You, yea you.

It's become apparent that the only time when this blog is of interest to people is when I say something that strikes a nerve. That's wonderful and those posts might appear now and then, but this is far from the point of this blog. I'm not here to present my ideas so that people can tear them apart by the standards of their morality. If you disagree, do so respectfully and back it up with solid philosophical evidence, not dogmatic claim. I also don't care for contextua arguments, don't attempt to disprove my arguments because you've found a tidbit that will disprove my reasoning, use how that information disproves it to structure a real argument, the discourse here should be viewed as an idealists discourse; do not accept ANYTHING as truth here accept the existence of your thoughts and emotions; when we can argue on as base a level as that there will hopefully be not talking past each other.

This blog is to be a place where the person behind whatever facades we put on during the day goes away and the human being in our mind comes out to exercize his humanity (intellectually, I'm aware of the paradox in exercizing our humanity over the internet). Honest and respectfully worded HUMAN dialectic is my purpose here. If we are interested in a true dialectic and philosophy than we were the kids who always bugged people about shit they did wrong and corrected people. We need to grow up now, we're past that phase of curiosity and questioning and not trusting what we're told. It turns out a lot of it was bullshit and now we're the few people who can ever hope to change how it is.

Anyway I see the last two posts that I put up as very important ethical discussions that deserve input; much more so than weather Mr FAB told someone to break my car window. I mean, who the hell cares? There are certainly much more pressing issues at hand than that one instance and one of them is the inability of the human race, and americans as possibly the worst fo them, to accept humanity for what it is and live that way...

The Possesive Glare

THIS IS A SIDENOTE TO THE POST BEFORE IT. READ THAT POST FIRST. IT'S VERY IMPORTANT. THIS IS JUST A POST BECAUSE I LIKED THE NAME OF IT. I'LL CHILL WITH THE CAPS NOW...

I've never experienced the possesive glare before, here's how it goes for those who, like me, are possesive glare virgins.

I was sitting in the park thats next to my new apartment with the dog - there's tons of dogs in this park almost all the time so it's great for her. So I'm sitting there chillin' readin my Descartes and this pretty girl sits a few feet away - everyone just sits on the hill and hangs out while the dogs play - with her golden retriever. So after my paragraph ends I see the retriever (who by now I've discovered is named nico) is playing with a tennis ball. I like dogs who play fetch. My dog doesn't. So I start throwing the ball and nico goes about fetching it and I strike up conversation with the girl, whose name I've forgotten, as is necessary when you play with someones dog when they are close by. Now I'm playing fetch with the dog - I really love dogs who fetch, I don't know why - and talking to the girl about how much I love dogs that fetch. At some point the conversation dies out and I'm just messing around throwing the ball to nico and letting her catch it (another thing I wish my dog could do) and I see some guy walking over and - I guess me and the girl were gigglinh about something about the dog or something - so this guy walks over and I look over to the girl for that assurance that what I'm laughing at isn't just funny to me - we all know that glance - and the guy sits down next to her kisses her on the cheek and say 'hey babe'. All while glaring right at me. You can't make this shit up, man was it funny. So I said 'what's up' to him and let them be. What a grill, though, he was ready to jump on any fool who tried to snag his meat.

Anyway, the relation between this and the previous post is that this is a little better of an example. The way of nature, and of human beings, is to be possesive of mates, and generally agressive to outsiders, but as an intellectually mature person, I see no sense in possesiveness of loved ones, or in difference of love for different people at all. Support the glare, or support "free love"? That free love thing was sarcastic. I hate when thoughts can conveniently be categorized into movements that have already been written of by previous morons.

Paved Paradise/Atomism 2k7

This is one big topic in my mind that I'd like you all to participate in, one that I think will, when answered, clear a lot of things up for myself. And as always, I hope that it will help you in anyway it can;

I have a hard time distinguishing between where things should be considered under the guidelines of humanity, and where, since we are a complicated emotional and conscious species, we should be considering things in the lens of transcending humanity because we are able to accomplish things that make life more pleasent. It's a decievingly simple question and I'll give you a decievingly simple example, until I can think of a more complicated one, which I will post. But for now: People perspire, we smell when we perspire; today we have products which aim to stop the perspiration and the smell of it. Furthermore we have cologne and perfume that aim to make people smell better. It seems that they might be bordering on a hyperreality, but viewed through the right objective eyes, they are enjoyable things. Which way do we consider? Humanity: fuck deodorant, we're humans and we need to respect that that is all we are and will ever be, once we come to terms with that, then we can become happy - at which point we abandon all technology and such and live in the wild (hyperbole). On the other hand if we advocate for the transcendance: So what if we want to make people smell better? We smell bad sometimes? When we finally get over ourselves then we can finally get to the business of discovering the truth in the universe by transcending what it is to be human and looking at the big picture. It's not this black an white when it's applied to more complicated issues, unfortunatley I'm drawing a blank right now, I'll try my hardest to think of a better one than that, I know that one sucks.

It does bring up another closely related quesition, though, that is intergral in answering the moral question. This question is: at what point do things stop being "natural"? We consider a beavers dam part of nature, but if I were to kick the dam and ruin it someone might say I was interfering with nature. Is writing part of nature? Bird calls are. What about this computer? I know of nothing outide of the so called manmade things that I'm calling into question here that are not natural that could've made it or it is made from. When is something not natural? Where is the line? Are we perhaps trying to transcend humanity by separating ourselves from nature? Could this be part of the modern human condition? Are not things created by the human mind and the human body natural creations? Is a death-dealing robot that was once created by a living creature something that is not made by, from, or resembling something from nature?

Goin' Dumb Like The Ringer

Man, the bay is desperate to be ghetto - but hey, at least they're honest about being morons. My car got broken into last night, the first night we were here, and 15 dollars got stolen. Our 49ers tickets (4 of them) for the monday night opener in september were lying on the floor. So earlier thismorning my mom went to the grocery store and some guy was next to her when she was parking and he was like "someone took some stuff, huh?" and she was like "no, they left everything valuble and took a few bucks" and he was like "they musta saw the new york plates and just felt like breakin in for fun." It's just so sad, not about the car, but that hip-hop and rap culture have made society stoop to the kind of level where violence and unfriendly behavior is promoted; if you are living and you grew up in San Francisco you have some money, if you wanted to live comfortably you could probably move somewhere much cheaper and do so, but these people chose to stay in the city and act like idiots because the 'culture' which they ascribe themselves to says that that is the right thing to do.

This is a question that was first brought to me by the play Heights, which portrays a positive environment for a human being in a seemingly typical 'hood' in Washington Heights. The play gave me temporary hope that the culture that we call american culture today can be preserved while humanity can still be promoted, but when I get back into a real city I see that people are so bound by their fear of social norms that they become slaves to those norms and cease to live an independent and free life - the basis of the american 'dream' which has been taken so far out of context. So my question to you is: (goin acs on you here, sorry) To what extent is the capitalistic pseudo hip-hop culture, or any other niche american culture, a plausible environment for the intellectually independent human being? It seems that if one exists the other has no chance.

Just Knowin' That the World is Round

I've recently come across quite a rough spot:

I was on some epistemology blog that had a post about people doing tests on how belief in free will effects behavior by giving some people a reputed essay and using another group as a control. Theres so many things wrong with this I don't even need to say any of them that I see, you can pick and choose. The people on this site seemed to think that they were involved inn a very intelligent discussion about whatever shit they were talking about and conveniently ignored what I had to say.

My problem is that I've decided to go to school and major in philosophy and go as far as I can take it, only for the purpose of earning the respect of my contemporaries. People will respect what I have to say, sadly, much more if they say Jasper Yate, Ph. D. It seems, though, that with my experience with some of these types of sites - not all are ignorant as this particular one I mentioned was - and also with my brother who is majoring and going to graduate school for either philosophy or literature that all of these people are so enveloped in their own shit that they have no idea what they are thinking about or why they are thinking about it. The people involved in these types of things seem to be the very pedants that give philosophy the name that it has been given as opposed to it being simply a person being thoughtful about his life and his environment, not to the point where it ceases to be in the lens of human life.

So my first question is; is it even worth pursuing all this shit if I have to put up with teachers and ciriculum that are of this mindset that I hate? And second, how legitimate can epistemology and metaphysics be if their students have absolutely no interest in human life, especially given that their thought on the subject is entirely human in nature (the reason that they apply to their problems is human reason, it may not be universal reason)...

Is Reason Reasonable?

Something that I rarely hear mentioned in all things philisophical that I read and hear is the concept of the system of reason which the human mind operates on being flawed or incorrect as compared with an ultimate truth which it so often tries to reach. The reason that I myself use I view as useful because I am a pragmatic philosopher and I see all philosophy as a study of life in as far as being a human being and living a human life in a human mind and with human emotions, I seek nothing external. The idea I want to raise here is simply the question of whether reason is reasonable - our mind says that yes, one of something, and another of something, makes two of something; but if there is an ultimate truth or ultimate right it may not agree with this, our reason (it seems impoossible doesn't it) could be wrong. A single thing could have an entirely different nature than what we think it has, etc...

Of what avail is the proud outcry?

Lately I've been reflecting on how I've gotten to where I am now in terms of political views, morality, and identity (among other things). Throughout my life I've been free to come to a lot of conclusions on my own (regarding the aforementioned aspects of me). My parents have not been overly dogmatic, which I think has allowed me to reach my unique positions. However, here is my conflict. How will I allow for my future children's intellectual independence, when I myself will have come across beliefs (in the realm of politics, morality, and identity...) which I will wish that they carry on to the next generation?

ex. If I push Yiddishism on them, will they reject it in adolescence and accept assimilation? In the same thread, if I let them form opinions on their own, and their views end up differing from my own, I will still lose (in regard to what I have believed to be "right").

Anecdote:
My Mom's Dad, was an orthodox Jewish immigrant from Poland (via Cuba, where he was a Rabbi). He kept a kosher house, however when his children (my mom and two uncles) left that household as adults, they embraced non-kosher food immediately, which translated to their respected children (well at least 8/9 of them). Among my Mom and Uncles there was that need to rebel following years of "repression"(?).

Surely the next generation should benefit from the accumulated "knowledge" of the previous, but also be able to make new realizations on their own. Should not these new realizations be based on a solid foundation from the previous generation?...but then how will that previous generation dilute its dogmatism (as to not inspire rebel behavior among the youth)?

hmm...

I Love Football

Since this is a sports blog sometimes, and since I love football, we're gonna play the pre-season playoff picking game...

We'll start with the

AFC

AFC East:
I'm sorry jets, but this one's a no brainer. I'll put it this way, if the Pats aren't in the playoffs this year it's because Jesus already came back and judgement has commenced.

AFC North:
Unfortunately for TJ, the Ravens are fucking old, and the way things are going Steve McNair will have died in a car accident in which he let his friends six year old daughter shoot up and then drive his Lamborghini before the season even starts. The browns aren't going to give up and put Brady in until maybe week 8 and probably only win one or two during that time, and when Quinn gets in...do I even have to say it? He's gonna suck. With Mike Tomlin just coming in and the surprisingly not-yet crippled Ben Roethlisberger looking good in the Hall of Fame game on might be fooled into thinking that they are a more legitimate contender for the division title, but when a defense loses it's heart and sole like Joey Porter, and is then is put into a new playbook it may take longer than some might think to come back to steel curtain prominence. So I'm taking the Bengals, but not without good reason; Carson should be rockin' it with no hesitation this year, and with less off-field distraction under Mr. Goodell coupled with a young, strong secondary, they're clearly the choice here.

AFC South:
It's like the same as the AFC East, but more pathetic. The good thing about the lack of competition in these two divisions is the inevitable meeting of the two champs in the AFC Campionship Game in what is my favorite rivalry in all of sports; Colts Pats.

AFC West:
When the teams are this damn good it almost makes the picking part boring, but the playoffs make up for it. Chargers. Lights Out.

AFC Wildcards:
I'mnot gonna go through it all, but I'll give you my picks...
The Steelers are not going to get past Wildcard weekend, nor are they going to be division winning quality under Tomlin, but they'll win 9 and sneak in.

The Broncos. Cutlers gonna come up huge this year I think and with Jamarcus Russel possibly getting playing time this year and Brody Croyle and Damon Huard in KC Champ and new addition Dre Bly are going to have field days in those division matchups. Too bad the chargers are in their division.

NFC

NFC East:
First might I say THE GIANTS SUCK. The Redskins aren't goin anywhere either, although I like J-Camp, yea, I called him J-Camp. Now Cowboys and Eagles is sort of interesting, but I'm gonna take the Eagles, they're just too solid for too long. Phili won't accept anything less than a division title.

NFC North:
Roy Williams and Calvin Johnson, but unfortunatly no quarterback to speak of. Lions are out. Tavarius Jackson, no dice; A.D. can't actually go all day. And the Bears D is just too nasty, I'm sorry Brett, I still love you.

NFC South:
It sucks that a team even has to come out of this division, it wen't from one of the strongest to possibly the weakest in a year. But it has the Saints and I'll take them, although they won't be anything like what they were last year, they don't have that self righteous motivation this time around.

NFC West:
This has to be the most interesting division in the league. Every team is legit, it's the new NFC East. Unfortunately I have to leave one out of the picture. I'm gonna take the Cards on top of it this year, I just got a feeling about their whole shit coming together. Matt Leinarts gonna be tearing shit up.

NFC Wildcards:
These are both comin' out of the NFC west this year, I'm telling you they're nasty, but who do I choose?

I'm gonna take youth because I can't decide. Seahawks and Niners. Rams are just too old and their D isn't anything I care to talk about....

The Rational Latte

Chicago is a cool place to be. I'd never been to Chicago before but it's a great city. And it's got cool coffee shops like Descartes' Coffee. You should visit...

Over Population

Just a note on overpopulation and all that jazz in the light of the One Child Policy in China. I was just having a discussion with my mom and Alan over our smorgasbord (spelling more than questionable) about overpopulation. We were discussing (i was getting schooled in) the One Child Policy and its many consequences. It was brought up because Alan, an importer of many chinese goods in the form of halloween costumes and easter/ christmas gizmos, mentioned a meeting he had earlier with someone my mother (his wife) knew. She asked how he was and to that Alan replied; nervous, like other chinese factory owners. Schockingly there seems to be a shortage of workers in China. I wondered if it was because there are only so many people from each generation, and Alan added that the people of newer generations also do not want to work in the factories. These children it seem are spoiled, as they get all the attention when they're younger. Usually there would be a lot of children because of chore and agriculture needs. Chinese culture then included a 'respect the elders' emphasis and a necessity to share. Now with only one child it seems that less people feel an incentive to share, and similarly a lack of inspiration to take care of the parents especially when the one child has to take all the weight of supporting two parents. Working in a factory wont exactly cut it.

Also it seems since China is male dominant, some of the women choose to abort if they know the baby is going to be a girl. Consequently, there seems to be more males then women. This is good for population control, but not so good for all those lonley men reaching and then passing "marrying age".
My mom commented after that maybe China should take in refugees from Sudan and employ them in the factory to give them a 'better' life away from rape and plunder.
Thought?

Last note or 2: I strongly suggest that anyone reading this try guava in any form (fruit, jelly, candy...) and if possible get your hands on a whole fruit- they smell delicious.
Hong Kong so far is one huge shopping mall. My very first impression was that the buildings looked like sallactites. It reminded me of superman, and the fast growing kryptonite land OR a cave ceiling as a floor.
ok maybe 3: I've seen some misty mountains. They are the back drop to panasonic, toshiba, motorala, lg, and sony buildings...

[This post is by Maddy, not The W]

The Trolley Problem

What y'all think... This is an old thought experiment created by who the hell cares that I just want to hear what people have to say about. Think it through from all angles. It's called the Trolley Problem.

Five men are tied to a train track and a train is travelling at full speed towards them and will surely kill them if it is allowed to reach them. You are standing near by and you have the ability to flip a switch that will guide the train to safety and save the five people, but there is yet another one person tied to the other track that the train will go onto if you flip the switch. This person will die if you flip the switch. What do you do?

Another version of this problem has the 5 people tied to the track as confirmed murderers, and the one other person as an innocent man who may commit a murder after this event if you save him. Flip the switch?

Yet another variation places you on a vantage point above the track on a bridge standing next to a large man who's weigh will stop the train if you chose to sacrifice him and push him off the bridge and onto the track in front of the train.

Enjoy.

I want to see you when you finally figure out what the planets, stars and space are all about

God, I have no idea when I'm going to have time to get to the real discussions I want to get to, but these little things came to me today.

First of all I came upon the thought of how people are for some reason afraid and want to hide 'going to the bathroom' and all such related bodily functions. We all know I deal a lot with the semiotic effects of things that people do and say and see, so I'm sure you can imagine what I'm going to say. The people who do this openly try to make the human being a hyper-being, they try to make themselves something other than what they are, and this inevitably leads to people thinking in ways which lacks respect for human life that human life deserves, so please, you're a human, respect what it is that you are...

My other thought came to me while I was listening to a song in the car today... It's called 'car' and it's by Brand New - yea, I listen to them a lot.

It just makes me want to say; appreciate the beuty of the life and the reality you are living in. There is no doubt that whatever life is and whatever you feel and see and taste and smell is amazing and theres never an end to the joy you can bring yourself by participating in life and enjoying what you're senses tell you. Life is beautiful, don't get too caught up in your intellectual pursuits and forget what you have and what you're trying to help be appreciated and utilized. Love your life and what you see and feel, and love others, we are all in the same boat, and we can all appreciate the beauty that lies outside this computer screen.

I'llpost when I have internet, which is apparently not very often when you're staying in pet friendly hotels.

I love you all, keep on truckin' and lovin' life.

This sign warning residents of the South Sudan capital Juba of the dangers of war

and if i wasnt, then why would i say i am

Today at work (as a sailing instructor) was the usual day: no wind, kids swimming, and me driving aimlessly in a motorboat. However, today i was accompanied by the yacht club's Israeli windsurfing instructor. We talked a lot about Israel and Jewishness, but eventually the topic changed to race. He asked how big of a deal it is to say "Nigger" in America. As I continued to engage him in conversation regarding the issue of racism I quickly found out that he knew nothing of America's dark past (and present) regarding the descendants if those whose ancestors were brought here as slaves. I found myself teaching about sit ins, segregation, Rosa Parks (who he brought up thinking it had something to do with a grandma in a taxi). I described how Blacks were treated, using Jackie Robinson as an example of integration (but then using the fact that he wasn't allowed to go out to dinner with his team as illustration of America's backwardness). I realized that he had grown up, not here, but in Israel; but it seemed so bizarre to me that such things were not taught at all. He was completely oblivious too of the rampant anti-Semitism in America as well. I found myself teaching of the WASP order that dictated so much of life in America for so long, and I used Borat as an example of its continued presence today. He was very surprised to hear such things. I, too, was very surprised to see a kid (17) that didn't look foreign and spoke English to be as oblivious as he was.

The entire experience gave me a new perspective on country's other than America, and got me thinking that the American Experiment with regard to its disastrous history (and present) with race and ethnic relations should be something that is taught all over the world. I feel that my country's mistakes should be learned from in other places around the world. In many ways America's disasters have more international educational value than many of its achievements (i.e. the revolution, planes, and other shit that probably gets a nod in international curriculums). In the spectrum of World History, race in America should be covered more than anything else in American history (with the exception of WWII).

Vindicated

I've been inspired by myself to go a different direction tonight. I want to post a song, but I don't know how, so I'll just put the name, pretend it has a link or whatever, let you download it because it's great, and write the relevent lines in a fasion that acts as if you have listened to it.

Dashboard Confesional - Jamie

This song seems to be originally written by weezer, but seeing as they are idiots, I'm not sure that they understood quite what they wrote - plus they suck at singing it. This version is much easier on the ears, and captures the sarcastic tone of the song in a way weezer couldn't have dreamt.

The line to which the entire song builds goes like this:

Jamie, oh Jamie, I'm so glad you're mine
We'll be together a long time
Jamie, believe me, I won't let you down
'Cuz you're the best lawyer in town

This is for anyone who writes of this kind of music as 'emo'. This song is a very intelligent social comment on the treatment of people, and women more specifically, as objects; means to an end. The music goes that you are led to feel the love-song melody and feel what goes with that, and if you are attuned to this quip leaves you with a stale, sad feeling, one almost of confusion - conflict between your dissapointment in thought, and the beauty of the singing create a strange emotion, one that I cannot provide you with by simply stating my displeasure with our culture.

Some other songs that demonstrate clear intelligent though in the genre of 'emo'...

Augustana - Heart Shaped Gun

"The Castle walls been breached girl
Kissin down your neck"

The thought here is more centered on the meaningless seduction and use of women as sexual objects, a similar thought can be found in Brand New's "Me vs. Maradona vs. Elvis"

Another Brand New song that can be related is one of my favorites; Logan to Government Center

"Let my hands stray past the boundaries of your back
To get you breathin, to get you started"

The idea here is obviously to highlight the sexual nature of our culture - it actually vilifies the woman in this instance as sexually obsessed, she is so used to being used as a toy and being told by culture that thats what she is meant to be that she cannot be anything else, she is not a person, she does not show any emotion unless she is being used as she believes she is meant to...I mean, damn when you hear that. It's great.