Medina Ride

I went up to Medina on the bicycle today. The ride took an hour. It's quite nice up there.

The number 1 reason to vote for Obama

I received a forward about Barack today:

My fellow Americans:
  
As your future President I want to thank my supporters, for your mindless support of me, despite my complete lack of any legislative achievement, my pastor's relations with Louis Farrakhan and Libyan dictator Moamar Quadafi, or my blatantly leftist voting record while I present myself as some sort of bi-partisan agent of change. 
  
I also like how my supporters claim my youthful drug use and criminal behavior somehow qualifies me for the Presidency after 8 years of claiming Bush's youthful drinking disqualifies him. Your hypocrisy is a beacon of hope shining over a sea of political posing. 
  
I would also like to thank the Kennedy's for coming out in support of me. There's a lot of glamour behind the Kennedy name, even though JFK started the Vietnam War, his brother Robert illegally wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr. and Teddy killed a female employee with whom he was having an extra marital affair and who was pregnant with his child. And I'm not going anywhere near the cousins, both literally and fi guratively. 
And I'd like to thank Oprah Winfrey for her support.  Her love of meaningless empty platitudes will be the force that propels me to the White House. 
  
Americans should vote for me, not because of my lack of experience or achievement, but because I make people feel good. Voting for me causes some white folk to feel relieved of their imagined, racist guilt. 
I say things that sound meaningful, but don't really mean anything because Americans are tired of things having meaning. If things have meaning, then that means you have to think about them. 
Americans are tired of thinking. It's time to shut down the brain, and open up the heart. So when you go to vote in the primaries, remember don't think, just do. And do it for me.   
  
 Thank You. 
 Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. 

I lament the reality of politics: we commit to a two party system out of fear that the candidate we are more afraid of might take office.

To be frank, I don't find any of the slights to be substantive; prima facie, they are not necessarily reasons not to vote for him.

What is the number one most compelling reason to vote for Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.?

He will talk to our enemies.  Our tendency to brand our enemies as terrorists or insurgents, and the subsequent policy of not "negotiating" with them is horrifying to our enemies and potential enemies.  The first principle taught in negotiation is that you must separate the problem from the people, then focus on the problem.  When we refuse to talk to them, it is sending the message, "We don't want to talk about the problem, we just want you dead."  That is a terrifying message that does not provide enough leeway for us to win over the hearts and minds of our enemies.  They are compelled by the fight-or-flight reflex because our policies preclude the possibility to settle it like civilized people.  It is extremely counter-productive to conflate people and problems; it is foolish, expensive, and inevitably not in our best interest to attempt to kill the people rather than talk through the problem.

The above is the complex modern explanation for the beautifully simple principle, "Turn the other cheek."  Organizations (such as Nations, "terrorist" groups, etc.) are macro analogies for people, and all of the principles that work best in interpersonal relations also work best in international or other inter-organizational relations.

Perhaps the policy of not negotiating with terrorists is deliberately designed to give us a non-pacifiable enemy, thus fueling our Military Industrial Complex and/or providing a guise for pursuing stability in oil supply.  It would be practically impossible to extract testimony from any such villain on which to indict him.  It would be like trying to bring down the Mafia, only harder.  This makes it futile to pursue headhunting.  "An eye for an eye leaves everybody blind," i.e. retributive justice hurts many but helps none.  Luckily, we have an electoral system, which gives us a chance to reform.

The prudent action is to discontinue failed policies and strive for peace by following the simple and vastly misunderstood example of that dude from the first century A.D. named Jesus.  "Do to others as you would have them do to you."  I certainly wouldn't want to be hunted down like a dog.  Would you?

First Kirkland Jog

Armor

Note: The Neolithic Revolution was about 10,000 years ago when agriculture came on the scene.

Last weekend I was daydreaming and chatting with a friend about nothing in particular.  While talking, I realized that the Garden of Eden story from the Bible was about the Neolithic revolution.  I happened upon this article by searching those terms on Google.

The article is very interesting.  Technology is making it easier for the rich to secure their wealth.  This means that when the socialist revolution finally does come, and I believe it will, it will be far more cataclysmic in nature than they have been in the past.  However, a new wealthy class will rapidly develop out of the ashes and within a few generations the society will be well on its way to where it started as a capitalistic society.

Socialism has a terrible track record at long-term sustainability in a Neolithic society because we reproduce too fast and live too long.  Resources become so scarce that hyperinflation occurs and millions of people starve.  This is the point where it breaks down and a class society forms.

It is all very cyclic.  Thus, I propose that the answer (to Life the Universe and Everything) cannot be found in this domain.  Perhaps we need to change our perspective on suffering.  Empathy tells us that suffering ought to be erraticated, but why should we feel more empathy for a human being than a canine being or arachnid being?  Perhaps the answer is that we should have equal compassion for all beings; or that we should perceive all beings as more similar to us in ambition and strife than we may have realized.  I think it is clear that life is going to persist regardless of what humans do.  It is far too resilient to succumb to any human-born disasters.

One must balance the need for survival with the pursuit of Nirvana.  I think Christopher McCandless (of Into the Wild) summed it up best: "Only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness."