http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

outstanding. deserves a minute of your time.

God gives all men all earth to love

But since man's heart is small,

Ordains for each one spot shall prove

Beloved over all.

Rudyard Kipling

National Security

In the light of the hullabaloo following President Obama's 2011 state of the union, I would like put forward my thoughts about what I found important in his speech.

First of all, I would like to disregard the political maneuvering that was the freezing of the national spending levels and the reduction of some governmental agencies. Those were obvious concessions to Republicans, and while you may or may not agree with the statements, I do not believe them to be the crux of his message.

What really hit home for me was the President's emphasis on educational investment and the progression of the economy towards future technology. I am of the opinion that the country tools its economic output via governmental policy. To anyone who disagrees, I would recommend that they look into tax code and regulatory law, even governmental stimulus programs that occur in areas like agriculture and transportation, oil, defense, and banking. Lobbyists have secured concessions from the government, and those same concessions can be directed towards the future if we so want. The "market" is not a creature that directs itself, but rather responds to leadership to make the best of a situation. Lets nudge it towards research and development.

I very much liked the President's speech. An auspicious start to his re-election campaign.

Faceless

It strikes me how incredibly powerless the average citizen is in this country. It is remarkably frustrating. Brought on by the state of the union address (which I thought was quite good) and its rebuttals, my sense of helplessness is overwhelming. It appears that the Humanities are dead, and that I surely chose the wrong major.

I want to blame my parents, who told me I could do anything with my life. I blame myself, for thinking that I could be successful with history as a profession. I blame the State and the U.S. government for seemingly abandoning a committment to have the smartest, most efficient work force in the world. I feel tempted to blame the greed, the senseless deporting of manufacturing jobs, the incessant bickering between pampered labor unions and corporations concerned only with the bottom line.

Frustration leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the Dark Side.

The only option is to get smarter and more efficient. Complaining about it, becoming frustrated, is a path without an end. Frustration always leads to frustration; it is a way of life. I must shrug the weight of the world from my shoulders and keep on keepin' on.

I started MIT's online Physics I course today. The goal is to work through all of their courses within the year.

Ready... Set...

The work starts tomorrow. I'm ready as I'll ever be.

Daily goal: Take 30 minutes of time to meditate and relax.

Weekly goal: Work towards overall fitness level.

Birkie training starts for real tomorrow. Added to that is the Madison Marathon training, though that will take a back seat to the skiing for now.

Lets hope that school stays under control.

Go Packers

The Calm Before the Storm

My second semester of grad. school starts next week. Back to the grindstone. It will be nice to get a sense of purpose back to the day. The goal of the next half year will be to get a more efficient, manageable schedule that will allow for a higher level of training during the week and more efficient time usage for school.

I sat down with a good friend, Eric Schmidt, over break and had a great chat. He is currently in grad. school at Duke for a Ph.D. in political science. Our discussion about the work load of school and the time requirements, along with my recent experiences with the last semester, has convinced me that, in order to live a more balanced life (not one that is so dominated by school) I need to evaluate the work at hand before plunging into it without thinking. Treating every assignment equally last semester was a mistake, and I paid dearly with my stress level in every other aspect of my life.

I'll be experimenting with different ways to manage the stress, namely a more regimented schedule, greater control over my calendar, and exercise goals. More to follow.

Blog Re-Design

Greetings infrequent readers and Blogspot browsers,

The New Year has come and gone and, however much I despise resolutions of any sort, it is time to take a look at the previous year and has out some goals for the next.

The year started out under the dark cloud of Army Basic Training. On leave during what the Army like to call "Christmas Exodus", I had returned to Milwaukee from Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri for Christmas for 10 days. The break was needed if not entirely well deserved. Basic had taken much out of me, and I was very grateful for the break. After the New Year's festivities, I returned to Ft. Leonard Wood to complete Basic and AIT. The experience was unbelievable. I learned much about the human condition, along with the strength and weakness inside my own heart. I would not trade the experience for the world.

I returned home to Milwaukee in March, where my girlfriend met me at General Mitchell Airport. From there, life returned to normalcy. I had been admitted to the graduate program for History at UW-Milwaukee during AIT, so the summer was devoted to working and saving. I worked for a small start up painting company, Culver's Painting, for the summer, putting in long hours most days. The owner, Josh Culver, a graduate of Edgewood College, was only 2 years my senior, and his youthful exuberance for making money matched his employee's. With a long duty assignment this summer, 3 weeks in June, I was able to save considerably for the coming year while staying at my old roomate's apartment in Madison. Living and working in Madison allowed me to spend much of my summer with Lynn.

The summer soon became fall, and school replaced the long days of painting. The course load was daunting to say the least, with 12 hour days that included ROTC training in the morning and classroom and library study at night. My social life suffered greatly, to say the least. The work was well done, however, and when the semester was completed I had earned the best marks in school then ever before. My final projects went much better than expected, and while I was certainly a bear to those around me for a couple weeks, 3 all-nighters netted me very quality remarks on my work. While the balance of ROTC wih graduate school was difficult at times, the semester ended and I was able to look back with sastifaction.

The winter break is a welcome relief from the trials of school. I recently went to the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California. Wisconsin played Texas Christian Universtiy. I went with my good friends from my undergrad and Madison: AJ, Devon, Mark, Jordan and Matt. There, we met up with Lynn's roomate and another friend from school, and celebrated New Years and the game. Coming home is not much of a let-down, however, because soon I will be skiing with Lynn and Shannon in Utah, though that might have to wait until next year. I will soon post pictures from the last year onto a photo sharing site. I will post when I have accomplished this. The next post will discuss plans for the future.

Peace Brothers and Sisters.

WTF? GTFO

... really... i'm at a loss for words... these 'people' deserve to lose their 1st amendment rights. they have obviously proven themselves unworthy of them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/09/elizabeth-edwards-funeral-westboro-baptist-church_n_794333.html

Baptized in the Water(slide) of Christ

Rethinking the civil war, and thinking of telling Kentucky to GTFO... btw didn't jesus throw a shit fit when people were selling things outside the temple? i wonder what he would have said about this. maybe "you can't sell goats in god's name, but water slides are the shit so i'll allow it" ?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/us/06ark.html?ref=todayspaper

From Asia, with love

http://www.economist.com/node/17629709

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/12/the-surprising-wealth-and-success-of-japan/67302/

Very interesting articles... some good to be taken from them

And one extra:

A very, very heartfelt piece. This is on the mark.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/12/an-assault-on-our-survival-and-our-humanity.html

And another, to illustrate how sad this is:

http://gawker.com/5704368/john-mccains-sad-permanent-crusade-against-gays-in-the-military

Yep

http://gawker.com/5697562/biggest-corporate-profits-ever-were-all-rich

Get ready for some serious stream of thought...

Yep. I believe you Republicans. Obama is bad for business. Real bad. The fucking worst. He HATES business. He is a socialisthitlersecretkenyanmuslim and all those scary dark skinned things that threaten your southern bell daughter and democracy and NASCAR. Wait, you know what. He isn't. The left isn't out to steal your well earned money, because you didn't well earn it, and they understand that people need health care. Business under a Democratic president has turned the worst baking system collapses into profit in a blink of an eye. The avarice of your most ardent supporters, the banking industry, has disgusted the American population. This group's lack of moral understanding has been a shame to America for decades, they made money in the banking collapse, and yet asked to be saved, which of course you supported. You wage war on the middle and lower class through the dismemberment of social programs in the name of 'defense' and 'business', because the burden that society demands on them is just too much for them to bear. Even though 'society' is mothers and children, education and health care. When these people stand up for themselves you call them bad for business. You call them anti-American. I'm not buying that argument anymore. It is a lie. You know it, I know it. Let's be honest. You use this rhetoric to protect white, established citizens in this country, because, as you know, they are a well organized, motivated, and funded constituency. Yet this is a shrinking portion of the population. You widen the gap between rich and poor. You call American citizens un-American. You call socially conscious people "anti-business". You believe in the market because you have control over the marketplace. You refuse act as a Christian, in a country that you continually assert is founded on Christian values. Yes, I agree the Democrats are bad. They wrongfully believe that government programs are sometimes the best solution to some problems. But the way you go about doing battle is insanity. You give conservatism a bad name. A real bad name. One that I doubt I can associate with.

Kristol Ball

The deeper one explores into the self, without any transcendental frame of reference, the clearer it becomes that nothing it there. If nothingness is the ultimate reality, those somethings called books, or poems, or paintings or music are mere evasions of truth rather than expressions of it.
Irving Kristol

What Real Tax Reform Looks Like - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

What Real Tax Reform Looks Like - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic

The Wrong Ron

I couldn't agree more with the whole of this article...

http://thebusysignal.com/2010/11/03/the-loss-of-russ-feingold-lamentable-and-shameful/

Russ Feingold was EXACTLY what the founding fathers had in mind when they gave the vote to the American People. And, surprisingly, just as they foresaw, we are not nearly worthy enough to determine what a good elector looks like. A man of principle, a man who stood up for American Liberty, a man who understood the grand responsibility of office. Washington D.C. is less one honest man, and is much poorer for it.

The State

I don't see much difference in a Police State and a Corporate State. I think they are very much linked in motives and agenda. I am coming to believe that the American State is becoming increasingly a Corporate State. Some evidence below:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130891396

The difference between a State run by corporation and one run by far left or far right Political factions is the intent, not the operation. In a police state, a small group of leaders impose an agenda through law, enforced with deadly intention, essentially using force to ensure compliance. By doing this, it ensures a streamlined decision and policy making process that leads the country to ends that do not entirely reflect public wishes or desires. The corporate state has the same outcomes via different motivations and methods. Instead of an outright political revolution, the corporate state wields its interest through the legislative process, securing its agenda through legitimate means. This is best seen in the management of Italian city states in the Renaissance, where powerful banking families (the analogues of powerful corporate interests in the day) corrupted the supposed "republican" rule of law to pass policy favoring the family. Look at the above clip in that light. Read up on the Renaissance political scene. See if you can't make any connections for yourself.

You might be saying: Jason, thats ridiculous. There have always been powerful corporate lobbies in this country and there always will be. In fact, lobbying is how (some of) the founding fathers saw this country being ran. I would agree, however there is something very different in the past that makes today's situation perilous. First of all, this "ALEC" group (along with secret funding for campaign ads, *cough* excuse me, educational ads) is completely off the books, off the public record. Forever. They will never be held accountable for what they are doing because no one is writing it down. That means, even if what they are whispering in senator's ears is harmless, you WILL NEVER KNOW ABOUT IT. Period. Because no one is required to make any accounting of it, the secret workings of our "democracy" will remain secrets.

Secondly, there no longer exists a natural "aristocratic" spirit in the Senate because they are more responsible to the public at large. The increasing subjugation of Senators to the whims of public opinion means that they are also more susceptible to financing, which comes in secret from unknown origins. What was once a purposefully aloof and elite legislative body is now a smaller house of the commons with longer terms, increasing the stakes and therefore potentiality for shady dealings. Who is more likely to sell ones soul for campaign funding? An aristocrat who comes from a financially secure position interested in the long term viability of stability in this country? Or a "self made man" who, like a crack addict, will do anything for a buck in order to can spend it on the next commercial that will expose his opponent as a flip-flopping nanny-wagon whose welfare queen wife drives 3 Cadillacs at a time to pick up her food stamps?

Why is the corporate state bad? They make money, and they must be good at it. In this election cycle, it seems as though thats all that matters, get America back on top so that we can continue to do as we do. It is bad because of one thing: the profit motive. Now, I am no communist. Like any god-fearing human being, I know the profit motive is the source of America's power in the world, and that the streamline effect it has on companies gives a competitive edge in the work place so that work can continue in the future. Without this motive we are lost. Only one problem. We have private prisons. What does the profit motive do to them? Well, they can either increase efficiency by cutting something in the budget, like training guards or feeding prisoners, which would be bad enough. OR they can increase their market base. When you have a company that directly profits from the number of inmates, or customers, what kind of whispers do you think they put into the ears of politicians? "Lock up the whole country" may be a bit overboard, but "lock up those brown guys no one likes" may not be far off. What if we tied this motive to police officers, whose profit motive told them to "clean up the streets!"? How bout the Army, whose motive would be to "conquer, kill, and invade"?

Thats the magic of the profit motive at work. See, when companies wish to really strike it big, they know who to go to: the government. In the government, they have a steady and sizable market, namely, everyone. And they will continue to go to the well until it has gone dry.

The answer to this question is money. I disagree with the supreme court here. Money is not speech, it is a speech amplifier. When someone has more of it, they do not become better able to articulate or convince. They do not become a better debater, nor do they develop a better platform of policies. They merely become louder. Our situation is now merely a shouting match where the first sound bite to reach the ear will become an Ohrwurm. And like the pounding from the basement of a German techno Haus, the waitress in the cafe upstairs will hum the tune for the next week, all the while wishing a bus, or bear, or bullet would end her misery. The solution to this is to remove money from the system. You may gasp, and once again reach for the thesaurus to search for slang words to use instead of "Commie!", but hold on tight, here we go:

Use the incredibly stable 2 party system in this country. Or even add a third. Or fourth! Perhaps stratify them into tiers, where the top two receive the most, and the bottom must have an awful good message. Require them to gather signatures in order to be on the ballot, top four get on, top two get 4/6 the funding. Then give them pubic funds. YES, public funds. And outlaw ANY other money in the game. Increase the membership of the legislative ethics committees, and increase the penalties. Remove once and for all the profit motive from the system. Make it so that the Senators and Legislators receive a modest pension for the rest of their lives, but become incredibly strict on time spent with lobbyists. Remove money from the scenario and cease the shouting match. Make the contest about ideas.

The option is a velvet revolution of money for a small group of elites, favorites of the government or a violent revolution of idealists. Either way the effects will eventually be similar, and the ruling class similar. I prefer my classical liberal America, where everyone is protected equally, a free market reigns in the country to provide the best products to those who work hard, and a government that knows that it is here to govern over those sectors that do not benefit from the profit motive; prison, police, war, crime, and maybe health. The rest of its duty is to ensure companies obey the law along with people, and that all are held accountable to his/own/its/inc.'s own actions. Let us not slide so easily into chains, checking facebook while our government sells our soul. We fight for our freedoms every day. Liberty forever.

Its really too bad that this won't happen. Here's to you, internet.

... check it out?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thaddeus-russell/fired-teaching-american-history_b_767172.html

very interesting... I'm going to check in on this.

Superfluous Jason

Nihilism has its ups. All my urgings, it seems, are ineffectual. Why is it that people don't reason? Are so unchangeable? I feel that it isn't due to any lack of persuasive ability... or lack of logical thought process. It has really been getting to me recently... No matter how much I want change, change is a fickle bitch, hard to nail down. Quotes on this to follow, but sometimes it sure seems like I am a man not meant for this time. This leaves me struggling with how to cope. If only I could just turn off the brain... If only. Talking to the vast, echoing expanses of the internet, it seems, is my only recourse for now. How depressing.

Quotes of the Day

Some wonderful quotes from the day's reading. These are in no particular order, and with no particular theme, but did in their own right inspire me.

George Santayana, The Irony Of Liberalism:

"But freeing the people from what? From the consequences of freedom."

"No one in office can be a true statesmen, because a true statesman is consistent, and public opinion will never long support consistent course."

Santayana, A Brief History of My Opinions:

"All is a tale told, if not by an idiot, at least a dreamer; but it is far from signifying nothing. Sensations are rapid dreams: perceptions are dreams sustained and developed at will; sciences are dreams abstracted, controlled, measured, and rendered scrupulously proportional to their occasions. Knowledge accordingly always remains a part of imagination in terms and in its seat; yet by virtue of its origin and intent it becomes a memorial and a guide to the fortunes of man in nature"

(How wonderfully Nietzsche)

Ralph Adams Cram, Why We do not Behave as Human Beings.

"....there never has been a time when out of the darkness did not flame into light bright figures of men and women who in character and capacity were a glory to the human race."

There was a theme of Sophrosyne today while reading, which I enjoyed immensely. It has served as a call to memory. The term rises, a spectre of former self, to confront my current life and ask: have you been living well? The answer, I'm sad to say, is almost. I feel quite satisfied with the majority of my actions. I hold myself to no one's standard but my own, I strive to better myself each day, and strive to love others as myself and learn about the teachings of Christ and Buddha. However, one glaring failure persists, always my failing. Luxury, always luxury. I have fallen into the ease, the seductive nature of the society in which we live, the nearly silent whispers of temptation to go against my inner voice, the blaring racket of consumerist enticement. God preserve me, help me to resist, always resist, the temptation that seems so against the nature of my soul yet comes so easily to practice.

Quite a paragraph there... so much philosophizing, so little actually accomplished. How easily words come to tongue, yet action always lags behind. Such a sad existence. So much power, motive force, yet it so rarely translates to the world. It is a shame.

American Empire

A thought from last night, while watching 60 minutes...

In other wars, an Army has merely to destroy the will to fight from the enemy, usually through destruction of their combat arms. In doing so, we dictate the terms of surrender. Terms are reached because the physical strength of the victor outweighs that of the vanquished. The consequence of failure to meet the terms of the surrender is... what? Usually the vanquished have experienced widespread destruction of infrastructure, resources, and manpower. So what is it then, the threat of force behind the action? The answer is total annihilation. If war is the use of force to compel state action, then the ultimate penalty of non-compliance is total destruction; the endgame is death.

We pride ourselves in this country on a sense of impartiality when it comes to religion. The constitution forbids the establishment of religion, and a growing number of Americans no longer consider themselves religious. Why then do I see a religious motive in the sparing of the Afghani people? Because that is indeed what our war is, a suspension of the final threat. It is why the Afghan/Pakistani Pushtuns still have the will to fight. They have no fear of the final outcome of war, because we as a country no longer consider the threat behind war to be real. They know that we will eventually tire of this conflict and retreat without even considering this option.

The American Empire is ruled by love. Love towards our fellow man. This is the Genius of Osama Bin Laden, a visionary of what it takes to defeat the unassailable Empire. Our Combat Arms can take on any enemy and defeat them with ease. Our weakness is our moral. bin Laden has recognized that the country has suspended the worst punishment, and that is takes much more energy to build than it does to kill. To me, this represents a triumph of Jesus Christ in American culture. When Hume outlined the Natural History of Religion, I think he was visionary about the future. We are moving towards the Post Religious world. Perhaps this will mean the end of American Empire

Great Quotes from this weeks Reading

Here are some pretty wonderful quotes from my readings. Not sure what to think of them yet, but they jumped off the page at me.

"There is no device whatever to be incented for securing hapiness without industry, economy, and virtue"

"What folly it is to think that vice and passion are limited by classes, that liberty consists only in taking power away from nobles and priests and giving it to artisans and peasants and that these latter will never abuse it!"

Sumner, "Forgotten Man"

This guy is a real proto-Rand. Has just as much passion, and the ideals are similar. Maybe doesn't romanticize as much as she. There is something here that resonates deep within me... A conservative take on the foundations of Classical Liberalism... A Libertarian almost. It is consistent though, with the traditional under-valuing of the "shiftless", and reflects a lack of understanding about the untapped capabilities of the destitute, who may be a victim of social systems instead of the villiam of economics. A market of free contract is all well and good, in theory, but when your thesis rests on "equally applied liberty" in a culture of racism, sexism, generalization and assumption, rational contracts may not be truly based on skill and ethic. There is something to be said about this theory, but perhaps, like all theories, it is faulty when applied.