Monthly Archives: September 2011

Do Ask and Do Tell: Gays in the Military

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gays-in-the-miitaryBy some estimates, 2% of the U.S. military personnel are gay.

Today was the first day after the end of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, which means the law no longer discriminates based on sexual preference against the soldiers that put their lives on the line to defend our country.

However, I remember reading about the rampant racism that came to the forefront when slavery was abolished. It seems that it often takes decades (even centuries) for the view of the majority to catch up with the moral standard of the law.

Frankly, if I was gay and serving in the military, I would still not come out. That view is perhaps naïve and poorly thought out, since I know nothing of how difficult it is to hide such a fundamental truth from your fellow soldiers.

In either case, this is a good day, as a weight has been lifted off the shoulders of many brave men and women, who already have to carry a heavy burden.

A U.S. President Cannot Have a C Grade in U.S. History

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rick-perry-transcriptRick Perry got a lot of C’s and D’s in introductory courses that are frankly not at all “college level”. For example, as the following transcript shows, he got a D in trigonometry, a C in U.S. History, and a D in Principles of Economics, just to name a few.

This should be something he is ashamed of, instead he uses as an anecdote to present himself as one with the common man, one who would rather fight for his country than fight for a C+. That might be an effective political strategy, but the side effect of that is the devaluation of education in our public discourse. A D in trigonometry should be a disqualifier for a presidential candidate.

While the political bickering over tax policy continues, we have to remember that what made this country prosperous and what is behind any future growth is innovation. It’s difficult for me to imagine that a person who failed in scientific disciplines in college can properly inspire a new generation of bright productive minds.

And joking about the whole thing is just terribly irresponsible. Just don’t talk about it!

Dysfunctional Government is Honest Government

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boehner-and-obama-dysfunctional-governmentI was listening to CSPAN which luckily does not feel the need to “entertain” and thus provides some of the most objective coverage of how the sausage is made in our government.

Two guests were on, discussing tax reform. One was from a “conservative think tank” and the other from a “progressive organization”. They were making their points clearly and intelligently but going right down the line in terms of the standard boilerplate fiscal arguments associated with their respective party.

It struck me at some point that competition of ideas is exceptionally important to the checks and balances of our government. Moreover, the quality, logic, and reasonableness of the ideas is not what’s important. The most important part is that there is a significant group of people who genuinely stand (almost dogmatically) behind that idea.

In defending and idea, this group of people will search out every little problem about the opposition, and thus keep the opposition as honest as possible.

Sure, creationism might seem like an absurd infringement on the very foundation of science, but in the long-run it will keep evolutionary research honest by limiting the scope of their claims, and sharpening their arguments. That’s an extreme example. Most example are more subtle, like the moral and economic arguments over tax policy.

People Killed On and After 9/11

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suffering-in-war-iraq-soldier-cryingFirst and foremost, I would like to honor our soldiers: the men and women who have fought and are fighting for this country. Many of them have been killed, and many more have been wounded. From my experience, so many of them are good men, some of the best that our society has to offer (though sadly it is the war itself that often seems to shape the strength of their character).

I am strongly opposed to our involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq on the grounds of it leading to more terrorism in the long-term not less, and I will defend that point to anyone willing to have the discussion.

But on this 10 year mark since the attacks of 9/11, I would like to do nothing more than list some statistics on the number of people killed or wounded on and off the battlefield since the tragedy of that day. Also, I add some other casualty statistics for an absurdly horrific context. These numbers are impossible to comprehend, and whatever your view, this information will mean something different, but I ask only that you sit and think about the suffering that fills every crevice of our civilization and how the decisions we make can help alleviate a little bit of it here and there.

  • People killed in 9/11 attacks: 2,819
  • Firefighters, cops, paramedics killed on that day: 366
  • Iraq
    • American soldiers killed in Iraq: 4,474
    • American soldiers wounded in Iraq: 33,143
    • Iraqi civilians killed: 864,531
    • Iraqi civilians seriously injured: 1,556,156
  • Afghanistan
    • American soldiers killed in Afghanistan: 1,140
    • American soldiers wounded in Afghanistan: 3,420
  • Other
    • Women raped in U.S. per year: 90,000
    • Children that die from starvation per year: 3,000,000
    • Killed in WWII: 48,231,700
    • Killed by Black Death (14th century plague): ~100,000,000

A Short (500 Page) History of America

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america-empire-of-libertyAmerica, Empire of Liberty is a single volume history of the United States. I just finished reading it today.

Frankly, I’ve never been a fan of American history by itself, (as opposed to in the context of world history). However, I do find specifically the history of our country’s founding extremely interesting.

In general, I look to history for an understanding of the present, as counter-intuitive as that may sound. For this reason, I’ve learned a lot more from 20th century history, on the second world war, on Hitler, on Stalin, on FDR, etc. But again, the debates of the Constitutional Convention are fascinating and arguably unequaled in human history in terms of their consequences on the social and political development of civilization.

Anyway, it’s always nice to get a (relatively) short and entertaining refresher of American history. I recommend it, for anyone without the patience for a longer more detailed work on the subject.

Discussion of slavery was the most insightful part of this book. In particular, this debate sounded a lot like the modern day debate on immigration. I didn’t realize to what extent both sides of the abolitionist movement were unapologetic racists. No one really believed that blacks and whites could co-exist peacefully on equal ground. The idea of “separate but equal” didn’t seem to the majority of people (for a long time) like a contradiction. We sure have come a long way…

Also, the book showed that political bickering we see now is nothing new and has played itself out in a nearly identical way throughout our history.

Presidential Candidates in a Nutshell

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Prior to president Obama’s speech on “jobs” tonight, I thought I’d jot down the most representative cynical statement that pops to mind about each of the candidates for president in 2012.

barack-obamaBarack Obama:

Compromise means you have to be willing to sacrifice all of your core beliefs.

rich-perryRick Perry:

Social security is a Ponzi scheme. PS: Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs!

ron-paulRon Paul:

Heroin should be legalized. PS: Gold, gold, gold!

 

Mitt-RomneyMitt Romney:

My views may change based on who I’m speaking to, but my hair is always unchangeably perfect.

michelle-bachmannMichele Bachmann:

Sarah Palin without the charm. Ron Paul without the intellect.
PS: Two dollar gas if I’m president!

Jon-HuntsmanJon Huntsman:

I hold the radical belief that maybe possibly there’s a chance that science could be right on something.

herman_cainHerman Cain:

I have a plan with a catchy name for every problem in America. PS: Muslims, muslims, muslims, muslims!

newt-gingrichNewt Gingrich:

I agree with everyone here. Now I’m heading off to the Bahamas. Email me if I win.

rick-santorumRick Santorum:

I am genuinely surprised to be included in this blog post.

 

gary-johnsonGary Johnson:

I climbed Mount Everest. I am an actual small-government libertarian governor. But just listen to me talk for a minute. I’m obviously insane.

Sorry to present the field as a circus, but I’ve been quite cynical about the theater of it all. Intelligent debate is all but gone from the presidential campaigning process. I would love to see a 2-3 hour debate/conversation between Obama and a reasonable republican like Colin Powell or even Jon Huntsman. But that’s not happening…

Half of the Children Are Below Average

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The title of this post is one of the simple truths that the author of Real Education outlines. Actually, it’s a trivial fact stemming from the definition of “average”. Yet, I bet many people when reading “half of the children are below average” feel a sudden urge to disagree.

Ability varies. That’s a simple reality of education. We have to recognize that. In the classroom, I believe in competition. To me, the way to bring up a failing student is to call him out for being lazy, or as the author suggests: to humiliate him for under-performing. This applies to the F students and the A students alike. In fact, the author particularly emphasizes knocking down the ego of the gifted students. With that idea I especially agree. In my experience, great performance is most often achieved in the long process of overcoming: striving with everything you have for the things that you suspect may be impossibly difficult.

Every student needs to learn that good education is a serious challenge. Hours of listening to lectures, reading textbooks, doing homework. Every day. For years. In order to succeed in that environment, a student has to develop a passion for overcoming their limitations. If they do not, then guess what, college is NOT for them.

Too many proposals addressing the reform of our education system do not acknowledge the elephant in the room, as the author says “some kids are just dumb”. To me, that’s a too harsh a way of putting it. I would perhaps phrase it differently. But ultimately the “value” of a human being does not depend upon his/her intelligence or performance. There are plenty of good men with an IQ below 100, perhaps even more than there are with an IQ above 100. So, I don’t know why we are so ashamed as a society to acknowledge the intellectual abilities of others, in the way that we do for athletic abilities for sports. “All men are created equal” does not literally mean we are all the same. It means we all deserve the same fundamental human rights. School should be based on the latter idea not the former one.

We should care for all students, as teachers, passionately, but also be reasonable objective observers of reality in the classroom. Perhaps, those two goals are tough to balance.

I don’t like how Randian I sound in this post. This is definitely one of the times when I wish I had more time to soften the language and clarify the argument. Oh well, this is just a blog that no one (except sometimes my dad) reads, not a dissertation.

Why Do We Kill?

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A former Baltimore homicide detective and a reporter discussed their book Why Do We Kill? on a C-SPAN program.

It’s not clear to me that the authors ever answer the question that is posed in the title of their book: why do we kill? And if they do it’s the smaller pragmatic why’s of commonly known negative social factors of single-parent homes, bad schools, barriers to upward mobility, etc. But perhaps the point is precisely that there is no answer, that violence is as absurd as the murder of the Arab in Camus’s The Stranger. People kill for nothing:

“People kill because they’re angry over a slight. Frustrated over a hard look. Pissed off because somebody talked with their girl. They kill and will kill for nothing.”

Many of the brutal murders described are committed by teenagers, in a matter of fact way. It’s not a fearless anger or revenge that drives these murders. It’s much less dramatic than that. These are kids, stupid ignorant kids, who have no understanding of (and thus no value for) human life. They carry the ultimate responsibility for failing under the immense hopelessness of their environment. But once that is clear, ideas for solutions have to start flowing (along with funding). That’s a tough thing to ask for in this climate of budget ceiling debates.

Enough Steel Cut Oats to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

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I’ve eaten oatmeal pretty regularly throughout the past 10 years. In fact, doing a quick calculation I’ve eaten approximately 800-1000 lbs of oatmeal in my life. Strange to think about a human body processing so much food. I would venture to say that there are people (probably many) that have eaten over 10,000 lbs of a certain food in their lifetime.

Anyway, I was recently pointed to a way of buying steel cut oats that’s about 6-7 times cheaper than if purchased in regular portions from a grocery store: buy a huge 50 lbs bag of it. I did it. The FedEx guy asked me about it, and I said with the brilliant wit of 9am: “I like oatmeal”.

Some people love variety in their food. I love food that tastes good (to me), is healthy, is cheap, and is easy to make a lot of at once. It’s hard to find just the right combination of those factors, and once I do, I stick with it. I’m not sure if I’m missing the explorer gene, but I just don’t get tired of eating the same thing over and over. I really enjoy it, though many people in my life (girlfriends and mom, especially) don’t seem to ever quite understand this.

U.S. Mortality Statistics

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Watched part of the program on U.S. Mortality Statistics. Some stats that stood out on sex and race were:

  • Per 100,000, women have a death rate of 643 and men a death rate of 906.
  • White persons live on average 4.6 years longer than black persons.

Some stats on the improvement of life expectancy since 1940:

  • Of those born in 1940, 60% lived to age 65+
  • Of those born now, 84% are expected to live to age 65+

Lastly, it was interesting to see death due to AIDS explode until the disease was redefined by the CDC in 1993 (also the year of Freddie Mercury’s death) which drastically reduced mortality despite growing incidence rates:

Of course, whenever you talk about death by spewing numbers, the thing which makes death a profound force shaping an individual’s psyche is lost. This numerical delusion is perhaps necessary for the making of sausage in Congress, but is misleading when used for thinking about my own life.

Good source of data: NCHS Data Brief PDF