Mishalak

A question I would have loved to ask Immanuel Kant. "If reason cannot reach beyond the physical world why then do you think that something beyond the physical world can impinge upon the physical world and reason?" Or, "Is this just a clever trick to not deal with the problem or do you think that it is really true?"

This is on my (so called) mind today as I am cleaning and trying to better myself through learning today. I thank my lucky stars for books on CD.

Woo hoo! I would love to be able to get rid of the Faux News results on Google. They are of no use to me since they're not factual. I certainly would pay for The New York Times, The Washington Post, or the BBC, but I'd never pay for the Wall Street Journal or any other Fox fake news outlet. I would love google even more without this content.

For the average person in the long run the future looks better than the past. Less disease, more prosperity, and ever better technology. Unfortunately there is no such thing as an average person, he or she is an useful mathematical fiction, and in the long run we're all dead. Individuals and groups can fail to have a better future. Individuals and groups can also buck the trends of the larger group in which they are embedded.

Thus continuing to work hard towards our goals must be the credo for Americans. Yes, there are all sorts of good reasons not to be optimistic or to be disappointed at how things have turned out. It does not matter. We must still strive in both our personal lives and in the interlocking communities that we are a part of to make things better.

Hard work does not always bear all the fruit that we want, but it is far worse to do nothing. We should, at times, change what we are working towards rather than mindlessly continuing with the old plan as if nothing had changed, but in the absence of something better to try that is exactly what we must do. Redouble our efforts. Keep Calm and Carry On.

Oh. My. Stars. There is a full version of the Aunt Vivian (Ellen Greene) & Olive Snook (Kristine Chenoweth) duet of Birdhouse in Your Soul. It is only available as part of the full album on iTunes, but I am mightily tempted. Go listen! I think I prefer it to the original They Might Be Giants version.

Maybe I'm hopelessly ill informed, but haven't people crossing national borders been subject to random searches by people in authority since... well since we've had such a thing as borders? I've seen in various places people saying things to the effect that this is something new and very, very bad caused by paranoia over terrorism. But it seems to me that I've read about boats pulling fast for the shore to avoid revenue cutters in stories from the early 1800s. This seems to imply that conveyances have been searched for contraband by national governments for at least two centuries if not, much, much, much longer.

While it might be argued that a controlled border between the US and Canada is about as sensible as one between modern France and Germany that is a separate and different argument. And I'll note that the process of getting that open border between the different nations of Europe was rather lengthy and involved.

I am in favor of a more open border with Canada, but regardless of jokes about it being the 51st state Canada is a separate nation with its own laws, politics, etc. It seems a little silly to me to assume that going to another country is normally like going across town to visit a quaint ethnic enclave.

When I seriously reflect upon my life and my personality I am afraid of what lies in store for me. I see it every day when I'm working. Lonely old people struggling to keep existing in a world where their few friends have already died. I am a branch of a dying tree that is loosing its flowers without setting fruit. There is sun and time before winter, yet. There is no reason why I should not enjoy my time in the sun, but there is still a sadness under things for winter is coming and none has yet survived it.

I could wish I were other than what I am. It is hard to love a porcupine.

People are more or less the same everywhere. When it comes to denying the rights of minorities people are generally in favor of it. Or at least the people who are vocal and will turn out to vote against their fellow man are in favor of it. The enthusiasm to protect a group of people that are not your own is generally lukewarm. As long as a person feels this has nothing to do with their own rights, that protection of minorities as protection of ones own rights is a distant abstract, then they won't be bothered to actually do something in most cases.

Hence why on the one had a measure aimed at illegal immigrants driving in Denver went down to a flaming defeat by 7 to 3. It would have impounded the car of anyone caught driving without a license and put in place a $2500 bond to get it back. There were some bits of cut out to allow licensed drivers less trouble, but it would still have cost the city a lot of money to enforce and taken the police away from other activities. But primarily it was the fear, "What if I'm pulled over and I don't have a license?" that motivated people rather than any sympathy for unlicensed illegals. My own motivation was pretty much selfish.

On the other hand whether it is the Swiss banning minarets or American voters banning gay marriage the majority does not see a way that their own interests are being gored and so they let the vocal people in favor of hurting the minority have their way. There is a lukewarm majority in favor of abstract fairness and a level playing field, but these people are not very motivated to do something about it. Not until or unless they can imagine themselves needing or wanting something. Hence why Civil Unions, measures with provisions for couples straight or gay, can succeed narrowly.

There is a lot of holiday music I would not care one bit if I never heard it again. But for some reason The Little Drummer Boy is actively annoying to me. I may not care for all the other schmaltzy and overwrought pieces that are played or sung around the holidays, but they don't rise to the level of being actively unpleasant (unless they are hip hop, I hate hip hop regardless of holiday song or not). Perhaps it is the sentimentality of the piece, yet I love White Christmas one of the most overplayed and too sentimental of holiday songs. Perhaps it is the religiosity, though I actually like even more religious songs that are more traditional like Oh Come, Oh Come Emanuel. Or perhaps there is no accounting for taste.

"And why in the world any of us steal a child away from a mother who loves it?"

"But you do have them, I've seen dozens with their nursemaids while I was here."

"Oh, we did not steal those. They were freely offered. In all times and all places there have been mothers to whom babies are a burden. Perhaps she needed money to feed her other children."

"That's horrible, you shouldn't take advantage of poor mothers like that."

"Horrible? We take children no one else wants. We take them all regardless of the color of their skin or misshapen limbs, giving them every advantage that our world can offer them, and that is horrible? I think perhaps the human definition of horror is different than our own."

I think we may be within a two decades of being able to get commercial spider silk. Why? Because of two entirely separate articles I read. One, from Wired, about a silk cloth made from wild spiders. The other, from National Geographic, is about a largely vegetarian spider. This species, or others like it, could be the basis for genetically engineering a spider that could be raised on vegetarian feed in captivity.