Today it became illegal in Florida to be in a car without a seatbelt. It’s a primary offense, which is to say you can be pulled over if an officer sees you without a seatbelt. The reasoning seems to be as follows: Seatbelts are good, therefore we need a law to ensure that people wear seatbelts. Or: Transfats are bad, therefore we need to outlaw transfats.
And this got me thinking. Flossing is also good …so we need a law to ensure that people are flossing. We also need a way of enforcing flossing law, to make sure people don’t do things to their teeth of which the government does not approve. The enforcers of this law can be called Floss Force.
Not only would Floss Force perform a valuable service, but forcing taxpayers to pay their salaries would stimulate the economy!!! Yeah!!! Somebody get Nancy Pelosi on the horn.
To all the narrow-minded doubters who say we can’t afford to make sure everyone flosses their teeth because were are trillions of dollars in debt, I say… We can’t afford NOT to do this. How can you argue with that logic?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
no thanks to God
There was a moment of silence for Michael Jackson in the house of representatives.
Representative Jessee Jackson Jr had this to say: "I come to the floor today on behalf of a generation to thank God for letting all of us live in his generation and his era.'' I don't recall asking this clown to speak on my behalf.
I am in favor of the practice of speaking well of the dead. But let's not make Michael Jackson into a saint. If the world's greatest plumber died--and he also happened to be a pedophile--would politicians offer hyperbolic praise on his behalf?
Michael Jackson became a singer rather than a plumber, but that does not mean we are required to revere him and ignore the fact that he was something other than a gift from God to the young boys he encountered.
Representative Jessee Jackson Jr had this to say: "I come to the floor today on behalf of a generation to thank God for letting all of us live in his generation and his era.'' I don't recall asking this clown to speak on my behalf.
I am in favor of the practice of speaking well of the dead. But let's not make Michael Jackson into a saint. If the world's greatest plumber died--and he also happened to be a pedophile--would politicians offer hyperbolic praise on his behalf?
Michael Jackson became a singer rather than a plumber, but that does not mean we are required to revere him and ignore the fact that he was something other than a gift from God to the young boys he encountered.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Freud on Michael Jackson
Freud’s view was that children progress through stages of psychosexual development. The progression is supposedly linear; 1 to 2, 2 to 3, etc. At each stage, children are “fixated” on something that gives them pleasure—hence oral, anal, and phallic stages.
A failure to progress past a given state in childhood causes a person to have problematic sexual urges (among other things) in adulthood. Which brings me to Michael Jackson.
Setting aside the specifics of Freud’s perspective, I think he is right about the effects of halted psychosexual development. Jackson is a great example of someone whose psychosexual development was stunted in childhood, perhaps by fame or his abusive father. As one would expect based on Freud's view, Jackson's sexual behavior was weirdly pedophilic. I don’t know if his “sleepovers” with children were a pretext for the worst forms of molestation, but, at the very least, it allowed him to be close to children in a way that hinted at sexuality.
He was a famous pop star, so he could have had "sleepovers" with whomever he wanted. He wanted sleepovers with children.
I think Jackson’s interest in children also reflected a desire to be as blameless and as irresponsible as a child. In conversation, he would affect a weirdly childish voice. He was as unmanly as it is possible to be. I think his surgeries were an attempt to look younger. The point seems to have been “Don’t blame me, I’m just a child!”
A failure to progress past a given state in childhood causes a person to have problematic sexual urges (among other things) in adulthood. Which brings me to Michael Jackson.
Setting aside the specifics of Freud’s perspective, I think he is right about the effects of halted psychosexual development. Jackson is a great example of someone whose psychosexual development was stunted in childhood, perhaps by fame or his abusive father. As one would expect based on Freud's view, Jackson's sexual behavior was weirdly pedophilic. I don’t know if his “sleepovers” with children were a pretext for the worst forms of molestation, but, at the very least, it allowed him to be close to children in a way that hinted at sexuality.
He was a famous pop star, so he could have had "sleepovers" with whomever he wanted. He wanted sleepovers with children.
I think Jackson’s interest in children also reflected a desire to be as blameless and as irresponsible as a child. In conversation, he would affect a weirdly childish voice. He was as unmanly as it is possible to be. I think his surgeries were an attempt to look younger. The point seems to have been “Don’t blame me, I’m just a child!”
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
sinister sounds
I like heavy metal. I don't really LIKE the fact that I like it. In fact I've decided to stop listening to it 3 or 4 times. But "headbanger" is in my DNA, probably somewhere near "heterosexual" and "sucks at bowling". I think it was the Scorpions' "Rock me like a hurricane" that first hooked me.
A lot of people don't like metal, and that's part of the appeal. It can be hard to listen to, which I like. It takes some work to appreciate the best metal, a little bit like it takes some work to appreciate opera or modern dance. Except that metal sucks a lot less. It's more like the effort required to appreciate good scotch (not that I do).
When I was in high school, I was interviewed by a newspaper at the Heavy Metal Shop (http://www.heavymetalshop.com) about why I liked metal. I proclaimed the awesomeness of metal, and employed some vulgarity to emphasize said awesomeness. There was a big picture of me in the newspaper with my (censored) remarks accentuated in the margins. Kind of in the "look what our children have become" style.
My life has been downhill ever since.
Metal doesn't fulfill me spiritually or intellectually, so why do I like it? I guess it’s that metal is thoroughly anti-establishment, and I that appeals to me immensely.
A lot of people don't like metal, and that's part of the appeal. It can be hard to listen to, which I like. It takes some work to appreciate the best metal, a little bit like it takes some work to appreciate opera or modern dance. Except that metal sucks a lot less. It's more like the effort required to appreciate good scotch (not that I do).
When I was in high school, I was interviewed by a newspaper at the Heavy Metal Shop (http://www.heavymetalshop.com) about why I liked metal. I proclaimed the awesomeness of metal, and employed some vulgarity to emphasize said awesomeness. There was a big picture of me in the newspaper with my (censored) remarks accentuated in the margins. Kind of in the "look what our children have become" style.
My life has been downhill ever since.
Metal doesn't fulfill me spiritually or intellectually, so why do I like it? I guess it’s that metal is thoroughly anti-establishment, and I that appeals to me immensely.
Monday, June 15, 2009
free will
I have done a lot of research on belief in free will, all of it suggesting that belief in free will is good. Of course, whether believing in free will has some advantages (e.g., people who believe in free will work harder) has nothing to do with the question of its existence.
I think one has to at least acknowledge the possibility that free will does not exist--that our "choices" are illusory.
Having a child has tipped me more in the direction of a belief in determinism. Claire's actions are a function of A) how she came into this world, and B) the reinforcements and punishments she gets from the world around her.
Luckily, she came into this world a wonderfully sweet soul, and Deb and I shower her with affection. She is a very sensitive little thing, but it wasn't her choice.
Of course we are talking about a baby, not an adult. But what's the difference? Do we suddenly cease to be a function of genetic make-up and environmental reinforcements when we turn 18? When we turn 8? Nothing magical happens when a person turns 8 or 18 or 21. (Perhaps one gains free will slowly over time, but when does that initial act of volition occur? What does it feel like? Wouldn't you know you were acting on your own for the first time?)
On the other hand, in my own life I have the sense that I am making decisions. At no time is the feeling of choosing stronger than when I am in a spiritual or ethical dilemma.
I once read a children's book (by Ursula Le Guin) in which the main character, a wizard, says that the only choice people really have is to accept or reject destiny. I think there is something profound about that answer; we either become what we were created to be or we do not.
It could be that those who prefer the light gravitate to the light--and eventually become what they were created to be; and those who prefer the darkness gravitate to the darkness and become something less. Thus free will may just be one's preference for the light or the darkness.
Whatever the answer is, I don't think it is simple.
I think one has to at least acknowledge the possibility that free will does not exist--that our "choices" are illusory.
Having a child has tipped me more in the direction of a belief in determinism. Claire's actions are a function of A) how she came into this world, and B) the reinforcements and punishments she gets from the world around her.
Luckily, she came into this world a wonderfully sweet soul, and Deb and I shower her with affection. She is a very sensitive little thing, but it wasn't her choice.
Of course we are talking about a baby, not an adult. But what's the difference? Do we suddenly cease to be a function of genetic make-up and environmental reinforcements when we turn 18? When we turn 8? Nothing magical happens when a person turns 8 or 18 or 21. (Perhaps one gains free will slowly over time, but when does that initial act of volition occur? What does it feel like? Wouldn't you know you were acting on your own for the first time?)
On the other hand, in my own life I have the sense that I am making decisions. At no time is the feeling of choosing stronger than when I am in a spiritual or ethical dilemma.
I once read a children's book (by Ursula Le Guin) in which the main character, a wizard, says that the only choice people really have is to accept or reject destiny. I think there is something profound about that answer; we either become what we were created to be or we do not.
It could be that those who prefer the light gravitate to the light--and eventually become what they were created to be; and those who prefer the darkness gravitate to the darkness and become something less. Thus free will may just be one's preference for the light or the darkness.
Whatever the answer is, I don't think it is simple.
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