Social Responsibility

Been a while. As usual. I was fired up a month and a half ago but sometimes life has a way of knocking the wind out of you and make you not feel like blogging. Or... you feel a lot like blogging, but you don't want anyone to actually end up reading what you're likely to write.

Anyway, there's lots to talk about. I've seen several issues come and go since I was on here last, but what's making the news right now is our nation's debt. We had weeks of debate throughout July, and just last Friday, August 5th, our nation's credit rating was downgraded.

You've heard the arguments if you've been paying attention. But I want to react to things slightly differently:

I saw a few people on my Facebook post about how sad or unfair it is that unemployment benefits are being slashed. I've also visited several websites where, in the comment section, the Left accused the Right of wanting to stop taking care of the sick and the elderly, and to "kick grandma out into the street." I also was a part of a surprisingly pleasant discussion, where one of the participants suggested that social programs were what made America great. That without taking care of the poor and less fortunate, we would not be as classy or as first rate of a nation.

Also, this quote from Stephen Colbert has been making the rounds a lot lately:

“If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn’t help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus is just as selfish as we are or we’ve got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition. And then admit that we just don’t want to do it.”

I adore Stephen Colbert, and I watch his show regularly. I think he is brilliant and I am fascinated by his wit and his intelligence and his obviously well-rounded education. I've seen him start talking fluent German in the middle of a "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" improv scene, and he has made references on the fly during interviews on his "Colbert Report" show that I have had to Google on my smart phone. My point is that I respect him immensely and though he is a comedian, I take him very seriously. And I am fairly sure he is Catholic and that his words are sincere.

So, first of all, I want to respond to that quote. We've all heard the phrase, "You can give a man a fish, and feed him for a day; or teach a man to fish, and feed him for a lifetime." I ask, then, would a Christian better serve a poor man by propping him up with social crutches that keep him perpetually poor? Or would it be better to encourage that man to enable himself? Would a man rather be given milk, or would he be prouder to work for his own wages and buy that milk for himself? Now, I know this is very simplistic and there are arguments about uneven playing fields and all of that (which I can get to*), but this is one example I offer of why it is not necessarily fair to accuse Christians who oppose certain social programs of being un-Christian.

Further, why must charity be government mandated and controlled? Can we not be trusted to be charitable? Must the government step in and make sure Christians act like Christians? If I want to help the less fortunate, why can I not give to a private charity of my choosing? Why does it have to be the government? What about churches? It's fun to bash them, but there are a lot of hospitals and schools out there named after Saints. There are ways to be charitable without the government ever getting its hands on the money. And I firmly believe the government is often a lousy and inefficient alternative. When Jesus was teaching, he stopped and personally helped the sick and the needy. I don't remember scripture passages where he collected money from everyone and set up a social program.

And that brings me to this idea of kicking grandma out on the street. It strikes me that these social programs, and especially the ones for our elderly, are extremely impersonal. We write a check to the government so that we can essentially group of all of our older citizens up in hidden little communities, away where we won't have to see them or deal with them. Many spend the last years of their life surrounded by nurses and strangers. The same goes for our poor. Everyone is someone's relative or neighbor. Whatever happened to looking out for each other? Would we rather write a check and look away rather than invite a down-on-his luck neighbor into our homes?

There was a time before social programs. And yes, it was imperfect, and yes, there were unfortunate souls in need of help. But it was also a time when multiple generations lived under the same roof. It was a time when you knew everyone who lived in your small community, and you could stop by with some extra food, or you could invite them over to do a few odd jobs for some extra cash accompanied by the dignity of performing a task.

Our country has some serious choices up ahead. And it may be that we can no longer afford some of these social programs in their current state. We may have to have grandma live with us. We may have to let a laid-off uncle stay in the spare room for a while. We may have to babysit the neighbor's kids while he can only find 3rd shift work. Sure, there will still be those with no friends or relatives to turn to, but imagine the huge burden we would take off of government programs if we just swallowed our pride and asked our community for help, or if we allowed ourselves not just write a check but to help others, even when it's not "convenient."

We are pooling our money, and going into debt, to collectively ignore our social problems and keep them out of site and out of mind. Rather than collect taxes, and confiscate other people's money so we can throw our poor, sick, and elderly into a "program" and forget about them, we may have to become a community that truly and personally cares for our less fortunate. We might even get a chance to better know our friends, family, and neighbors. And would that be such a bad thing?




*This got long... I'll save the "even playing field" for another time.

Politickin'

"Politics" comes from the merging of two root words: "Poly," which is "many," and "tics," which are bloodsucking parasites.

Holy Hell. It's been almost a year since I last blogged?? Wow. And, I still owe you a Furry update, don't I? I still owe you a lot of things. Damn. Hopefully we'll get there.

Ok, so - I am back. I wanted to take time out and comment on all of the commenting I've been doing lately, mostly on Facebook, a few web forums, and in "real life." Political stuff has just been coming up more often, it's been more at the forefront of my brain, and I think a lot of other people's brains, too. Mmmm. Brains...

Anyway, when I first made the big switch from MySpace to Facebook, it was probably somewhere around 2007-2008. I was astounded by all of the political stuff that was flying around. Facebook was way more political than MySpace, or it at least seemed that way, given the format. It was easier to make status updates and have links that showed up in everyone's news feed. On MySpace, people pretty much had to come to your page to get insulted by you. Or, you had to actively write an insult on their page. And, obviously, 2008 was a big election year, so there was all of that going on as well.

I couldn't believe how willing people were to just spew their political garbage into the ether (a lot of it being really, really nasty), with no regard for who may or may not be reading it To me, social networking sites were akin to a "giant dinner party." And we all know that at a polite, networking dinner party, you don't bring up religion or politics. You just don't. You don't know everyone that well, and you don't know whom you're about to anger or upset.

So, while I had very strong political opinions, I did my best not to throw a lot of it out there. I didn't make the political post very often, and when I did, I was sure to surround it with some links about the Muppets or Star Wars or something. Also, being involved in academia, music, and the performing arts for over 15 years, I quickly learned how, for the most part, to not get into a fight every 5 minutes. In the months preceding the 2008 election, I even tried to start a Facebook trend/movement to "Just Shut Up," and challenged whoever to just refrain from assaulting their friends with unwelcome political opinions.

I basically stuck to this for a while. I remember being accused of being "too political" sometime last year, and I was especially shocked given my sincere efforts to not be. I later determined that this person was not reacting to the overall quantity of my posts, as I had to go back about 6 months to even find something political that I'd thrown up on my page. She had simply branded me as "political" because I did disagree with her, and therefore I stuck out in her mind as "the enemy." My suspicion is that the smug political comments her politically aligned friends make with more frequency get overlooked and do not register as an occasional post of mine might, as they do not stick out or set off any "enemy-alert" alarms.

All that said, I confess to becoming more politically vocal in this most recent stretch of my life. I think this is for a number of reasons. We do live in very politically charged times. That's getting more extreme, not less. I'm also getting older. Maybe I care more or take more notice than I used to. And, I'm back in Missouri and around my family, so my conservative roots are probably showing a little more than I ever let them in college or in Chicago.

But also, I am done. I am done biting my tongue. I am sick of letting some of the crap I hear slide without calling people out on it. I am tired of hearing how conservatives are all inbred, mouth-breathing, uneducated, uncultured, knuckle-dragging, redneck morons. I am here to tell you that we are not. I am tired of hearing how science, reason, logic, art, music, and beauty are all solely in existence in the enlightened domain of the left. I am here to tell you that is simply not the case.

I am a thoughtful, intelligent, college-educated, and well-cultured conservative. I help my family run a business. I am a classically trained opera singer. I read. I watch the news. Then I read and watch the other news. Then I read and watch some more. I absorb information whenever I can and I formulate my own opinions. I digest these opinions and make them my own before repeating them. I do not simply regurgitate the same garbage I heard someone say on the radio.

I am willing to, but I don't want to fight. I want to actually engage you. If I can't persuade you, I at least want you to understand where I am coming from. I will do my best to understand where you are coming from as well. I won't be spewing any empty rhetoric, so spare me yours.

And I challenge you... I challenge you to actually be as open minded and intelligent as you claim to be. I have heard your point of view for 15 years, but I don't think you have ever really heard mine. You've heard sound bites and quotes from the most radical and unintelligent of the right... sound bites that were hand selected to be easily knocked down.

I am not Glenn Beck. I am not Sean Hannity. I am not Rush Limbaugh. I am me. Talk to me. Engage me. Fight with me if you must. But listen to what I have to say. Don't listen to what Bill Maher said that Glenn Beck said, and then fight that imaginary idiot straw man twice removed from a real person in your brain. Mmmm. Brains...

****

And... my computer crashed while typing this. I lost my momentum. But you get my drift.

Let's play nice with each other, but let's actually get some legitimate, open-minded debate going on. On like Donkey Kong.

The Sound and the Furry

Last weekend I attended a NASPD (National Association of Steel Pipe Distributors) function in Pittsburgh. As I entered the rather ornate lobby, I couldn't help but notice a rather dirty looking young man sitting at a cafe table and staring intently into his laptop. He looked out of place among the well-dressed hotel patrons not just because of his grubby attire, but also because he was sporting a hair band with attached fuzzy ears and false fox tail. I was, however, too jet-lagged and tired to ponder on this, and proceeded to the front desk.

After getting my room key, I turned and noticed a group of even more unsavory young men clustered around a bench. It was apparent from their wardrobe and poor grooming choices that these young men were, well... nerds. And I'm not talking about the kind of "nerd" that it's hip to be these days. Not where it's "cool" to be a "nerd," as our society has been celebrating "brains" over "jocks" in some cases. I'm talking about Booger from Revenge of the Nerds, but without any of his redeeming qualities. I began to observe more and more of this particular flavor of humanity as the day went on.

Finally, I found myself in an elevator with one. Being something of a nerd myself (I have a love for just about anything that's Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I have logged more hours on MMO's than I will mention here. Oh, and I was a frickin' theatre major), I was genuinely interested, and I thought I would be able to express my interest with some sincerity:


Me, warm, genuine interest: "Hey, can I ask you what's going on in the hotel?"

Nerd, immediately defensive: "What do you mean?"

Me, patient clarification: "Well, like, those name tag / convention pass things you're wearing... what's that for?"

Nerd, intentionally vague and aloof: "Oh, it's Anthrocon."

Me, unassuming, rational follow-up: "I'm not familiar - what's that?"

Nerd, dismissive, with an audible sigh: "It would take too long to explain."


He slips out of the elevator. Like any reasonably cutting edge geek, I have a smart phone, and instantly google "Anthrocon" after he leaves. I quickly discover that the "long explanation" he was trying to avoid could have been summed up in two words: "Furry Convention."

After that, I posted a new Facebook status update, and was encouraged to get some photographic evidence. Furry photo-hunting is more difficult than you might think. Here is my favorite photo:

These are shy, timid creatures, and it is best not to approach them indoors.

I am probably more in touch with internet goings-on than the average 33 year old American, but I still I confess that my first exposure to the term "Furry" was through a more socially acceptable medium - namely, the HBO series Entourage. In the episode, one of the main characters was asked to dress up like a stuffed animal in order to have sex with an attractive young lady he contacted through Craigslist. Based on my recent experience, I have to conclude that Entourage misrepresented the Furry community. Do Furries look for sex over the internet? Probably. Are they attractive? Probably not.

I have been to comic book conventions. I have been to role-playing conventions. I have been to Star Wars and Star Trek conventions. Sure, you will see a hodge podge of various characters. You'll see all kinds. But you will occasionally see a hot chick wearing chain mail. Or Vulcan ears. Or a Golden Bikini. I kept expecting to, almost literally, see a "Foxy Lady" among the Furries. Maybe some kind of Catwoman type in sexy leather. I never saw anything close. What I saw, over and over and over and over again, were people who were just awkward looking to an extreme.

Believe me, I am really not trying to judge here. I am no male model. And I realize that there are things like inner beauty, and that beauty is usually in the eye of the beholder. I totally get that. But when you are consistently viewings specimens who have so clearly made ungainly grooming choices, you begin to wonder. We may have differences of opinions on what is "fashionable" or "attractive," but most of us would agree that "basic hygiene" is a common thread among what we find appealing.

Confused, I went to the internet to see what others may have to say on this topic. I found that my observations were widely supported. Nerds often fall into specific categories, and they even embrace that, participating fully in nerd elitism and nerd prejudices. The Star Trek and Star Wars camps feud constantly. Both factions may or may not get along with Stargate, or Battlestar Galactica nerds. And that's within Sci-Fi. We still have Lord of the Rings nerds and Larpers and so on and so on. However, Furries seem to be, quite simply, the most universally reviled subset in all of nerdom. Other nerds often simply do not tolerate the Furry Fandom.

The commonly held theory is that the unattractive and socially awkward are particularly drawn to fantasizing about being something they are not, like a majestic centaur. I did observe this to be exactly the case in Pittsburgh. The Furries were downright unapproachable socially (as in my elevator conversation). And there were no slick, good-looking people were wearing rabbit ears over their business casual gear. These were people sticking fuzzy tails through the same pair of dingy cargo shorts they hadn't washed in seven years.

Again, I am not here to judge, just to make some observations. People fascinate me. But for those of you who might think I've been too "mean" in this Blog, let me leave you with this:

One of the local four-star hotels had to kick several Furries out last weekend. It was discovered that there were about 6-8 of them sharing a room. But it was not for this cost-saving practice. The problem, it seemed, was that these Furries had opted not to use the well-appointed human facilities that were included with the lavish hotel room. Instead, this group of Furries brought, and made ample use of, a box of kitty litter. Yes, that is correct. The cleaning maids found the box of kitty litter and the evidence contained therein.

Coming home from some cocktails on my last night in Pittsburgh, I again found myself in an elevator with some Furries. Someone from my party had recently heard the above story, and just had to ask if it were true. The Furries confirmed the story. They did assure us that we should not view this as the norm, but that yes, it does happen.

Good night, everybody!

Why you are homeless:

So, since my last roommate moved out, I've been debating whether or not to replace him. I don't financially need someone to move in, but I think that I would like a new roommate if he/she were a good one. I mean, for as long as I'm single, it's just nice to share expenses, and I do also like the energy of living with another person. So, I finally decided I'd put an ad up on Craigslist just to see what kind of responses I would get.

My ad did a pretty thorough job of describing the place and myself. I've done the looking-for-a-roommate thing multiple times before, so I pretty much know what people are looking for. I did my best to provide as much information up-front as possible just to keep from wasting anyone's time, and also to hopefully do some passive filtering. I would like to limit the amount of people to whom I give out my real email/phone number/home address. At the end of my listing, I asked that anyone who wants to contact me to please not just send a one-line email message. I want to know more about you than that (and verify that you're not a scammer / serial killer/ douch-nozzle) before I call you or invite you to my home.

I received some very nice emails where potential roommates identified themselves as real people and told me a little about themselves. Some even provided a Facebook/MySpace link for me. Here are the rest - the poor lost souls without the necessary social or reading skills to save themselves from their homeless plight. Again, I remind you that the last paragraph of my ad was a single sentence requesting that you NOT send me a one-line email (I will change names, etc. and otherwise do my best to protect the identities of the mentally deficient):


still opean get back to me ? im fazul e mail or call (636)***-****

What's with the odd spacing? It should be noted that "fazul" sent me an email from an address that showed up as something like MikeandMaggie2006@free-email.com "Mike and Maggie" appeared as the sender.


Give me a call 636 *** **** I live at 94 & 70 now by wal mart. Thanks John 636 *** ****

"John's" email address was something like JOHNWANTAHARLEY@AOL.COM. I'm not sure what listing your phone number twice is going to accomplish. This isn't a voice message, I don't need a second chance to hear it and write it down. Good luck getting that Harley. (And get off AOL... seriously?! What kind of sick, twisted freak still uses AOL?!)


My name is Bob. My # 913-***-****. I have employment here in St. Charles, and would like to live in area that I work. Call any time. Thank you.

Ok, this one is actually a couple sentences long... and includes all sorts of juicy details about himself. But wait... does he sound like a robot to anyone else? I'm already pretty intimately involved with my home computer, and I would not like to cause any sort of robot - computer love triangle. Oh! One more thing.... "Bob" emailed me from an address like fred7@att.net "Fred" appeared as the sender.


Hi my names joe read your ad online about the roommate. I would maybe like to come by and see the room. I'm a 20 year old male and have a full time job me and my girlfriend would be moveing in she is 20 also with fulltime job please call me at 636*******

No, she won't be "moveing in." Neither will you.


i am interested in your listing if you could give me a call asap i would appreciate it very much my number is 314******* please call me

*sigh*


There were more, but I think I must have deleted them before I decided to start collecting them. I remember that one guy told ME how much he was going to be paying. Anyway, if you are reading this Blog from a coffee shop because you don't have a home with internet of your own, maybe now you know why.

O O O S

Obama's Oval Office Speech

It's been a while. I've been bad about Blogging. I'm going to try to be better. It'll probably last about a month before I'll see something shiny and get distracted again. But, to prevent that, I'm giving myself a few homework assignments. I feel like I owe you a couple of Blogs. So, stay tuned for a post on:

1) That Almost-Perfect Baseball Game
2) The LOST series finale (Not gonna lie, I've pretty much already exhausted this topic elsewhere already, so this will probably be a lot of cut & pasting from a Facebook thread discussion I got myself involved in.)
3) Perhaps I'll do a post on the spill itself if I don't cover it today.
4) And... maybe something about some product advertisements that have been bothering me

Ok, so here we go. The speech:

I actually highly doubt that I have any type of special insight that you haven't already heard elsewhere, especially if you pay attention to this kind of stuff. But I did notice a couple things and I do have some small exposure to the energy market that some of you may not have.

One thing that struck me about the speech were all the "God" and "prayer" references. First of all it just seemed an odd tactic to me. I'm not sure what he (or his speech writer/team) was thinking. I mean, the people who would be most moved by these words probably don't really like Obama very much to begin with. Yeah, I know that's a generalization, but we do have a hyper-polarized electorate, and religious people tend to be linked with the right. So, I doubt he won very many hearts and minds there. And on the other side, I live in Missouri but I could practically hear Bill Maher screaming at the television last night. I don't think he won very many of my liberal atheist friends over, either. And from a completely neutral political stance, I'm not sure faith in a higher power is the answer America has been looking for to clean up the spill. We'll be ok and get through this because God is on our side? We need actions, answers, and plans... not feel-good fluff.

This appeal to faith extended not just to a higher power, but to the faith that green energy is going to save us, and that this answer is just around the corner if only we have the determination to reach for it. I want other options to fossil fuels as much as anyone else does, and we definitely need to pursue wind, solar, geo-thermal, nuclear, and every other possibility that is out there. But the honest fact is that those alternative energy sources are not ready to step up and replace oil yet. And we're not going to get there any time soon.

You may not know this, but my company is a licensed wind turbine distributer. In the last year, I've taken courses on wind enery and I have attended several renewable energy conferences. Aside from just being something I'm personally interested in, my company has been trying to find a place in the market. I'm not going to tell you that I know everything. But I can tell you that it is obvious to me that at this point the industry is very young, and it would be extremely unwise to sabotage our current methods and cross our fingers in hope that we'll have the solution as quickly as we'll need it.

This is not something as simple as putting a man on the moon. That's right, I said as simple as a man on the moon. I'd put solving our energy dilemma right up there with curing cancer. You can't just throw money at it and force it to happen.

Finally, and I admit this might just sound picky and silly on my part, but I thought the whole "I'm going to talk to BP tomorrow" thing was a little odd. Really? You're going to talk to them tomorrow? Then why are you on TV today? It's been almost two months, and you're going to come on television for your first ever address from the Oval Office and say, "Ok guys, I got this... I'm totally gonna talk to these guys tomorrow." Like I said, maybe that's just me.

Aside from anything we may feel about how this catastrophe has been handled, I think part of the problem is simply a product of the times we live in. Obama's got it rougher, I'm sure. We get our news and analysis from 24-hour cable and the internet, which obviously never sleeps. There was a time when I'm sure Americans were getting some new information from a President on TV. Well, anyone who cares has been paying attention to a story as it unfolds, and is pretty much already aware of not just the main points but also of some pretty nuanced analysis. We're already watching the game, we don't need a President to come on and tell us the score. And this is new. And the President's speeches need to evolve to acknowledge that.

LOST - theory ranting

Okay, for those of you that don't know, I'm a pretty huge fan of LOST. I've been avoiding the fan forums for a while, but I decided to revisit them today. I think I'm glad I've been away.

As usual, but especially now as the series is winding down, there are theory threads all over the place. I've just waded through a few of them. Some are interesting, some are not. But there's a trend I've noticed where some theories are being attacked for being too "Judeo-Christian." Some have suggested that these "Bible Freaks" have no business putting their "Jesus Theories" up on these discussion forums. Not only do they disagree with the theories, but they are suggesting that they are all just annoying and baseless attempts to yet again thrust religion where it doesn't belong.

To these people I have to say: "Oh, come the fuck on!!!"

I mean, really... hate on religion all you want to, but can you really exclude it as possible literary source material for a TV show?! Have you been watching the show at all!? If you're going to deny the exceedingly obvious references to multiple world religions and themes on LOST, then you're either painfully stupid, painfully uneducated, or painfully stubborn enough to be the equivalent of painfully stupid and painfully uneducated. When half of the characters are named after biblical figures, when our characters include priests, when our settings include churches, when our dialogue mentions Hell, and when episodes are titled after Exodus and Psalms, then I think viewers are allowed to at least theorize that something religious or spiritual might be going on here...

You don't have to believe in a God to acknowledge literary allusions. And whether or not you think the Bible is a work of fiction doesn't make it any less significant as one of the greatest and most referenced literary works of all time. I haven't done any fact checking on this but it's pretty much gotta be THE greatest literary work... ever. I do know it's the #1-all-time-bestselling book.

But hey, maybe your Space Alien/Time Travel theory is going to hold up in the end without any spiritualism at all. I guess we'll see.

Wow, I hate people sometimes...

Time to rickroll some forums.

The Beast

I have been driving hand-me-down cars/trucks, and sometimes company vehicles, nearly all of my life. It's worked out fairly well for me. I always had a fairly reliable ride, and my car expense has always been minimal. Obviously, my personal preferences were sacrificed, and I mostly drove big vehicles with poor gas mileage, but that never bothered me too much. The advantages greatly outweighed the few disadvantages. And in fact, the only time in my life that I have ever picked a vehicle for myself was when I was sixteen years old. I bought a 1985 Chevy K5 Blazer, and when that died, so too did my first, last, and only car chosen by me, for me, and from a whole world of car options.

I've been driving the same company vehicle for the last couple of years, and as usual, what it saves me in insurance is worth not having a car of my own choosing. However, I am a homeowner now! And by combining a car with my home, my insurance would actually be cheaper than if I kept the company car and shopped for home insurance on my own. Knowing this, I've started taking steps to take the car off of the company's hands.

Now this has me thinking: I'm about to own a car for the first time in years! I could actually make decisions about whether to keep it or possibly get something else if I wanted. And then that got me thinking: Wow, if I could have anything (within reason) that I wanted, what would I want?! I haven't asked myself that question since I was sixteen! I haven't thought about it. What would I want? So, I thought about it, and realized that my answer is the same as it was when I was sixteen. I want my old Blazer back. That was the most fun driving I have ever had in my entire life. Maybe it's a mini mid-life crisis, maybe I'm just being nostalgic, but I think it's real. I feel like an old man for saying this, but they don't make 'em like that anymore! My Blazer was full size and was just as wide and powerful as any big truck or suburban of its day. It even had a nickname: my high school friends called it "The Beast." When we walked into a parking lot, we didn't have to try to remember where I parked, our eyes found it instantly. "The Beast." Come on, when was the last time you had a car with enough personality to name it? I just did a quick google search, and here's the closest thing I can find to what The Beast looked like:

I never would have thought it at the time, but my old Blazer is becoming a classic. They stopped making that model in 1991, and they stopped making a two door, full size anything in 1999. So, that's it. If you want a big two door Blazer, you gotta look to the 70's, 80's, and 90's. The 70's and 80's models even had a removeable hard top for a jeep-like summer time quality. When was the last time you saw that on a car?

So, anyway, yeah... I'm going to get to work on looking for an old K5. Let me know if you see one! They are actually even more rare in Missouri, where our snow and salt wreaked havoc on the historically rust-prone Chevy's. I may have to take a mini-vacation and drive one back from California. Anyone up for a road trip?