though, you don't want it touching your skin...

The History of Computers

Over at Mentalfloss.com there is an awesome documentary on the history of computers. Say goodbye to an hour of you life. I'm a sucker for informational stuff like this.

Lies We Tell Kids

Paul Graham has a terrific article up about the reasons why parents lie to their children. Only after reading the above article was I able to step back and question my motives for lying to kids. I feel entirely competent in digesting honest facts and opinions, divorced from emotion. When it comes to my (future) kids, however I feel it perfectly fine, for the sake of maintaining innocence or optimism, to lie to his/her pudgy face.

Very rarely do I sit back and think about it, but sometimes this topic really gets me going. Recently I heard an episode of NPR's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" and it was overwhelming to me how brutal (albeit well intentioned) honesty to children can be:

Paraphrased from NPR interviewee:
Because I believe so strongly in the message of global warming, I decided to show Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" to my children. Everything was fine until we got to point on polar bears drowning, at which point my 10 year old stands up and yells, "If Al Gore thinks the world's so terrible, why doesn't he just go commit suicide!" He stormed off upstairs and refused to come back down.

I disagree strongly with the idea that the Earth's is irreparably damaged. Leaving that aside, I even more strongly disagree with scaring the shit out of children with environmental alarmism that just changes flavor every 1-2 decades. We're telling kids that the world is coming down all around them, when in fact I would be surprised if the sea rose more than 1 foot in the next 50 years. Read the IPCC report. Read it and tell me how the worst case scenario of 20" of sea rise in 100 years is going to be an insurmountable catastrophe for human kind?

We don't need to be making our children shit their pants at night, fearing that they won't wake up, because Global Warming will kill them in their sleep and rape their parents. We need to give them the information when they're capable to interpreting it themselves, and acting upon it in an intelligent fashion.

Ohmigad! Can't Breathe...

Video evidence of Hillary realizing her place in the Democratic Primary race. Too funny to pass up.

Who Hates the Homeless the Most?

There are people in America who genuinely need a hand. These people are mentally unstable, physically incapable of work, have a debilitating addiction which is ruining their life, or through fate have been dealt a bad hand and just need a little help to lift themselves up and out of their current situation. People run from abusive relationships with no friends or relatives. People run away from home because of abuse or their own foolish pride. People get hit with the one two punch of losing a job and having a serious health problem. All of these people genuinely need help, either by being committed to mental instiutions, rehab facilities, or self-development programs to give them the resources to exchange their work for food, shelter, or education.

There are people though, who deserve a red-hot poker in the eye because they are conning well-meaning people into giving them money. People are using others' sense of good-will and stealing money from them. These fake homeless, free-loading vagabonds, and homeless criminals are hardening peoples hearts to those who genuinely need help. They're causing well-meaning politicians to make terrible policies based on the terrible plight of the "hundreds of thousands of homeless in America". We need to quit giving away free money to anyone who has their hand out, and at the same time expect a higher level of personal-responsibility from those who do genuinely need outside assistance.

These videos should enrage anyone who actually gives a shit about helping people. Sadly though, every single one of my own experiences in talking with homeless people falls so close to these video descriptions it's disheartening. I want to help, but I sure as shit never want my money to ever go to these cons.

A local news crew in Utah doing a report on homeless people:


John Stossel doing a report on homeless people:


In San Diego I took some evenings and talked with the homeless on the beaches. I only spoke to 6-8 homeless people, but they were eerily similar:

• terrible hygeine (despite very accessible public showers)
• constant, excessive drinking (24 oz. cans of Bud Ice seemed to be most common)
• abusing nearby homeless resources to maintain their lifestyle of just floating around with no responsibilities
• not even attempting to locate any kind of employment

I feel genuinely bad for those who, through no fault of their own have had hard luck hit them again and again. As a society we need to make available a safety net for those who need help, if for no other reason than to appease the vast majority of the public who need to believe that America is a good place. This help must be decentralized and community oriented. This will allow individuals to monitor people's progress and determine whether the resources being given are being exploited or not.  It'll also let the community use more resources on those who're most in need.

Anyone who is entirely capable of work and responsibility, but is opting out for their own reasons, will never get any pity from me, I just see way too much opportunity in this country for me to feel bad for someone.

If Mexican immigrants can come into this country with nothing, and make a life for themselves and their families, any physically capable and mentally stable homeless person has no excuse.

Evil Republicans / Homeless

Thomas Sowell has written: Most people on the right have no problem understanding people on the left because many, if not most, were on the left themselves when they were younger. But many, if not most, people on the left find it inexplicable how any decent and intelligent person could be on the right.

I really enjoy having conversations with those who have a different view point than me. It challenges me to look at my own beliefs from another viewpoint and see if they will continue to hold up to scrutiny. I also love poking at the beliefs of others to see exactly where someone stands and for what reasons they have that stand. In my experience, liberals want to feel good about their decisions, but rarely will they go through to thinking about the ramifications of a certain course of action. I am more than willing to say that I am wrong, but you had better have all of your ducks in a row if you think my beliefs make me a bad person.

One of the most entertaining episodes involved a trip to Australia in which I was caught smack dab in the middle of a close-knit group of liberals who had never been challenged before.

Discussion I had in Australia with two young-ish (25-29) deer-eyed liberals, of course I bring up politics.

Australian Liberal 1: I can't believe what America is doing now (it's Fall of 2005, just a couple of years into Iraq). How is it possible that it's being supported. I've never even met a republican!

Me: You have now.

Aus. Lib. 1: Oh, my God. What? This is so weird.

Me: This whole day our group has been talking as you show us around Sydney, have I done anything to make you think I'm a bad person? Do I seem like a person who feeds the carcasses of the homeless to my pets? Republicans are people too, they don't rape and pillage people or third world countries for fun... often...

Aus. Lib. 2: Whatever! That's ridiculous. Republicans are cold hearted, they don't care about anything. They just think about business and don't even think about the homeless for instance.

Me: I would argue that I care more about the homeless than your typical Democrat. More than anything I want homeless people to get off of the street. I want them to sustain themselves with a job though, if at all possible. I don't want them to feel like they have to rely on handouts to survive in the long-term.

Hear me out. How do you most help a poor person on the street? Do you give them money for a meal, or do you help them out of their situation by encouraging them to be self sufficient. Which method keep the person from being poor a day, a week, or a year from now. Plus, if republicans care so much about money, who's going to buy our stuff, people with money or people living on the street? A person concerned about selling things is better off it more of the population can buy their crap. There is no benefit to keeping poor people poor. Plus, how do you do that? How do influence a person to not go to work every day? How do you influence them to not develope their skills? The conspiracy to keep poor people poor makes no sense, and it's impossible to even try to implement. Plus, who has enough power or influence to be able to do that?

Aus. Lib. 2: That's a cold hearted thing to do, just leaving someone in the street to fend for themselves. You're just blaming the victim.

Me: I'm not saying you let them go hungry, just make sure that you don't give it to them without some semblance of responsibility attached to it. Make them feel like they've earned it. For you to make money, you have to do something productive. For you to be self sustaining, you must be productive at some level. But remember there will always be the case of the truly downtrodden which must be helped. We can't let the truly handi-capped or infirm rot on the steet, republicans are in fact human in that regard.

Aus. Lib. 1: I've never thought about it that way.

Me: So am I still evil?

Reluctantly, these people conceded that I was, in fact, not entirely evil. They thought this at least until later that night when I started breaking out the "Dead Baby Jokes" (prepare to be seriously, seriously, offended/disgusted).

My overall point is this: from my perspective some major points for someone to feel content they need to feel secure, needed, and productive. Working hard at a job will almost always contribute to all of those points. There is so much more to life than just work (like epileptic, nursing home G-G-MILF porn). From this point of view giving a no-strings-attached handuot will not make someone better off in the long term. If you can attach a bit of self development with that handout, however, everyone wins.

How about mandating certain levels of work in exchange for government assistance? What would happen if college students with government subsidized loans had to put in 15-20 hours of work a month? What if anyone receiving food stamps or welfare had to work 10-20 hours a month? This work could be cleaning up ditches, maintaining government property, stuffing envelopes for the county, answering phones for a state/government agency, building/maintaining low income housing, or churning butter. Mmmmmm, socialist butter......

Bias, and My Incredibly Closed Minded Take On It

There's an article recently posted on Scientific American online "Buried Prejudice: The Bigot in Your Brain". This seems like pretty disturbing stuff, but at the same time I feel like I've kind of already known this.

People, it seems, are very judgemental and categorize things simplistically. This is necessary, however, for people to easily interact and predict reactions in the world they live in. One of the steps in the development of a childs mind which make the leap from arbitrary shapes to existence of "things". The child then quickly rationalizes cause and effect with everything they can do and experience. According to psychologists at Harvard and UC Merced, children commonly develop their racial biases around 4-6 years of age. The extent of their biases are influenced, it seems, by parents. Though simplistic categorization is an entirely natural developmental process, the irrational race based assumptions may very well be galvanized in someone's mind by the time they enter kindergarten.

Now, I have to raise my hand and ask, is this bias thing something that is inherent in humans as a whole, or are we seeing some social construct which is imparted on someone. To this question, it seems the article's answer is "Both".

There is something fundamental in the understanding of 'we' and 'them'. There is an obvious pro 'us' bias and a negative 'them' bias. If a person identifies themself very solidly in a racial or ethnic community, there is certainly a chance for them having this arbitrary group bias. You can see something similar by looking at any rabid (*insert local sports team here*) fan and tell them that their favorite star player can go eat shit. Go up to a French person, and tell them to stick their stinky cheese where the sun doesn't shine. The reaction you'd get to this line of discussion is a pretty clear indication that people, generally like, associate with, and will defend many of their arbitrary associations.

Florida Spring break trip many moons ago (roughly 4am):
College Age Mississippi Douchebag (MSDB): Woooooooooooo! Ain't no party like a Mississippi party!
Me (DB): Why won't these bastards go to sleep! I need to get up early tomorrow to drink.
MSDB: Woooooooooooo! Who wants to fight a Mississippi boy! Who wants to?!
(*5 minutes later police arrive*)

It's obviously stupid, but had this kid been born in Tennessee he'd probably be saying the same stupid shit just about Tennessee instead of Mississippi.

This desire to associate with a like group, and to ascribe positive attributes to this group, I would argue, must be nature based because of its obvious benefits to tribal, nomadic, and BDSM societies. Believing that people have a desire to group does not mean we have to live with racist bias forever. Eventually we could get to a point, due to inter-racial marriage, we'll slowly bring society to a middle ground in which race is less of an issue. This could be due in no small part to the fact that the idea of race will become more muddled and less cut and dry. I think people will be less able to judge based on appearance alone because there will be too much middle ground. Any perceived differentiations of race will soften and overlap.

So, if we as human beings have this fundamental desire to experience, divide, and judge based on our simplistic distinctions, is that a bad thing? In my opinion it is bad in that negative stereotypes can be perpetuated, they're more difficult to overcome if it's what's expected of you. On the other hand, it's pretty obvious that positive stereotypes are a benefit. There are immigrant societies in America that seem to have a culture of hard work because that is who they are, and they won't accept anything less from themselves or their children. From what I see, communities that parent well, expect the best from their kids, and delineate good/bad repercussions to those kids' actions, in general beat the shit out of the statistical "rest of society".

So what's the freakin' point. What am I trying to get at? Stereotypes in and of themselves are what they are: (many times) irrational impulses which must be subverted and overcome based on rational judgement and what is expected of polite society today (sorry Nazis). These impulses can be seen in the same context as sexual urges after commiting yourself to a monogamous relationship; they'll exist, but you can conciously decide against them. To be a respected member of society today, judgements and actions must be based on moral and rational grounds, not irrational emotions and biases.

This brings me to an even bigger point to which I confuse myself on. So, let's say that media as a whole is a giant circle-jerk perpetuating and encouraging these arbitrary distinctions on what it means to be cool, connected, loved, a part of society, or what it means to be a true (*insert ethniticy/community here*) person. On one side of the coin I say we should never put down ridiculous media like hip-hop or death metal, because I love it for the ridiculousness of it. Anyone wanting to ban Eminem or Rammstein will have to pry it out of my cold dead fingers. It's just too entertaining to me. But it's truly disturbing when people take their social cues from this stuff. When people decide and interact based on their interpretations of these media caricatures, those people have a problem.

We need to look in the mirror and realize that, like this article in Scientific American states, we each have our own irrational biases. We must face these biases for what they are, and push everyone to be the best they can be regardless of arbitrary skin tone, distinctions. We cannot hold back constructive criticism for fear we will offend someone, we must push, help, celebrate people for what is out there for anyone to achieve.

We, as a people, need to cock-punch in the face those who are acting based on bias, but at the same time renounce anyone who holds themselves back based on bias. In America, in 2008, there is no racial, ethnic, or socio-economic reason for laziness, apathy, or rotting your brain behind a TV for hours every day.

People should rot their brain like me, by looking at engadget.com, fark.com, monster-a-day, digg.com, reason.com/blog, and a million other things that make me just as bad as the laziest of lazies. Well, I better go grab the windex, it looks like my glass house needs some cleaning.