Friday Free For All: Hero Worship and the Eternal Child

Today, I had a unique opportunity to walk among giants. I had lunch with men who are very much responsible for my current way of life. I had lunch with Enlisted Pilots of the U.S. Army Air Corps. A few of them became household names but most of them went on to lead exceptional, but quite ordinary lives. Thirty-eight of them made it to lunch. Four of them spoke to all of us. I share a table with one of the lesser known pilots who, as luck would have it, made my world feel very small.
Why am I bringing up men who I had lunch with, when so clearly, I am bent on attempting to make my readership think? Well, that is easy: listening to them made me think about the qualities we so desperately cling to in our heroes. And what I came up with is that our heroes share many of the same qualities as children. The biggest difference is that our heroes have bigger bodies and get paid for what they do.
So what are the qualities? The first quality shared among all heroes, male and female, is that they dream. Children dream. Heroes dream. The most successful folks on earth dream and are not afraid to dream. This quality of dreaming is critical because dreams have a habit of becoming a reality. Another thing that makes dreaming critical is that most adults have abandoned their dreams in favor of something else, mostly their jobs, family, and trivial excuses too numerous to count.
The second quality that is universal to our heroes and idols is the inability to comprehend the word "impossible". Most of the people we idolize and call heroes simply do not understand that things cannot be done. The reason they believe that is that in their experience, they have yet to be proven wrong. Think about it, General Charles Yeager had no idea whether or not breaking the sound barrier would kill him. It was popular belief at the time that if you broke that barrier, you would be broken beyond repair. He was the first man to break that barrier, and he did it while suffering from the flu. Clearly, the word impossible was not in his vocabulary.
A third critical quality is the ability to have fun with their careers. Think about the most successful professional athletes, musicians, entertainers, and politicians. They all enjoy the fact that to them, their jobs are not jobs, but rather their hobby, and they just happen to get paid for it. It's not a job, it's playtime.

And suddenly it occurred to me that as children, we ALL had these same qualities. We dreamed because we could. We acted on those dreams because no one told us that our dreams were impossible. And we did it all when we were playing. And we try to recapture that through our children, and through our heroes.

So today, this one goes out to the nearly 3000 enlisted flyers of the United States Army Air Corps who, as it turned out, had far more aces in terms of raw percentage than their officer counterparts in WWII. Of those 3000 who flew between 1912 and 1942, about 370 are alive today. Among them, 38 were able to attend today's function. Below is a list of a few of those who made it:

• Brigadier General (Retired) Charles "Chuck" Yeager
• Carroll Shelby
• Brigadier General (Retired) Edwin F. Wenglar
• Lt. Col (Retired) Clark and his wife Mary - Thank you for the conversation!
  

Penalized for Success

First, it was bad enough that they taxed us to begin with. But now, right as I, and so many of us stand on the verge of success, I find out that the Democrats want to penalize us further for that success. And in exchange, they wish to redistribute that tax money to people they deem "under-privileged".

Think about it, as a person, would you rather make $149,000.00 or $$150,000.00? Would you rather make $20,000.00 or $500,000.00? I know it seems like common sense, that you would prefer to make more money, right? But what if the cost went up from 15% to 30%? See, right now, I am in an income bracket whereby the government takes about 15 cents of every dollar I earn before I ever see that dollar. The more money I make, the more I pay in taxes on this graduated system. Now you might think that this system is fair, but what if I told you that under if the current system, you already get penalized for success? See, for those of you who are on that bubble of making $150k, but have not crossed that line, it makes more sense to make $149k because if you cross that magic line to $150k, you will pay an additional 4% surcharge for being successful! So at the end of the day, the person with $149k has more money in his pocket than the guy who makes $150k. Which, in that range of cash flow, is at least $5k more.

But it gets worse, under the new plan that is being proposed, greater subsidies go to those who cannot rise to the challenge of being an American and carving their own path to success. Your charitable donations at work in the form of taxes. So income gets redistributed.

Now you might be of the opinion that people who make more should pay more because they can afford it. But look at things this way: if you, as a 4.0 student were told that you would have to get a 3.0 gpa for your 4.0 work because some kids might not make it into college without some of the A's you made, wouldn't you think that it was unfair? That is exactly what the current tax system does to achievers. The new system would turn your 4.0 into a 2.5. Ouch! But you are 4.0 student, you can afford to lose a few points because you are smarter or work harder than the rest and can make it up again. Don't worry, it is for the greater good. Now think, those grades are not grades, but rather, your money. Does it feel good again?

It should pay to be successful. You shouldn't have to pay with your soul for that success. The fact is that you have already paid. And you sure as hell shouldn't have to be forced to make charitable donations with every dollar you make. Failure should be painful, not success.

But if you want fairness, maybe we should all go to the Fair Tax. It doesn't penalize us for success or failure.

Escapism...A Riposte

Early on, my fellow contributer and I identified the possibility that we needed to ensure that we spoke with different "voices" in order to confirm that we are in point of fact two different posters. In all actuality, I don't think that will prove to be much of a problem, but in an effort to underline that intent, I will put forth my own take on the topic that he broached.

Why is America, or the World for that matter, so interested in sporting events? Do we watch them because we appreciate greatness? Is it for the possibility that we believe that there is some tangible benefit to being present when history is being formed? Are we attempting to live out our childhood dreams of fame and fortune through this brief exposure to someone that actually succeeded in an area where we only wish we could?

The answer, in many cases, to the final three questions is, invariably, "Yes, we are." But, like so many other things, giving a simple answer to a complex question is inadequate. I am as much a fan of Occam's Razor as anyone else, but all things are not equal, therefore a simple explanation will not do.

The fact of the matter is that watching sports is but one of many activities that many people the world over use to escape the drudgery that they believe is their life. For that brief span of time, however long it is, they are not the dull office-going, 9-5, pencil-pushing, blue-collar dweeb that they alway promised themselves that they would never be when they were a kid.

As activities go, watching sports is far less harmful than other activities that I can name, alcoholism, and drug abuse are two easy examples of something worse.

I am not disagreeing that they are paid an exorbitant amount of money, but, quite simply, their salaries are not measured by my yard-stick. Much like the prohibitive costs of theater tickets, the price is set by the audience. In other words, they only make what the audience is willing to pay.

How much would you be willing to pay to escape the idea that you have become everything that you swore you would never be?

What I find to be intriguing is the three part cycle which we, as fans and fellow escapees put these people through.

1. The need to hold them up as icons of our society. Athletes, Actors, Singers, and anyone else in the entertainment industry are hero-worshiped. Usually you have to have some modicum of talent, but not always. Because all we see is their public face, sometimes, looks are enough to generate a following.

Take Paris Hilton, for example. Decent enough looks (that is if anorexia is appealing to you), no acting talent whatsoever, and yet her name has been in lights for years. Let me go ahead and do away with the suspense for you: You will never see the cure for cancer on "The Simple Life."


2. We need to destroy them, to vilify them and anyone that is associated with them. Sometimes, it would seem that one of the only things we like better than a hero, is to see that hero fall. Why is that, do you think? Personally, I think that it is because we all have something of an ego problem. Just how long are we going to be willing to hold someone up as being better than us, knowing that they probably pick lint out of their belly button just like everyone else? How long are we going to forgive them their foibles before we feel the need to crucify them?

Look at Michael Vick. Last year, the man was an example for all the youth, particularly black youth, of Atlanta. Now...Could there be a bigger villain?

3. We need to see the underdog win. We need to see someone that has fallen about as low as they can to come back and make it good. Why is that? Is it merely because we celebrate their success in some beautiful altruistic manner? Far from it. It allows us to believe that if someone can go from being worse off than we are to being better off than we are, it is feasible to believe that we can do the same.

Don't believe me? Try this one: Lance Armstrong was a man that was a fair cyclist before he was diagnosed with cancer. After the operation and recovery, he came back and won the Tour de France something like seven times. He was touted as a hero for everyone, someone that came from behind and proved that he could be the best.

If only it would have stopped there. Unfortunately, it is a cycle that repeats itself. Apparently, he has been on top long enough, because now they are tearing him down again.

I guess that I should summarize by saying that I believe that the entertainment industry will demand only what they believe they will be paid. The lives of the people that we idolize will be important to us simply because they are not our own. And finally, we will only tolerate the hipocracy of our idolatry for so long before we feel the need to destroy the object of that idolatry, instead of coming to terms with the truth:

If we to take half as much interest in our own lives as we do those of our "heroes" we would not HAVE to escape them...

The Gladiatorial Arena

Tonight, while the vast majority of the USA watches that singularly most dull of American pass-times, I will be at my office wondering "why?" Of course, the pass-time I refer to is the World Series. And no matter what people tell me, or how un-American I come across to my readers for blasting baseball, I fail to find any source of amusement in that sport.

It is the sport that takes patience to watch, has less action than soccer, worse manners than pigs, and more "juice" than a Tropicana processing facility. And after all the allegations, misdeeds, and open admission before congress that the modern greats are more scandalous than the Roman Senate under the rule of Caligula, we still promote and encourage this bad behaviour by watching the sport.

But maybe my ire should not be lodged at this single sport, but at all modern sports. And at the people who pay to watch them. Are we so filled with luxury that we are willing to pay people to move for us? Is life so cheap that rather than living it, the average American will pay $50.00/year to watch the equivalent of modern day gladiators beat, pummel, and destroy themselves, either in a ring, a stadium, or as the after-effect of fame? Why do we watch rather than participate? The fact is that baseball, and almost any other sport, is a far more enjoyable game when you participate rather than just drink beer from the sidelines. And when we participate, we actually get something of a benefit in exchange in the form of camaraderie and calorie burn.


But instead we choose to spend our money on people who have done nothing so special in their lives other than live with an excess of testosterone, not all of which was produced by their own corpses. Why don't we choose to watch news or well written programming? Is is because we are too lazy to want to comprehend plot development, or too scared to watch something that might make us want to get out of our chairs and change ourselves, and possibly the world in the process?

But instead we reward bad behaviour. We pay perfectly good money to watch boys in big bodies swing a club at a spherical object in the hopes of running around a diamond of dirt. And worse yet, most of these wastrels will not give us our money's worth. Dare I say that most of them are not worth the cost of their components, much less their salaries? If they were moral and/or benefited society as a whole, I could justify the expense. But I cannot. And luckily, one of the biggest wastes of component value will not be playing tonight.

So to my readers, if you have ended up watching that horrendous first game tonight, just remember that the average person is not worth $20m. If they are lucky, their total components account for about $10.00 in a chemistry lab. And remember that the suckers who paid for World Series tickets paid far more to watch.

So America, have we paid for our Gladiators? Because I am not entertained.

Propaganda, Our Buying Habits, and Modern Medicine Part 1

This past week, headlines went out proclaiming the next major pandemic as a new strain of Staph bacteria that is resistant to many different kinds of antibiotics. And that got me thinking (scary thought, I know). It got me thinking about a singular concept that comes close to defying the logic that the mass media (to be known from here on out as Propaganda Networks) wants us to have:

Media manipulates our buying habits by creating new scares that the uninformed will buy into, and therefore buy products relating to. This boosts their ratings so that certain advertisers will benefit by having your eyes and/or ears for that much longer to peddle their wares.



Explanation:
The most recent scare about Staph has everyone running around like headless chickens looking for hand sanitizers, anti-pathogen wipes, and cleaning products. Unfortunately, the use of those products are what is directly attributable to compromised immune systems in many children and adults.
See, a few weeks ago, a little known article was published that says that sometimes, a little dirt is a good thing. That made the headlines for less than two days. Go fig, it allows for a common sense approach to cleaning without advocating dirt. Still, did the average person hear about it? Of course not, but for those of us who did, we suddenly have the Staph scare to scare us back into buying those same products that could have done us harm. Apparently, this Staph bit has been going on for a few years, but only after that article came out, did the need to reshape our habits become apparent to the marketers. Then again, if it was really a problem, would we know?
Or how about global warming? Soon after folks started questioning it, the news started showing the benefits of ethanol and bio-fuels. Yet again, facts were omitted that are only showing up now, such as how diverted food crops have lead to a surge in food prices and the potential that using food crops for fuel for things other than our bodies might be a bad idea. But our buying habits have been altered. Right down to those folks who bought hybrids that will never achieve the savings they think they will.

Part 2 will be written next week examining the role of modern medicine and how it is potentially damaging the species.

Friday Free For All - Hot World Leaders Edition

I don't mean to make light of things, especially after yesterday's attempted assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But I took one look at her, and I must admit that she is a gorgeous woman. So, as I can only think of two women in politics that I seriously enjoy looking at, I ask my audience to give me their list of hot (beautiful, not literally on fire) politicians. Also, I will issue a caveat: Any reference to anyone named Clinton or Janet Reno will immediately be subjected to extreme ridicule and be asked to submit to an eye exam and a lobotomy.

Here is my list:
1. Benazir Bhutto (as pictured above)
2. Laura Bush


Send in your lists via the comment system.

An Ivitation...er, introduction

I will freely state that I am NOT the most intelligent man that you will ever meet. But I AM intelligent. I am here for no better reason than, well...I was invited. I am not famous, rich, or athletic. I hold not a single degree from any other institution besides Life. (Personally, I have no trouble admitting that I am a Journeyman.)

Because I was invited to share, I will. I can freely tell you now, though, that my intent is not to inform. My intent is not to convince you to share my point of view. My most sincere hope is to encourage any/all readers to, and this is important, think for themselves!

Question what I have to say. Disagree with it. Condemn it to the fires of the Abyss. But do it in a manner that I might respond, namely, the comment portion.

Unlike my co-contributer, rarely will you find me quoting a news source. Most of my thoughts are of a philosophical/sociological/psychological bent. These are the things that I think about.

All.

Day.

Long.

A good conversation, with an exchange of ideas by people from different backgrounds is my most sinful pleasure.

Like I said, you don't have to agree with me.

To support this, and close my first contribution to what, I hope, will be an interesting forum, I give you the following quote:

If you see two people, and one of them is a "Yes-Man", then one of them is unnecessary.

P.R.CA (To the tune of Y.M.C.A.)

Well, I know that this one is easy as heck to make the leap to, and far too easy fodder, but I feel like changing things up today. So, I give you the People's Republic of California, or the P.R.CA. as a celebration of their absolute devotion to being the nanny state and removing people of all responsibility and rights.

Citizen, there's no need to feel down.
I said, Citizen, leave your rights on the ground.
I said, Citizen, 'cause you're in a new state
There's no need to be unhappy.

Citizen, there's a place you can go.
I said, Illegal Citizen, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It's fun to stay in the P-R-CA.
I lost my second amendment rights in the P-R-CA.

They have everything that you need to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...

It's fun to stay at Tax Payer Expense.
It's fun to stay in the P-R-CA.

You don't need to get yourself clean, you can have a good meal,
You can do what/whoever you feel ...

Human, are you listening to me?
I said, Citizen, what do you want to be?
I said, Citizen, you can make real your dreams.
But you've got to know this one thing!

No person does it all by itself.
I said, Citizen, put freedoms on the shelf,
And just go there, to the P-R-CA.
I'm sure they can help you today.

It's fun to stay at Tax Payer Expense!
It's fun to stay in the P-R-CA!

They have everything that you need to enjoy,
Women there don't need boys ...

It's not that fun in the P-R-CA.
I cannot smoke in the P-R-CA.

You don't need to get yourself clean, you can have a meal,
You cannot do what's moral if you feel ...

Citizen, I was once in your shoes.
I said, I was afraid to pay my dues.
I felt no one wanted to tolerate me.
I felt like I needed to work ...

That's when someone came up to me,
And said, citizen, take a trip way out west.
There's a place there called the P.R.CA.
They only make legals pay.

It stopped being fun at the P-R-CA.
My rights are gone in the P-R-CA.

They gave me meds so that I could enjoy,
the fact that they only want me to play with boys ...

I got brainwashed in the P-R-CA.
I'm not accountable in the P-R-CA.
Citizen, there's no need to feel down
U.S. Citizen, leave your bill of rights on the ground

It's fun to be a criminal in the P-R-CA
It's fun not be accountable in the P-R-CA
Human, are you listening to me?
Human, what do you wanna be?

P-R-CA
you'll lose yourself in the P-R-CA
no man, does it all by herself
Citizen, put individual rights on the shelf

P-R-CA
then just go to the P-R-CA
P-R-CA
Citizen, I was once in your shoes
P-R-CA
Citizen, I said, I was down and out with the blues.
P-R-CA



No military displays allowed in San Francisco, Oakland has banned smoking in public places to include parks, other towns have banned smoking in apartments, and the State has banned smoking in cars with persons below 18. Gun laws so restrictive that for the most part, outlaws are the only ones who can have them... Yes, if CA leads the U.S., then we as a nation are all in trouble...

If you ever needed proof...

that the global warming crowd is full of shit...

The Beginner's Guide to Breaking Free Thought

There are some things that transcend profession. A classic example is the manipulation of free thinkers into sheeple by politicians, clergy, and others who need mass support in a short period of time. So I post this guide for future despots, and for people who wish to free themselves of them.

1. Create a mob - this can be a concert, protest, convention, or any other function that organizes people into a mass.
2. Plant those who believe in your ideology throughout the mob - see item 5.
3. Disorient and create confusion via loud noise and/or optical pollution - this combined with the crowd prevents escape and makes your target audience far more susceptible to your will.
4. Use a measured pentameter when speaking all the while varying your volume, but keeping your frequency range stable.
5. At certain critical points, allow your plants to create an uproar, thereby inducing more confusion and ensuring that most members of the crowd feel like they are surrounded by your supporters. This will help to create and environment where certain verbal prompts will automatically be positively responded to by the mob.
6. Convince them that you have walked in their shoes through simple, believable, stories. No need for complexity when trying to appeal to a mob. Complex lies require memory, simple lies require little explanation, and can easily be justified later with cover stories that make mountains out of insignificant grains of sand.
7. Convince them that your leadership ability is based on the fact that you have risen above, and that by listening to you, they will support a person who will take them with you.
8. Never forget to emphasize to them that you act on their behalf, "for the greater good", and to emphasize that point repeatedly without sounding monotonous.
9. It helps to ask rhetorical questions, but is not necessary. The rhetorical question gives the mob a sense of participation, without giving them a voice.
10. Never forget that a lie told often enough to enough people becomes their truth.
11. End your message in a fashion that polarizes your crowd. "We will go forth and do X because Y will lead to your downfall..." etc, or "We must stop Z". Hate is easier to control than love. Remember that it is easier to make your mob hate your opposition than it is to make them love you.

If you need references, look at the speeches and rallies of every major leader for the past century. Listen to the sermons at your churches and other places of worship, cross reference every State of the Union address, listen to the speeches of the most loved and most reviled men in history in their own language, listen to your current favourite candidate of choice. And when you do this, you will discover that whether or not you understand their language, you will find yourself cheering with their crowds. No matter how despicable the message, you will find your own will bending. This is the sad truth. And knowing this truth will either allow you to create your own mob, or break free of the mob mentality. Knowing this truth can and will set you free. After all, if you know what to look for, you will be far more aware and far more capable of dealing with these influences.

But what do I know? I am just an observer.

The Department of Other Studies

Other than Caucasians, every recognized ethnic group has a studies department at almost every major academic institution. Well, except one... "Other".

The census bureau officially recognizes "Other" as an ethnicity. When I fill out job applications, "other" is an option for how I ethnically categorize myself. And as a person of mixed heritage, that means that I have three options available. I (the author of this blog), can list myself as "Asian/Pacific Islander", "Caucasian other than Hispanic", or "Other". But when I go to institutions of higher learning that are supposedly sensitive to the needs of all ethnic groups does not have a department of "Other" studies.

So please tell me why I can find departments of African, Asian, Chicano, and Native American studies, but no department of Other studies. I just want to know why us "Others" are being academically discriminated against.

Until then, I DEMAND MY DEPARTMENT OF OTHER STUDIES.

We Celebrate the Charlatan

Well, good ol' Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for claiming that the planet is getting warmer due to man made activity. Now, I find this to be funny for a number of reasons:

1. A judge in Great Britain found Al's "Inconvenient Truth" to have at least 9 inconvenient half-truths or outright lies.
2. 30 years ago, the average scientist was convinced that we were on the verge of another ice age... I ain't frozen.
3. Doesn't the Sun warm this planet? Last time I checked, if you really wanted to stop global warming, the most effective solution would be to stop the fusion reaction that the sun is.
4. Isn't Global Warming a science problem and not a peace problem?
5. During the Academy Awards this year, carbon credits were being handed out in the amount of 100k lbs/recipient. Supposedly that was an offset of 20k miles driving or 40k miles flying.
1. That averages 5lbs/mile.
2. In a worst case scenario, everyone would drive a Hummer H1 which gets 8mpg city.
3. A gallon of gasoline/petrol weighs approx 6.25lbs at 72 degrees F.
4. If we stipulated that petrol was a solid and not a liquid, that would mean that everyone would burn approx .78lbs fuel/gallon.
5. But gasoline is a hydrocarbon so it is not entirely made of carbon which would clearly reduce the amount of hydrogen released.
6. Also, since Gasoline is a hydrocarbon liquid, that means that parts are hydrogen and oxygen so that further reduces the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere.
7. Even if you account for the amount of fuel used to manufacture, transport, advertise, sell, and maintain the vehicle over the course of 3 years, provided it was running on solid fuel, you would not exceed 2lbs/mile
8. So, worst case scenario, if everyone was driving an H1 than runs on solid carbon fuel, .78lbs/mile < 5lbs/mile.
   
6. Where is the math behind human induced climate change?
7. And aren't we in a period of increased solar activity?
   

Well, I'm just asking. Now, I must work on my master plan to make the sun shine harder so that Al can really have something to cry "Global Warming" about. Frakking Bag of Hot Air just got inflated further... eh, maybe I can put him to good use as a supplemental restraint system, after all, with the amount of hot air he is full of, he should be able to prevent any injuries for someone who plows a Harley into a semi.

I will always remember Jubal

Mr. Heinlein, thank you for creating the character of Jubal Harshaw. If it was not for him, I would never have learned one of the three most important lessons of my life... that 99 times out of 100, if someone says thank you, they actually mean "I resent you".