Heat has finally broken. Did 28.9 miles this morning, 2h25m, 1 stop, top speed 35.4 mph. Parkers Mill to Ft. Springs / Pinkard to Old Versailles to Rosalie to Bosworth to Elkchester to Redd to Old Frankfort to Paynes Depot to Waizenberger Mill. Back in Leestown to Alexandria, out Parkers Mill and cut through Cardinal Run park.
No sun the whole way, about 77 degrees, cool breezes. What a relief!
So when politics comes up around any of my Libertarian WRAs (WRA == Work Related Acquaintance), I pretty much just start shouting at them. I am filled with righteous anger, and desire solely to verbally smite them. So, I got to thinking, why does this make me so mad?
I believe that it is because most conservative politics violates one of my 3 basic principles of life (blogged here, in my first ever post): #3, Children are Sacred. The belief means to me that the top priority of any civilization is to make sure that all mothers have access to the best prenatal care; that all children have enough to eat, a place to live, education, and health care. And sure, up to age 18.
Opposed to this view, conservatives, of which Libertarians are currently the most prickish, do not care if children go hungry. They are more interested in trying to regain the status quo of feudal times: of kings and lords with everything, and peasants and serfs with nothing.
I am a Jeffersonian democrat: I believe that this country will not achieve its full potential until "all men are created equal". And to me, this cannot happen without taking care of our children as described above.
Conservatives say, it's the parents' responsibility to take care of their own children. It's nice when that works out. But, children do not have a choice to be born, nor into what family they will be born (unless they're a bodhisattva ;->). If they are born into a family that has been destitute for generations, without a social safety net to assure them access to food, health care, and the best education, then they are not "created equal".
How can anyone argue that we can go wrong if our goal as a country it to attempt to maximize the possibilities for every child? I perk up every time I see a reference to the "economy of plenty", rather than the "economy of scarcity". I firmly believe we can get there; that Jebus was wrong when he said "the poor are with you always".
On the other side of the coin, here's some lyrics from the (pessimistic and homophobic) 70's song by Ten Years After, "I'd Love To Change The World":
Tax the rich, feed the poorAre we ever going to get rid of the rich? I totally doubt it. I believe in the free enterprise system. I believe hard work and good ideas will result in new companies and new billionaires. This is a good thing. (Half of the world's richest 50 people were self-made, the other half inherited.) But I believe that they need to pay their fair share of taxes, which is, however much it takes to balance the budget.
Til there are rich no more.
There have been numerous articles on the shocking levels of wealth inequality; here's one. In the last 40 years, the top 1% has had their income and net worth increase ~600%, the next 9% has gone up 8%, the bottom 90% has gone down. Reagan's busting the unions helped. Trickle-down economics don't work for crap.
And now the Republicans are insisting, cut this, cut that. How about instead we get rid of the Bush Tax cuts for starters? And get estate taxes reasonable again?
The deficit is such a smokescreen issue. Sure, we can balance the budget by restricting abortion; by getting rid of OSHA and the EPA; by getting rid of everything conservatives don't like. I balanced the budget -- it was easy. And I did not cut defense spending.
Why do the ultra-rich want more, more, more? What did I read the other day -- "When money rules you, it becomes a bucket with no bottom". When you go from millions to 100s of millions to billions to 10s of billions, it surely must quit being about anything real -- after all, how many houses, cars, boats, planes, helicopters can you really manage? It just becomes score-keeping, and they want to make sure that their score is highest. That's OK, but not when there are children hungry
And our Libertarian senator, Random Paul. What an embarrassment. Determined to stick to his Libertarian principles. Known so far for his dislike of low flush toilets and CFC lightbulbs, and his contention that universal health care would enslave doctors and other healthcare professionals. Oh, BTW, did you know he was a doctor? A mealy-mouthed, self-entitled prick of one?
So anyway, I have a new, kindler, gentler strategy for talking with Libertarians. I will attempt to determine what variety of Libertarian they are. Are they a:
When Keeneland is running, I go south rather than west or north to avoid the traffic. Keeneland was like April 9-30 this year, so after 4 weeks off, it was nice to go north. Van Meter to Elkchester to Old Frankfort Pike to Piscah Pike to Shannon Rd and back in Military Pike. 2h10m, 1 stop, 25.3 miles, max speed 34.1 mph.
Saw a kingbird while biking. Also a glimpse of what may have been a large woodpecker, but I just got the glimpse.
Yesterday there were 5 chickadees who flew from our feeders in the back of the yard to the crabapple tree in the front of the yard. I'm guessing a breeding pair and 3 young ones, as some of them were kind of clueless: landing on branches far too small to hold them and then dangling upside down. The bird books say that you can train chickadees to eat from your hand. I believe it, I have had them come within a few feet of me when I'm grilling.
A couple of weeks ago, walking Dexter on Man-O-War Blvd, we spooked a hawk into flying from a lamppost on our side of the street to a lamppost right in front of Dunbar. It was a big hawk with what looked like an upside-down W across its forewings and back. No three tail bars, so not a Cooper's Hawk. No red tail, so not a Red-Tailed Hawk? I've checked 3 bird books and my birding app, not sure what kind of hawk it was.
Had an excellent dinner at Azur last night, a grouper special and a thick pork chop special that was most excellent. I almost didn't get the pork chop because it came with fried plantains, of which I'm not a big fan. But, they were BBQ'ed, and delicious.
Anyway, internationally renowned guitarist, the inimitable Ben Lacy was playing. Always such a pleasure to listen to Ben and chat with him. I was telling him how I tell the story all the time of my giving up playing with a pick because he told me I had too, but how I still struggled with fast solo stuff playing open-handed. He then went on about, for some of that stuff a pick is better for playing faster, but he avoids it because then it becomes just all about fast, instead of, fast is a given, now let's move beyond that. He was dissing Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and that general guitar shredding school of playing as being mostly popular with 14 YO boys. Periodically I read a glowing review of one these guys albums, and whenever I check it out, I'm always disappointed. So I think I agree with him on that one.
I enjoy so much getting to talk guitar and music with someone as accomplished as Ben is. Rob used to kid me 5-6 years when we first were seeing Lacy at High On Rose and I was raving about how good he was, calling him my boyfriend. An evening out listening to Lacy and chatting is definitely one of my favorite things in the world.
Lots of good stuff. I appear to be a total sucker for peppy pop and emo stuff. God, it goes back to liking early Todd Rundgren. Well, here we go:
All songs with the woman's name "Anna" in them are good songs.The Rule of Three (1st time's an accident; 2nd time's a coincidence; 3rd time's data) was fired by "Dammit Anna" by The Morning Benders. It's been stuck in my head for a couple of days now.
Anna song #1 was "Anna (Go To Him)", by Arthur Alexander, covered by the Beatles.
Anna song #2 was "Anna Begins", by Counting Crows. This is actually my favorite Counting Crows song.
The first two are in my song book. Both are fun to play and sing. #3 has fun guitar chords, but the vocals are a little high. Crap, look at the guys in the video. Young, young, young. We'll see.
I read a piece a few days ago that said: after the S&L/Keating scandal of the 80's. there were many indictments and many convictions because, while the bad behavior was going on, Federal regulators were gathering data that later became evidence.
But, for the 2008 financial meltdown brought on by fraudulent behavior by the majority of Wall Street investment firms, there will be no indictments and no prosecutions, because the Bush administration got rid of ~90% of those Federal regulators.
So the bastards who almost destroyed the world economy will get off scott free with the 100s of millions of bonuses they paid themselves.
So when any politician says there is "too much government", realize that they are saying that "If there were even less government than we have now, it would be so much easier for my masters in the banking and financial industry to steal us all blind. It would be so much easier for my masters in the fossil fuel and other mining industries to poison us, our children, and the planet in the name of their overweening greed and lust for profit above all else."
That is 100% the message of every single politician out there now who is saying "there is too much government" -- except, of course, for our own Random Paul, who is saying that if it weren't for all this government, he could buy a toilet that flushes. WTF is he eating???
First bike ride of the year this morning. 16.3 miles, 1h20m. Parkers Mill to Little Texas, back in via James Ln and Delaney Ferry. Uphill all the way.
Watched "Inside Job" last night. Where are the indictments? Where are the special prosecutors?
I'm getting tired of fighting the man, but, we have to keep on keeping on. Else the old, entrenched lizards win.
So back in bed, I'm in the hypnagogic state, half awake, half dreaming, and I notice three times that the hit parade (the music that always plays in my head) is playing original songs! Brand new! Just then made up! And of course, completely forgotten now.
So, when I want to starting writing songs, here's the methodology: stay abed late, with a recorder, and record these new songs as they come in.
Interesting, the way your mind puts together random memes to produce your dreams -- the exact thing seemed to be happening with the background music to the dreams, hence the new songs. Hmmm, memes recombining frantically, this is probably a good source of creative input for most things. Just a little directed dreaming when you stay in bed too long with a recorder handy. I had a really good idea about work that is now forgotten.
I'm blogging this hot of the presses so I don't forget it. You know how dreams are.
Bicameral Theory
Modern Theory – the Influence of Computing
Traces of our Infancy
Primate Social Patterns
I hadn't been to Vegas since maybe 1994. Even back then, it was, who can be more gaudy and garish. The sky's the limit -- cancel that, there is no limit.
This time, I stayed at the Luxor. So, I'm inside a pyramid, on the 22nd floor. You look down, there is a Mayan pyramid, and then a bunch of Italianate buildings, with a 1/4 scale Chrysler building just behind. Beneath, of course, a 100 x 40 ft American flag.
But I look out my window, and there, behind the castle (Excalibur), next to the 1/2 scale Empire State Building, is a 1/2 scale Chrysler Building. So which Chrysler Building is the real one?
Oh wait -- neither. "I don't need to go to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, I saw it already in Vegas."
So the 1st night there, we eat at the House of Blues in the Mandalay Bay casino. The band (drums, bass, strat, and harp) plays as their first song "Dock of the Bay" as a shuffle -- not a blues song. Followed by "Little Red Rooster" as a straight 12 bar blues, rather than going to the 4 at the start of the verse. And the last song they played, as we were leaving, was "Here We Go Round In Circles", a good song, but also not blues.
They had on the menu as an appetizer "Gator Pizza". Great, I love gator. But the waitress seemed astonished that I expected the Gator Pizza to have gator meat -- where the fuck was I from that I actually expected that a Gator Pizza might have gator meat on it? It had andouille sausage and jalapenos and lots of cheese and was very good. But, still, no gator. When you're more real than real, I guess you just get to make it up as you go along.
"A shrine to all the worst of American consumerism" my friend Ron characterized it as. "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". Seriously, what kind of slogan is that? You are going to do stuff there so bad that you don't want anyone in your normal life to know about it???
When I used to go to Vegas, it always felt like another planet. More real than real == unreal, completely. We've all seen "The Godfather", we all know where this came from. Family friendly or not, Las Vegas totally gives me the creeps.
I have one word in reply, which I learned from our senior senator, Mitch McAsshole: no.
I do not want to discuss a national sales tax or fair tax.
I do not want to discuss getting rid of the minimum wage.
I do not want to discuss getting rid of social security.
I do not want to discuss getting rid of Medicaid, Medicare, or health care reform.
I do not want to discuss getting rid of the EPA and OSHA.
I do not want to discuss getting rid of the Departments of Energy, Education, or whatever.
The whole "less government" movement is driven by the ultra-rich (in this case the Koch Brothers) and (fossil fuel) corporations for one purpose -- to get rid of those pesky government agencies so we can go back to the good old days of the robber barons like Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan (giants striding the earth!) when you could plunder the environment, workers, and the public pretty much as you wanted. The whole deficit issue is just a stalking horse, they don't really give a damn about deficits.
So what was the secret of this recent success? When David Koch ran for the senate as a Libertarian, he got 1% of the vote. What is different now?
They were given an incredible gift last year by the Supreme Court, in deciding that corporations "free speech rights as individuals" allows them to donate as much as they want to political campaigns. Nameless foundations funneled 100s of millions to candidates in the 2010 elections, with republicans winning 4 to 1. That Supreme Court decision is still incomprehensible to me.
But, they were given an even greater gift in 2008: the US, in a move that the rest of the world applauded as showing that perhaps America was true to its purported values, elected as president a black man, the son of a first generation African immigrant, with an Arab middle name.
Immediately the finest propaganda and disinformation organ in the history of the world (Goebbels would be green with envy), Faux "News", sprang into action. Glenn Dick sez, "Obama is a racist who hates whites" -- with the implication that it's only self-defense for whites to be racist and hate him back. Dick and his ilk say over and over "Obama is probably not a muslim". And the birther movement generates enough requests for Obama's birth certificate that the state of Hawaii has to set up an automated system just to fulfill them all.
The subtext of all these messages being sent to every WASP waiting to receive them was very simple:
"Obama is going to take everything you've worked so hard for and give it away to blacks, immigrants, muslims and arabs!"And how is Obama going to do that? Why taxes of course! And aren't we ... Taxed Enough Already!
It of course helped not at all that stimulus packages, which may have helped to avoid a great depression, have created a huge deficit. But, I fixed that! The NY Times budget calculator made it easy. And no one making under $250,000 per year will pay any more taxes!
And notice, the teabaggers did not form their own party. Republicans to the bone, and real republicans at that: the best century was not the 18th, it was the 12th, before that Magna Carta thing started us on the road to democracy and away from the divine right of kings.
When the republicans are in power, the main message of Faux "News" is fear. Be afraid to where you give up civil liberties and allow warrantless wiretaps, because those will happen to "them", not "us". With the democrats in power, that message changes to anger. Get angry that Obama is going to give it all away to blacks, immigrants, muslims, and arabs who don't deserve it.
It has been a masterful strategy. That it is cynical, dangerous, and disastrous to the long term interests of the US of course matters to them not one whit, if it will further their path to power.
So what do they want? Even though the disparity in wealth between the ultra-rich and the rest of us is the greatest since the 1920s, it is looking like the bleeding heart "we have to care about everybody" democrats will cave to the hard hearted "we've got ours so we don't give a shit" republicans on extending all the Bush tax cuts. I think the dems should come back with, "OK, if you don't want to drop the cuts for those making over $250,000, how about $500,000? How about $1M? How about $10M?" Maybe then people would see who's calling the shots for the republicans.
But I don't think that the taxes are the issue. I think that the immediate goal here was stated as one of the campaign planks of the Koch's current top lapdog, our newly elected Libertarian senator Random Paul:
Fight the EPA and make full use of our natural resources.Koch Industries is one of the top 10 air polluters in the US. I'm sure the EPA cramps their style, and, come on, the Koch brothers are captains of industry, the rest of us should get out of their way and quit whining about air quality and global warming.
They have spent 100s of millions funding global warming denial. "Bad science" or "suspect science" -- did you ever particularly hear of these before fossil fuel billionaires felt threatened? Spend a few 100 million on misinformation and you could call to question whether the earth circles the sun.
Random Paul also proposed local rather than federal mine inspection and safety standards. He's got his "Friend of Coal" license plate, I'm sure. Did you know that pregnant women in Kentucky are advised not to eat fish caught in our beautiful lakes because of the high mercury content which comes from our many coal-burning electric plants? And that the rest of us are only supposed to eat fish once a week?
In his book "Collapse" (blogged here), Jared Diamond talks about mining as being one of the most environmentally damaging industries. It used to be standard practice for mining companies to create mountains or lakes of toxic byproducts, declare bankrupcy, close down the company, and move on, leaving a toxic mess for the government to clean up. And a little better process up front can avoid the whole thing, but, there goes that big government interfering in business again.
I believe in progress. I believe that all men are created equal. I believe that the struggle continues, that the words of Lincoln are as true now as they were 150 years ago:
It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, “You toil and work and earn bread, and I’ll eat it.” No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.I cannot believe how quickly people forget, and how quick they are to sell out. Just because you make a million, or two, or 10, does not mean you have to become a republican. I can't get over republican women. Don't they realize that if these conservative types had their way that they wouldn't be voting? Or black republicans. Or non-Cuban hispanic republicans.–Abraham Lincoln, Seventh and Last Joint Debate with Steven Douglas, held at Alton, Illinois, Oct. 15, 1858.
I am happy to work in technology. Just as the printing press led to the Enlightenment, when people began to question things like the divine right of kings and the right of small aristocracies to own and control everything, the Internet may lead to a similar but greater revolution, led by the Makers. But, even if we can all make everything we need locally everywhere in the world, the old fat cats will still control the sources of the raw materials. So we can't just opt out and ignore them.
So, Libertarians make big gains. Anarcho-capitalists trying to get us back to the good old days when the robber barons of industry were free to rape and pillage (although I'm sure they are way impressed by the recent financial manipulations of Wall Street that led to the housing collapse). A menace? Completely. A far worse threat to the future of America and the world than any terrorist threat I can think of.
Source materials:
Even farther right than you thought.
Presenting the Koch Brothers!
I also read two of the follow-up Dune trilogies. Really schlocky. Not that I don't mind schlock -- I still read graphic novels (aka comic books) -- but there's schlock, and then there's schlock. One thing that made most of Frank Herbert's novels so good what that, under the covers, they were about evolution. Completely lost in the follow-ups -- of which there are now two more. Also, they were prequels, which seem to obsess in making sure to fill any questions that one might have had in the originals. So you wind up with checking things off a list rather then getting a decent narrative.
Now that I think of it, tho, it might have been a junco. About time for them to be showing up. But, I think it was bigger than a junco. I'm holding out for kingbird.
Biked to High Bridge Park today. Headwinds heading out, so, mercifully, tailwinds coming back. Tried to check-in on FB from the park, but the signal from AT&T was too weak. Took a long-cut back: west on KY 1268 from downtown Wilmore, south on US 68 to KY 33, KY 33 back to Troy. 43.2 miles, 3h32m. I stood up 20 minutes from home to stretch and the bottoms of both my quads tried to cramp. Must have been more dehydrated than last time I biked. That may have been the last time biking for this year.
Weather was crazy. High of 68 today. A brutal hot summer transitioning into a long warm fall by way of 3 months of drought. The trees seem confused. Lots of stretches where all the leaves are down, others where leaves are still green.
An additional note:
Coming down a hill at about 25 mph on KY 1268, the wind almost blew me over. I really am getting too old for biking on these country roads. My plan is to bike until I get a serious injury. Hmmm, surely there's a better way to know when I should quit?
There were at least a couple of dozen places where Gibson's surreal metaphors and turn of phrase made me laugh out loud. I almost wanted to be kind of live-blogging as I read it and capturing them.
One of the main characters is a recovering drug addict (diazepams). He talks about how "when you first get an addiction, it is bright and shiny and makes everything more interesting. But then it gradually starts making all your decisions, and it has less brain than a goldfish." In terms of the number of neurons involved, that may not be too far off.
He also makes a statement that reading was his gateway drug. Hmmm. I wonder if there is a correlation between liking to get out of the normal world into a book and liking to get out of your normal mind into a drugged state. I saw a headline recently on a correlation between youthful genius and alcoholism in later years, but I didn't read the article.
Just as the ease of copying music has wreaked havoc with IP there, the spread of cheap 3D printers and DNA sequencers will also wreak havoc. So many of the concepts of current Intellectual Property and patent law are so outrageous. Like corporations being granted patents for portions of the human genome. Or the ridiculous software patents out there, of which the big software companies file hundreds, which they then grant each other rights to use (or not), essentially freezing small players out or the market.
It will be interesting to see how big pharma, one of the most potent political forces in medicine, reacts when the 3rd world starts cranking out their drugs for pennies on the dollar. Particularly when the drugs are serious lifesavers.
Faux based this figure on five days times $200 million a day, a number which came from an Indian newspaper.
The only problem is, that number is high by a factor of 20. The real number is more like $10 million a day, for a $50 million total.
Wow, off by a factor of 20. Not very close, no sir, not very close at all. How embarassing. I bet Faux News is going to go to great lengths to let its viewers know how badly it misinformed them.
Or not.
Duh.
The state of a brain is obviously highly compressible. And, the deltas to that state, when you turn the snapshot into a movie, ditto. So my prediction is that, whoever first comes up with the most efficient and natural algorithm for compressing brain state will be the first to achieve hard AI.
Almost five years ago, in a book review I had posted "Theories Are Compression Algorithms". And, more and more, I think that compression algorithms might be What It's All About (as opposed to the hokey-pokey).
It is somewhat reminiscent of another old post "The Universe Is Information", talking about Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science", and its premise: that the base substance of the universe is information, and all physical processes are computations.
This had led me to kind of conclude that the smallest system that could simulate the universe was the universe itself -- seems somewhat self evident. But, with compression algorithms, that might no longer be the case. Via data compression, we can conceivably describe the state of the universe in an amount of matter considerably smaller than the entire universe.
But if we do that, then the versions of ourselves in the simulation could presumably use compression algorithms and model their state, and so on ad infinitum. Or could they? Would the laws of, what, information processing (???), be different in the simulated universe?
Back in the day, I had pictured our pulsating universe as a wavicle in a larger universe, and each wavicle in our universe as its own pulsating universe, going up and down for say 10^640 or so levels, but with the snake biting its tail so that there is no top or bottom (or more importantly, no privileged frame). Now we can picture that same model, but with compression algorithms on the information of the universe as the mechanism of how we move down to the next level. Hmmm.
