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Editorial & Opinion

It’s The Stupid Economy

[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 23, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008

…stupid

I always feel a little ignorant went it comes to finance and the economy. That is, until I sit with a typical group of Americans and listen to them talk about either. If you feel a little less than enlightened on the big picture yourself, Good Magazine has a simple chart (which cops the Bill Clinton campaign slogan from the ’92 election) to fill you in on some of the basics. If you’re putting the pieces together intelligently (the corporate media has no reason to want to help you with this), it would be hard to believe that things will get much better before they get a lot worse. But don’t worry. This whole capitalism thing is probably a dying paradigm. We’re probably ready for a smart economy. We just need to rework that pesky social contract a bit. I think there are reasons you don’t here the words “Economics” and “Ethical” in the same sentence very often these days.

Let Me Give You A Pisa Maya Mind

[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 22, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

A Two-for-one Pisa Special

At the age of 10 or 11, I was reading things that a kid that age really shouldn’t be reading, like Alan Watts, Siddhartha, The Joy of Sex [while true, that last link was totally gratuitous] and Carl Jung. As a result of my early exposure to the concept of Maya because of this kind of reading, I tended to generally perceive reality as an illusion, and lived a life based on that idea. Until, of course, I was about 20, and it became apparent that the stack of bills piling up on the coffee table was definitely not a mirage of some sort. I’ve since adjusted my perception, but remain fascinated with various kinds of illusions. The Tower of Pisa trick at left (not to be confused with the classic tourist gimmick) is a favorite, because it so simply and dramatically demonstrates how expectation literally shapes the way you see things. Explanation here. DarkRoastedBlend.com has gathered some cool 3-D representations of familiar 2-D effects here, and this one says a lot about why eyes in paintings can seem to follow you. Want to see a fun visual trick you can do right now at your computer keyboard? Check this out. And for more pleasing illusions while you’re out on the town, just put on the Beer Goggles.

Morning Time Waster

[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 21, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

Tuesday, October 21st, 2008

The dot at left will be your enemy this morning, convincing you that you can be faster, better than you are. Give up. You’re getting older, and your reaction time isn’t what it used to be. I hate that something so simple made me waste 5 or 10 minutes of my life, but for the record, I got a .203 average the first time, and only did worse as I kept trying. I defy anyone who drinks less than 2 pots of coffee a day to beat me.

Silly Billionaire Doesn’t Realize Economy Was Fixed Last Weekend

[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 14, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

George Soros on the Economic Crisis

In these troubled financial times, it’s refreshing to hear a successful financial expert (George Soros is worth about $7 billion) talk commonsensically about the current economic crisis. Except that he’s basically saying that we’re completely screwed. If you have about six minutes, watch this Bill Moyers interview, in which Soros basically says that the extreme form of capitalism that we’ve been playing with (he calls it free-market fundamentalism) could lead to the end of the human race. He balances that seemingly extreme notion with more common-sense talk about how capitalism and socialism have something in common that could make either one succeed or fail catastrophically, i.e.: the human element. He distills that “human element” down to the sense of social responsibility possessed by the leaders of a given society, not only during a time of crisis, but in the ongoing management of the society.

We Used To Call It America

[ Comments Off ]Posted on October 13, 2008 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

Monday, October 13th, 2008

What’s red and blue, but black and white anyway?

I like to dream that some day we’ll have green and yellow and orange states. The mind-numbing simplicity of our blue and red ones is killing me. Am I a flag-burning weepy artist type who wants to hug a tree while I tax the hell out of myself so I can have decent health care and feed the lazy, or am I a wealthy, heroic, bomb-dropping entrepeneur whose family is proud they haven’t paid a penny in taxes since 1930? Am I a cool jock type who plays football and gets the chicks even though I treat them like crap, or am I a nerdy, philosophizing art-school dropout who’s single ’cause I still feel badly about that last girl? Am I popular, pretty, and stupid? Or am I an outcast, a little different-looking, and snobbishly intellectual? Am I red, or am I blue?

Well, frankly…neither. I’d probably live in the brown state (some muddle of all the basic color options), where we found a balance between having enough for ourselves because we were motivated, and taking care of others because we were actually kind in nature. Where inventiveness and a “maverick” spirit led to anti-gravity cars and an actually healthy way of living, rather than an obsession with archaic combustion engine technologies, holes in the ground spewing black oil, and a lifestyle of gluttony and excess that inspires bizarre medical practices like liposuction.

Or the spectrum state (rainbows were co-opted by special interests a long time ago), where people of different beliefs and lifestyles respected a simple common value: respect others’ beliefs, and when you disagree, discuss things reasonably.

Oh, wait. We used to call that America.

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