Spelunking the Universe
Posts tagged Politics
Minecraft – Housing and Exploring
01 week ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
I’ve started using Storybook in Earnest and realized something that I need to do. I’m going to draw the blueprint for every house or location used in the story. I need more visuals to help me with my writing. When I was younger I wrote some fairly silly stories for the Ragnarok Online Universe (well my story with the lore of Ragnarok) and I found that seeing the locations made it so much easier to keep up with continuity.
Plus I like drawing, I’m absolutely terrible at it but it is something I really enjoy. If I get the inspiration I might look into a cheapish tablet and start drawing straight onto the computer. The only danger there is my evil kittens trying to march across the tablet as I draw. The delight they’d get from the lines moving in tow with their paws would probably be real fun for them though.
On that train of thought, someone should make a DDR pad for kittens. You place it in front of the television and as they step on the buttons different things happen on screen. I know mine love to step on the keyboard keys and watch text fly across the screen.
What else…well obviously Mitt Romney has become the poster child for unwarranted wealth in the united states. A man who made millions upon millions of dollars by firing people, that’s remarkably evil. He stands as the purest essence of capitalism. This man has made nothing and in doing so makes as much in 12 hours as I make in a year (probably even faster now). It’s remarkable, I’ll admit that at some level I’m disgusted in his wealth. I don’t know what I’d do with that kind of money, I do know that sitting on it would drive me utterly insane.
Tens of millions? Good lord, once you have a house and a couple cars what else is there to buy? You could go on a cruise once a year for the rest of your life in the nicest suite they have without putting a dent in it. I could buy a hundred copies of every magic card every printed and not see a dent in my bank account.
I could pay people to play magic for me. But they’d have to look really intense or they didn’t get their paycheck.
Seriously, at what point does anyone just look at their bank total and say “Alright. I’ve beaten the game, what else to do?” Because I know when I play city builders it is about the time I have so much wealth I could renovate the entire map without flinching that I completely lose interest.
Is it even fun anymore? He’s effectively got the money cheat on spam and just resting. Worse he has kept much of his wealth because of painfully low taxes that his own firm (alongside other extremely wealthy firms) viciously lobby to protect. Immense balls, that’s what it takes to say “I only pay what I’m told I owe.” without mentioning that his own fierce fighting is what has kept him paying basically what I do.
Which is extra upsetting when you realize that he makes almost double what I do in a year, in a day. Not much of a surprise that the US is having funding problems when that kind of money is being removed from the market without it getting pumped back in (unless we count campaigning).
Plus its upsetting because he’s one of two major choices in the Republican party at this time. You have a twice cheating, thrice married, family values candidate and a tax manipulating multi millionaire who earned his fortune crushing the lives of thousands of people.
I’m not huge on Obama, while I don’t feel Presidents have an immense amount of power I do think he could have made a pretty big stand in government had he just been serious about it. But look at that competition? (Again Ron Paul is an Independent who runs under the Republican Banner, Democrats have a few Independents who run with them). These are terrible human beings, legitimately terrible people, few things do I dislike more than habitual hypocrites. We all act against our words from time to time, mostly because we are all evolving.
But when every second sentence out of your mouth is blatant hypocrisy it becomes overwhelming. These men aren’t fit to run an Applebee’s, much less a nation.
This is beautiful, in terms of timing. We are witnessing some of the worst examples of humanity, ignorance, greed, hypocrisy, and we are seeing them at their purest essences. This is all happening at a time when the government is trying hard here and abroad to cripple the only possible avenue for escaping the cycle (the internet).
The timing could not be anymore perfect, the candidates couldn’t be anymore perfect, if this were a book I’d call it cliché and unbelievable.
Now you might be saying to yourself, I thought the title of this was about Minecraft? You’d be correct and the title is about Minecraft. It just so happens that when I stepped into lava in the game and watched all my progress consumed in front of me that it immediately reminded me about Romney. When lava reminds you of somebody it is probably time to banter about it for a bit.
Here are the images I’ve got for today, unfortunately the snow did not let up through most of the images.
My little house on the frozen lake.
Smelting, Crafting, and Cooking. That’s a cauldron beneath the torch.
My rooftop farm, provides my guy with most of his nutrition. Oddly you can find quite a few chickens living in the forests around my house.
The top floor, Bed, and storage for my food, crafts, and other non mining materials.
The view from outside the bedroom floor. Not too shabby. Off on the left is some lava, you don’t want to play around there more than you need to. Skeletons have a tendency of ambushing you and knocking you into it.
So now that you made the journey through a long tired rant, some story news, and minecraft shots you are still reading? Probably not, but for the few of you that have made the great journey and are looking for something extra. But what?
I’m thinking a magic card. But lets step it up for today only. I’m going to show you one of my favorite current magic setups. I should put out the list for this sometime for folks who want to build it. This is the ideal hand, but there are dozens of combinations that work just as well. The only essential piece is 1 of the 7-8 mana generating elves, some elves, and Genesis wave. Here is my personal favorite hand. I’m going to use Magic Workstation to run how it goes.
Turn 1:
Turn 2:
Draw Elvish Harbinger. Tap Forest + Arbor Elf for GG.
Turn 3:
Draw Spawnsire of Ulamog (Darn). Tap Forest + Arbor Elf for GG.
Lightning Greaves on Priest of Titania.
Turn 4 (I’m playing against Slivers if you were curious):
Draw ambush Commander. Tap Arbor Elf, Forest, and Priest of Titania for GGGG.
1 G floating. Attach Greaves to Archdruid and tap for GGG+G.
Her ability is used to put a Elvish Visionary on top.
Move Greaves to Visionary. Tap her for G+G (Floating 1).
Move Greaves to Eladamri, Lord of Leaves. He now has shroud, all other elves have shroud. At this point unless they have a mass removal you are one turn away from extreme pain.
Turn 5:
On my opponents turn they just hit me for 15 (and once before for 3), I’m now at 2 life. I lost Eladamri blocking their Sliver Legion. But this turn I draw the Visionary and play her. I drew a wirewood lodge. Which, with the loss of Eladamri is some beautiful luck!
I had to tap my Arbor elf, and my forest to play the Visionary. It was the draw from putting the Visionary into play that netted me my 2nd land (terrible land draw this game).
So now I’m going to tap the Priest of Titania for 5, Tap the Archdruid for 5, take 1 from the 10 in my pool to use the lodge to untap the druid for another 5. I’m now at 14. I’ll then Genesis Wave for X=11. (This is less than ideal, I prefer to generate 15 Mana so I can Genesis wave for X=10 and have 3 left over to pay for a Mana Leak).
I now draw the top 11 cards of my deck and put them into play if their casting cost is 11 or less. I drew a Nissa Revane, 2 Nissa’s Chosen, 1 Visionary, Drew an Extra Forest, Put 4 forests into play, 1 wirewood lodge, 1 Heedless One, and 1 Elvish Harbinger.
I use Nissa Revanes +1 to give me 2 life for every Elf in Play. I’m now at 24 Life. I play the Ambush commander from my hand. With the cards in play I can generate 27 mana (3 shy of my goal) but since I have a heedless one out I’ll just use it on her. She’s currently a 13/13 with Trample. My enemy has 1 Darkheart Sliver and 4 tapped slivers. This means they can generate 15 life. I’m going to take that 27 mana and summon the Spawnsire of Ulamog.
I’ll then take the remaining 17 and generate 8 Eldrazi Spawn with him (it?). I then equip the greaves to my Heedless One and swing for 13. My enemy takes it bringing them down to 4. I move the greaves over to the Spawnsire just to be safe.
Turn 6:
I tried to start my infinite draw chain on the slivers but ended up just getting a bunch of slivers that neither gave me haste nor did I draw an Intruder Alarm. So sadly my last chance for recovering with Slivers is over.
On Turn 6 I generate 20 mana (easily) and use the second ability of Spawnsire. Normally you want to do this right after the Genesis wave on the same turn Spawnsire comes into play. With it I summon the following 3 cards from my sideboard.
It That Betrays lands first, then All is Dust is cast causing all colored permanents (everything but lands and my Lightning Greaves at this time) are Sacrificed, all the slivers on my opponents side join my side alongside my Eldrazi. Emrakul then drops and gives me an Extra Turn. On this turn I swing with Emrakul wearing the Greaves for 15. My opponent Sacrifices his 4 lands leaving him with nothing in play and no life remaining.
I like this deck because the previous turns, even worst case scenario (1 land for 5 turns) turned out pretty good against slivers. Admittedly it came down to luck, had I drawn hearth sliver the match would have ended on Turn 5 for Slivers.
What makes it extra cool is we just relived the story. Nissa unleashed the Eldrazi and all was sundered in their wake. The only survivors were those that gave themselves body and soul to the Eldrazi lords.
This is not a deck I can really play in multiplayer 
. Because everyone starts eying me the second I put down so much as an Arbor Elf.
Thanks for your time…have an ice night. I’m off to read or draw for a few minutes then bed.
A Handy How-To on Regulation
02 weeks ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
Oh man, I bet you were thinking today “I want to read about regulation and how to do it effectively!” I heard your calls, I thought about it while building card decks and I’ve come to the following conclusion: Well…you’ll see as we move along!
So I’ve been reading a lot, not necessarily recently but just in general. One of the things I’ve noticed over and over is that regulations are originally (at least stated to be) put in place to protect the little guys, the average people, from the evils of the wild west of capitalism. At its core capitalism is a deceptively evil thing, living life with no concern but the market and profits. But there are some simple ways you can make it work, and I think that Libertarians would enjoy some of the things I’m going to say.
The first thing to note is that regulation for regulations sake is always abused. It always mutates into something that hinders start-ups, hinders progress, and overall chokes out any sort of forward momentum. However if you just get rid of regulations you will be left with a very very bad world, if you can’t expect the leadership to properly regulate themselves, you can’t expect anyone to. That’s not necessarily because people are bad, but picking and choosing who can be trusted is not something one should do.
So what I propose is not regulations in the strictest sense but instead requiring that all businesses be open to the public. The records, the processes, the factories, require that people be able to see every step that lead to their I-pod, their home, their burger, or their pants. This provides the missing piece to the idea that the “Market will regulate itself”, because as it stands the thing that stops businesses from regulating themselves is sweet secrecy. No need to fix how you take care of your cattle, nobody sees your workers beating them with nail bats.
No need to have your pants made in the US, nobody sees those people being oppressed to save you the 20% off the top. How about the nets put around Foxxconn to catch people who try to end their lives? A work environment so terrible that death is better.
These things are largely hidden behind a veil, easily, and it is usually done because of supposed “security”. Security against what? Terrorists? If they want to bomb a large chicken factory they can do so without seeing what is inside. In fact, if you force people to take into consideration that “someone just might do them harm” you incentivize them to diversify.
No longer is it safe to have a single super massive chicken farm, so instead of one centralized (and very susceptible to harm) factory you spread them across the country and have them closer to the target of their product. Pants, I-Pods, Etc, these companies suddenly have their skeletons dropped on the doorsteps of the consumer.
Are you willing to let people kill themselves just to get an I-phone for 399 instead of 478.9? This becomes the question and I bet more often than not you will not find support for their shady practices to shave a buck off the top.
Now look at the upstart companies, perhaps a family farm? If these folks want to raise their cattle, chickens, etc, as it was done ages past. They can do so. You can see exactly how they do everything and decide for yourself if you like that over the ammonia meat in the local meat factory. I’m not saying either is better than the other (though if I was forced to I’d take the former), but that’s not the point, the point is that the only way the consumer can choose properly is if they are 
presented the whole package up front.
Everyone needs to show their hand and let the market decide. There are some exceptions, occasionally a business gets too large and monopoly laws are very important. At a certain point a business can get so big that it will utterly obliterate any competition the moment they show up. If there are literally no options you cannot exactly make a choice.
Cake or death is not a fair dichotomy.
Obviously not saying this is perfect. But I think for the back of my head while building decks it isn’t bad. We force all businesses to be as open and up front as they want their customers to be. Origin fishing your PC for data? You should be given all theirs in kind.
Politics and the “Argument of Ignorance”
02 weeks ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
There is something called the “Argument from Ignorance” and that’s not what I’m talking about today. No today we are going to (kind of) talk about SOPA. But, you say, we just did! Well no I’m not here to rant on about SOPA again but more what people should do about it now. Specifically you should find out if your local congressmen supported it at >any< time and never vote for them again. Find everyone you know and tell them not to vote for these people. I’m going to give you two very strong reasons why.
The first reason Politicians might pass laws like this is they are self indulgent narcissists, people who only went into politics to play the power game and control the lives of thousands or millions. This is the cynics approach, perhaps the accurate one, that all these people are in politics because politics attracts just these kind of people. Now I realize the failure of this point since the “regular people” had to vote in the same monsters over and over, so its largely on the shoulders of the average person for not being educated about politics (only enough to complain about it I suppose) but the fact remains that some people are like this. This is the first of only two reasons a lawmaker would vote for this (only two? dude getting ballsy). They have special interests, bribes (also known as lobbying dollars), or some other personal gain involved in doing this sort of thing. For some, in the case of SOPA, just by censoring the free exchange of information they secure their jobs indefinitely. From a survival standpoint I applaud their cold hearted drive to maintain a position that many don’t even have to stay in a home (as most are millionaires).
I’ll start getting back into linking many of my points soon, so feel free to assume I’m making things up as I go. Just figured I’d get this out there.
The second reason a Politician might pass a law like this is because they are ignorant of its dangers. You’ll hear this from the politicians that have now flip-flopped on their position for SOPA once they saw the huge backlash. These people are either liars or extremely dangerous. They’ve admitted that they were ignorant of the bills potential but still were voting for it? Imagine if your surgeon had no idea how to properly perform surgery but said “Fuck it. Lets do this.”
These kind of people do not take their position seriously and should not be allowed to keep their job. They are absolutely deadly and, even if honest, are not fit for office. I would argue they aren’t fit for any leadership position. If you don’t know something you always ask. If nobody knows then you research it. But you never, ever, pass a law without being 100% aware of the consequences.
This has been going on for a long time in the US but it gets worse with each generation. The power 
individuals have to destroy the environment, to kill people, to disenfranchise people, these are now on the level of states, countries, or entire continents. There needs to be an extremely serious approach to this.
You cannot have a dim wit smiling as he talks about invading Iraq, you cannot have people who are either malicious or ignorant passing laws in congress, and you cannot expect anything good in the future for as long as these things are not fixed.
Do not vote for anyone who supported SOPA. No matter the reason these people are dangerous, the same should be said for any bill that is nearly passed that has dire consequences. The people are either evil or stupid and neither is an acceptable political status.
Simple Advice–Problem Solving
04 weeks ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
I could see myself setting this up for failure by saying “Sundays will be Simple Advice Sundays!” But after this particular one I fear we might run out of advice. We’ll see, if an idea pops into my head or if I see a problem that could be solved seemingly easy I’ll give it a go. Today I want to talk about the overall concept of problem solving and the source of most of my life philosophy.
Try your best to not treat the symptoms exclusively, being retroactive is a poor choice in life and means the problem will be more destructive than it needs to be. Each problem should be dissected down to its component parts. Which part of the action or incident do you find negative? Once you have established this you will then look at the source of the issue (to the best of your abilities).
The source is the trickiest part of problem solving. There is the what you want the problem to be caused by and then there is what is the cause. If a problem lasts for any extended period of time the likely reason is that you have incorrectly diagnosed the cause. This is usually a fundamental issue, people place their own personal beliefs on how people act or how the world works ahead of actual data. If you find yourself making this error it is imperative that you reshape your view, at the very least for the process of problem solving.
I won’t get deep into detail (because I have before) but look at the drug war. This is a retroactive problem solving situation that has nothing but negative effects on the real world. Hundreds of Thousands of people imprisoned, hundreds of thousands (or millions more) living in subpar life environments for no reason beyond the war, and a condescending and improper education system in place failing to prevent people from taking up the hobby.
Then the dissonance of heavily marketing over the counter drugs and two recreational drugs with some of the worst withdrawal symptoms and longest addiction cycles (quitting alcoholism cold turkey can very likely kill you).
This whole system is built upon a foundation of what people want to be the problem (namely drugs being evil) and what is the problem: Illegalization of drugs makes them rare immediately increasing interest (we are all Sméagol), slanted and condescending education about drugs leaves people not trusting the advice of their elders (there are positives to drug use), and ironically the war itself.
If you want to see the only outcome of making a drug illegal, look at prohibition, if you want to see how someone would live with nearly any drug if it were legal look at Cigarettes. How many people do you see struggling to hold a job, robbing banks, or killing people in their homes to pay for Tobacco? Not very many I would imagine.
So once you have the source, to the best of your abilities, worked out you want to then try and find positive solutions to resolve the problem. This is critical, it must be positive. Negativity is met with resistance, positivity is met with acceptance. This isn’t a matter of being a hippie or some kind of pacifistic obnoxious soap box preacher. Almost no issue needs to be handed militarily. Because by the time you need to handle it violently it has already gotten too far.
Think minority report without the exaggeration, we want to find the source of the action. Why do people murder, why do people steal, why do they do nearly anything destructive? More often than not the answer is one of two things, poverty or mental illness. Are these always the case? Goodness no. But in terms of the most popular problems we attempt to solve it is often the case.
You can predict with remarkable accuracy how bad the crime in a certain area by just looking at the poverty levels there. Poverty is something with so many heads it is hard to truly comprehend. A lack of money means a lack of medical care, of food, of support, and of education. People look for an escape, we all want to feel good. What simpler way than drugs?
Drug dealers hang out in impoverished areas for the same reason military recruiters do. People in the depths will turn to any chance for salvation.
We look at this and we then try and find a fix. Access to a good (genuine) education, healthcare, and food become the immediate and obvious choice. In the end the cost of supplying these three is always cheaper than leaving people on their own. Once you work in debt, disease, destruction of property, and dozens of other unseen costs that the entire country (and invariably the species) suffer.
What about murder? This one is harder. You could very well fall on your head tomorrow and become a sociopath. The brain is a very fragile organ that can be irreparably broken leaving you a husk of your former self. You cannot stop all murder, in fact you can’t stop all of anything. The universe is evolving with every passing microsecond on both the macro and the micro level. This is a reality that people must accept and just try to do their best to resolve an issue.
In the case of murder you want to keep that initial poverty advice in step, keep all areas under your control in harmony as best you can. Supply them well and if you cannot then you shouldn’t be governing them. Next you should make it well aware that you provide counseling to anyone who is having trouble in their life. Stigmatizing this sort of thing is an extremely bad idea.
Once people see that having dark thoughts is not something to hide they can be more easily reached. At one point or another every single person thinks they are the lowest rung on the social totem pole. The US at the very least is a nation of people understating their lot in life. I’d be surprised if this was not true across most of the world. The people who achieve greatness likely either are born into it or don’t fall victim to self doubt.
Each nation, state, city, and even county likely has hundreds if not thousands of problems they wish to attend to. Destructive habits that they’d wish to end. The key is finding the ones that are truly destructive and creating a supportive (and genuine) environment to curb it. This requires the delegates in question open their minds to views separate from their own. While it would be nice to live in a world where everyone agreed, there is nothing positive to gain from thrusting ones own view of the world upon others.
Open your mouth, your arms, and your eyes. If what you have to say is genuine and people see you care then the likelihood of them supporting you and of your advice having power is greatest.
Abortionplexes and Voting
8 months ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
I don’t know about most people but I’ve often wondered why people would believe everything they read that is presented as news. A wonderful example of this phenomenon can be seen nearly at any time on any given day by clicking the following link:
http://youropenbook.org/?q=abortionplex&gender=any
For those that don’t know already the Onion is a satirical news website that tends to post hilarious but unfortunately believable stories about the US and the world. The reason these are unfortunately believable, as opposed to just believable, is that they show just how far down news has come. 24 Hour news (an entity that I dislike) has degenerated into a profit reaping misinformation factory.
That last sentence might have been the most melodramatic thing I’ve written in a while. Let’s take a breather. I’m sure people who frequent Reddit or Failbook have seen the following image.
Since this image came up there have been a lot of people poking fun and laughing. It’s actually funny to read the trolls of the trolling. But I think people are overlooking a very important part of this. These folks are likely voters, this is not something that should be passively laughed at. This is a serious issue that needs to be addressed on the national level.
Easily manipulated and gullible people are the absolute best people to pander to, it requires very little effort to get them to vote and once you’ve established a ‘fact’ for them they’ll basically never accept information to the opposite. A wonderful example would be birther conspiracy theorists, these are people who believe that Obama was not born in the US and they comprise 51% of the Republican party. But why do they believe that Obama is a foreign national who managed the largest and most ridiculous conspiracy that I’ve ever heard? Well because the super douche, Phil Berg, filed a lawsuit accusing that Obama was a foreign national.
There was no evidence and the case was thrown out. But it just took one person to present it as fact for it to be taken as such. Fox in particular saw a very large opening for ratings and profits and drilled (and still drills) into it frequently.
While this is funny and it is a fantastic troll, something the Onion does exceptionally well, I hope that American’s can look at it as a warning of a problem that needs resolution and not merely a funny incident.
Just keep in mind that the article that tricked people was this ridiculous.
I love the idea of Wikileaks.
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
Now while I will admit I find Julian Assange Fascinating, and I’ve yet to see any problems with the operation of the website in general, I will note that you can hate him and the things they have leaked. However it would not only be foolish but be dangerous for people to hate the idea.
The first thing to understand is that no government should have secrets. It doesn’t matter that they do already, it is not acceptable to say “Well let them keep the current ones and move on.” When a government begins to compile secrets things will just get worse, it may move slowly or it may move quickly, but it is going to move in the direction of negativity. People will get hurt, or vanish, families will be broken up. You may not know these people, I sure as hell don’t, but their lives are shattered for, what is 100% of the time, petty bullshit.
Governments never do things secretly that are actually important. Because most of our lives is spent roleplaying, acting more important than we actually are. The nature of politics is much like the nature of a sports team. The differences between the people on the teams is pretty much impossible to parse if you take off their uniforms. The same can be said about different nations. There are differences in language, but we all still use language, differences in skin tone, or food choices, or master faith. But all these things exist. Merely different nouns fill each space in the mad lib.
There is nothing to gain from secrecy, there is merely one planet for us to live on currently. With this in mind it is entirely unacceptable for any government in any section of the Earth to act in secrecy. Because those actors are not alone and their actions can potentially end a biological history that is 14 billion years long. A chain of events that lead to us is highly unlikely to occur again in exactly the same fashion.
So these secrets fail us, they lead to no positives and they help none of the population outside of those who the secrets are about. Even then it inevitably hurts those people when the secrets are revealed.
All governments must know that every secret they have can and will be exposed with ease. They cannot feel that they have any chance of hiding anything and there should not be a punishment for revealing those secrets. We cannot decide which secrets to release because then we become the dictators of right and wrong, that is why they are merely released.
Who knows, Assange could be an asshole, he could have a vendetta against the US, but for me that doesn’t matter. If his vendetta results in the entirety of the US knowing truly how their government works, and us changing it, that would be enough for me. The US speaks as if it is the harbringer of truth and justice, yet acts in a manner most unbecoming of any organization. Speaking of Jesus yet abandoning the poor. Speaking of justice, yet abandoning those who suffer forever for heroism.
The US deserves to be a nation without secrets. I do not say this because I feel it makes me better, but merely as an example, I can’t think of anything about my own life that my Wife does not know. A life without secrets is necessary. If you make a mistake, admit it and grow from it, don’t hide it to fester to something much greater and much darker.
This is why I love the idea of Wikileaks. And, again for open honesty, why I find Julian Assange truly fascinating.
Rico’s Philosophy – Voting
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
I’ve been thinking about voting lately. It’s one of those things that I would have thought would have gotten easier with the increase of information trafficking. But as with many kinds of trafficking there is a lot of illicit activities going on that just screw with people royally.
Every single person on this planet shares at least one idea with every single other person on this planet. There is no question about that, I’d be willing to argue that this is true from the second that the brain of a fetus fires. It would be a trivial argument and wouldn’t help anything else that will be following in this post but I’m up for arguments. At any rate lets move on.
The error, I think, in voting is that we assume that because we share a belief with a person that this implicitly means that they are fit to run for office. “Well we both don’t like taxes and love [insert faith], they are perfect!” or much worse “Well they are a [insert political party] so I should vote for them.” In either of these cases a person is elected that is more than likely not fit for the position, they aren’t even fit to run for those that voted for them. The people who voted for them will inevitably complain and those who didn’t will be in a rage because the politician has by now likely put into play some terrible idea that should have never ended up coming to pass.
I have a possible solution that I would like to put forth. Do not vote for people that have share things you like, instead examine their beliefs, the things they done, and the things they wish to do and ask yourself if the worst traits they have are things you could live with. “Sure. He hates taxes but he’s also pro-baby rape. Am I cool with that?” If you can look at their worst traits and still find yourself liking them then surely vote for them.
I suspect if we all did this that people like those winning tea party spots would not get elected. Many Democrats and many Republicans would not either. This is a good thing, if we all vote for people who at their worst are okay with us then we’ll be left with a governing body that at it’s worst is ok with us. I admit immediately this is utopian and has flaws, like people lying, but that is the positive of the information age. Few people can get away with complete secrecy.
So in 2010, or 2012, or any future election, examine the person you like and see if the worst parts of them are things you could still live with happily. This is much the same advice I’d give for marriage, which is an equally important thing. Politics may seem trivial but in the end these choices effect every single facet of our lives, from faith, to education, to health, and even to what we can do in our own homes. This is one of the most serious parts of our entire life and yet the response of the population is far and away from what it should be.
I suspect this is because of a poor choice system, choosing people who share a few common interests have incredible demons in their closets (worse than skeletons :O), and it feels as though no amount of voting changes anything. Perhaps with this, we can take a step forward, and begin building an infrastructure that at it’s absolute worst would be like a temperate day. Not exactly hot, not exactly cold, but comfortably live-able.
So that’s my new system. I hope you like it and if you like it I hope you give it a shot for at least one series of voting. If we start doing this every election time we’ll begin to evolve politics itself, it’s a gradual process but it’s a naturally positive one.
Cooler Heads Prevail
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
I will only touch on this lightly since the man in question doesn’t deserve even the slightest bit of recognition in life (a life that by all estimates has largely been wasted it seems), but the idea that Cooler Heads Prevail is not one that I believe to be true.
In politics it is the most eccentric and moronic that tend to prevail, they succeed in crushing any hope for lower and middle class Americans and do their hardest to be certain that only things that will directly benefit them work out. Because in the end, the hottest heads follow one motto in life “The rest of the world matters less than I do.”
What might I be talking about you ask? Well to summarize what happened today on the phone with a man over a half-century (closer to 3/4’s) old was this: Man Calls 911 for Incorrect Subway Order. I managed to save another Floridian from this situation by not letting him make the same foolish mistake, but what did I prevail at? Really in the end I just supported his poor attitude, he will continue in his ever shortening life (for once I appreciate mortality) to be a bitter and impatient human being. He has learned nothing from this altercation but that ignorance is not only bliss but beneficial, that people with slightly more patience and (I say this without pride as it is hard not to be) far more intelligence will keep him alive, they’ll keep him fed, clothed, paid, and likely be the only reason he continues to exist up until the point that not even the greatest advances in technology and science can save his tainted being from the dark abyss where even Satan would not welcome him.
So I think, that is that. I’ll be over it by morning I hope, it merely bothers me that in our country it is the loudest and most foolish that have the greatest drive to make change. It is almost as if understanding the odds of voting or passing change causes intelligent people (Which this time I will not pool myself in with) to remain idle and apathetic, realizing that no amount of reasoning can bring them above the cave man stick swinging reality that has kept the US moving since the Founding Fathers lived and certainly after they died.
Just as a random US aside, what is it that you think Taft is most famous for? What has he accomplished that no other president has? Well I hate to spoil an assumption of your answer but it isn’t that he was overweight, yes being a President in the 300lb range (I believe that is about where he was) is quite a feat and not something I plan to accomplish but the more important information about him is that he was not only the President in his life, but also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (Not at the same time), no other President has done that. He was also the President that had the Oval Office built in the West Wing, what has become an iconic structural piece and the name of a popular television show (The West Wing, not Oval Office, never watched it regardless).
It seems like a random question but what I’m trying to get at is that, the most popular information about this guy was his weight. A completely trivial television centric piece of knowledge, yes I get it the dude was fat, but how does that even compare to the nearly impossible task of not only taking top spot in the Executive Branch in his life time but also the Judicial One. He was shooting for a political freaking Hat trick (a term I only recently learned the meaning of. The advantage of working next to a sports nut) and it is mentioned so little that I had to find out by reading a book specifically about the government, it was not once mentioned in AP courses about Government and US History (would have stood out to me).
Final note, It is easily arguable that Taft actually did accomplish a Hat Trick, he was quite an accomplished fellow in his life. But I’m not here to fondle over the guy, I just thought the information was neat and it somewhat fit into my topic.
Atheism, Politics, Faith, and the Failure of Followers
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
Quite a wordy title! But I was trying to snag all the keywords that this (relative to the title) short article is about. In Honor of Colbert I’ll be supporting my points with “the gut” and you can make your own personal judgment of whether or not I’m being accurate 
. I like to think I’m fairly good at this sort of thing so we shall see.
Recently I was asked if Atheism means that one knows, unequivocally, there is no God. I do think indeed that there are a large group of people who call themselves Atheists because they believe this and I’d be willing to go farther and say that like the word “Gay” the term “Atheist” no longer encompasses in the majority the group it originally was intended for (originally Gay meant Happy as far as I’m aware; But no nicer group of people could have snagged it so good for them).
Atheism is not necessarily a belief in anything, I do not mean in the context of Nihilism, but it is not a belief structure it is a knowledge structure. It’s name may merely be a misnomer? I’m in no position to create a better one, though I do think that “Intellectual” or “Scientist” are better options. Though the former has been butchered by Fox News and the latter isn’t necessarily anymore accurate for some folks. Which leads me into what will follow this coming paragraph.
Atheism is a lifestyle where a person applies the scientific method throughout their life where necessary. It is not that they know that God does not exist, but given the evidence, there is no reason to believe that God does. This does not mean in the future that evidence may indeed show that there is a God, it merely means that at this time there is no evidence to support the idea. Because of this Atheists do not believe in God, just like they do not believe that (as I’ve heard it said) Invisible Tea Cups orbit Mars and radiate pure dreams. It is possible, but there is no evidence to support it beyond anecdotal.
Alright I lied two paragraphs ago, I have more before we move on. Atheism like most lifestyles has been dominated by an incredibly loud and incredibly misinformed group of people. Unfortunately for reasons unbeknownst to me (maybe God knows 
) they seem to be the ones that end up having lots of free money and time that they can invest in shouting through megaphones at churches or badger faithful people about their foolish life choices. These people are not Atheists, they are more closely related to a group known as “Douche Bags”. The problem is that, like popular Tea Partiers, they have become so engrained in the ‘movement’ (I use that word because it is late and my vocabulary is tanking) that they are seen as the movement. This is never the case and luckily many of them make poor life choices and die young. That wasn’t too harsh was it?
Now to help redeem myself in your eyes I will move back to my point about the terminology not being accurate (I know it has been so long since I was talking about it we’ve both forgotten, it’s ok we’ll work through this). In every faith, every political body, and indeed every organization on the planet there are vast majorities of what I like to call “Ignoraleeches.” These are people who are largely ignorant of the faith/political body/organization of which they are apart of, but they saw a line or two in a pamphlet somewhere and thought “That’s a pretty good idea.” Because of this when you ask them about their own life and how they identify themselves they might say something akin to the following “I’m a Christian Democrat.”
That statement sounds harmless, but it is usually wrong. They are not an actual Christian, they are someone who believes that Jesus existed and that there is likely a God. But they more-than-likely did not read the bible, if you name a famous line from the bible they can’t recite it, if you ask them the name of the Prophets they can’t tell you. If you ask them who condemned Jesus they will likely guess (and guess wrong). I’m not saying Christians are stupid, because I’ve only met maybe 1 or 2 in my entire life, the rest are merely Ignoraleeches, they love the idea of a god and of a very nice guy who came down to wash away their sins. They haven’t dwelled farther than that, they may have seen a church once but that was the extent of it.
This is true of every faith, the majority (that is to say over 50% I couldn’t give a more accurate number than that) of people are not actual followers of their beliefs. Because to be a follower you need to take in the whole picture. You can’t just pick and choose what you like and ignore what you don’t, that’s not the same thing, faith is not a build-a-bear. What you become is a Chimera which is not necessarily bad thing (Chimeras are badass). But what it does is create a massive Zerg like mass of flesh that unfortunately does not share the single mindedness the Zerg are famous for. You have the illusion of a bunch of cohesive people when really it’s hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of subtypes that each share only the vaguest similarities.
This gives faiths more power than they deserve, the idea of a text that suggests peaceful and love filled life is a fantastic thing but I’m still waiting on one to be made. Those that I’ve read have had some extremely harsh rhetoric and stories within them that have troubled me deeply. If you are an actual follower of your faith, following the text that is the unquestionable word of the all powerful (whichever all powerful that might be) there is no way you can accept the existence of folks whose faith differs from yours. I cannot speak on Scientology but every other faith I’ve read into and read the book of explicitly says that no other faith can exist and the followers cannot be (conversion through word or death).
I understand faith and I’m not trying to make it sound bad, that’s not my intention. I’m merely pointing out the problem with organizations of any type. You have a massive organism where only a few pieces actually understand the central structure and the rest just pick and choose, it is easy but it is not correct. I can’t choose which sections of math work for me and ignore those that don’t, I can try and it might look like I’ve succeeded but I’ll never understand the domain entirely because of it. I’m merely a member of a certain part of math, not the entire body of mathematics (Calculus is a gangster).
Political parties are a huge perpetrator of this problem, perhaps worse than faith in the sense that they quite directly affect my life in a very negative manner. Nearly nobody in either party in the US is actually a part of that party. They cannot tell you the actual founding principles of their party nor can they tell you about the most influential leaders of their party. This might sound like a bold statement, but give it a shot, you’ll be so successful you’ll swear it is confirmation bias. What this creates is to mega parties that seemingly represent mass portions of the US when in actuality they represent ridiculously small portions. The rest pick and choose what they like and then call themselves a “Democrat” or a “Republican”. I’m also quickly going to acknowledge the position of Independent/Moderate and the fact that most folks (at least if Polls are to be believed) consider themselves a part of these (which I tend to consider the same thing but even they seem to have divides). This is probably accurate because by design this position is one that is defined by the desire to pick and choose, which is generally the only honest option people have.
What we have is a planet full of fleshy snowflakes, each trying to take their own personal experiences and transpose them on the global scale. They assume that their beliefs are accurate and thus must represent the entirety of those in their group. I am immediately aware of the humor in this article in relation to that last sentence (for those that didn’t catch it you could apply my last sentence to me as well right this moment). I’m often reminded of this when people speak of “moderate” *insert group here* versus “extremist” *insert group here*, be it Christians, Muslims, Tea Partiers, Republicans, or the less discussed “Chess Club” (They can kill you with a Rook from 50 yards), we are apparently able to identify that there are two groups of people but we make the mistake of labeling one “good” and one “bad”. For the sake of accuracy you have the first group, the moderates, which are your pick and choosers. They take what they like and ignore what they like on the intellectual buffet they’ve taken a seat at. These people do not represent the essence of the organization they affiliate themselves with, they merely legitimize a (generally) otherwise ridiculous concept by taking only the reasonable pieces of it and ignoring the other 99% that would make a creative writers mind explode (“Oh come on…nobody could ever believe that.”
I’m not picking on faith, that is true about Republicans, Democrats, Religions, Atheists, and basically any group you can think of (I’m sure even your softball team has this issue). It’s a hidden dissonance that desperately needs to be addressed. You are much more unique than you think, any group you think you are a member of is probably inaccurate at best, and the attempt to globalize your personal experiences is a dangerous precedent.
MLK famously said “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Now I’m not a fan of milking others but he said it better than I could have and far earlier than I am saying it.
Though he was speaking against racism and a utopia in which we are more concerned with the character’s story than the character’s physical person (which I like) I think this also fits in with my point. Don’t define yourself by race, belief, political party, or anything else that ties you inseparably from a global beast. It is that which is in you that is most important, the content of your character should be the most precious treasure you house from birth till death. It is the compilation of every event in your life big or small and is ultimately unique in its final sum.
Label yourself a non label, so to speak, take a title that merely describes and does not dictate. You don’t belong to a faith, or a party, or a group, you belong to yourself. Finally to quote one more amazing person to finish my point which by now has likely been entirely lost:
"You are an important person just the way you are. You can make healthy decisions." – Fred Rogers.
(^ The quote could quite easily be a tl;dr to my entire topic.)
I’m sure this’ll get lost in the ethos of the internet never to be seen again, which I feel, as one would expect, to be a shame.
IIWP (If I was President): Taxation
1 year ago
by Rico Penguin
in General
On occasion I think I’m going to write something about what I’d do if I was President. Now more accurately these are things I’d do if I was a dictator. But we’ll assume that in this fantasy universe the President is not surrounded by a bunch of charismatic but utterly hollow individuals. In this theoretically universe the government is a group of people who actually care about the people who are not in the government. Which is entirely possible, unlikely given the way people vote, but possible.
Taxation, in this nation that I am President of, would only come from one source: Luxury living. There would be no taxes on food, no taxes on houses, no taxes on income, and no taxes on land. There would only be taxation on living luxuriously which includes all non-necessity purchases. We are going to assume that in this fictitious universe people are going to accept the somewhat ambiguous term “non-necessity” and not try to abuse it. To save us the thousands of pages of documentation that might be required to stop lawyers or lobbyists from royally screwing the pooch. For those wanting a few examples, services, entertainment, and relaxation would be three luxuries. When I say relaxation I’m talking about products made to aid in that, not the actual act. Nobody is taxing you to nap, then again taxing on a free thing ends up still being free so I suppose it is still fine.
Taxation of luxury items would be somewhat high, 10 cents on every dollar, which though high would for most people be far less annually than they currently spend. The average American household in 2009 spent 43,395 dollars. Of that roughly half was for things that would no longer be taxed under this theoretical system of mine. So we are looking at 21,500 dollars per household. According to the Census in 2000 there are 105,480,101 households in the US. Which means annually the nation would take in 2,267,822,171,500 dollars. Which is 2.26 trillion dollars per year for those curious. Currently in 2009 the US took in 2.15 trillion dollars in Taxes, which in part had to do with every cutting back on spending because of the banking catastrophe that transpired. However it is estimated to increase to 3.4 trillion dollars by 2014 (and 2.3 this year if you were curious).
The amount of money brought in is the same, as of last year, but the reasoning is very different. People will no longer be taxed for supporting their society (income tax), they will no longer be taxed for supporting their nation (housing and land taxes), and they will no longer be taxed for being alive (various other taxes on necessities). Now people will only be taxed for living luxuriously, which means that our nations maintenance would be supported not by the mandated draining of income but by taking funds from humanities natural desire to live splendidly. If a family was hitting hard times and needed to live modestly they would be able to do so without being taxed and further hurting them.
The spending of tax money would also be greatly different. Projects would be based on quality of service and not on lobbyists. Companies that prove their worth through projects that are successful and supported by the communities that are affected by them would be hired to work across the nation. Likewise companies that support their local cities and states and do not invest money overseas (specifically to hide income, no punishment for aiding ailing nations). The internet would aid in this quest for quality as state populations could vote and comment on how they feel about a project. Were the roads that were recently repaved now dangerous to ride on? This type of information would be critical in choosing where to spend money.
We are also working off an assumption that manipulation of information would be an offense that could be penalized. A manipulation of information is any communication whose intended purpose is to mislead people into doing something against their own interest. It is incredibly popular in modern America (see healthcare and basically any political run). If an organization starts spreading rumors that the pavement used in a road job causes AIDS just to scare people into voting against it they’d be punished (this is an example, I wish it felt outlandish but considering commercials these days).
Reinvestment into the nation would also be prioritized. It would begin with the most vital elements of a society and work downwards.
At the top tier we’d have the following: Health (both preventative and curative) and Education. These would include organizations that examine foods and products to make sure they are healthy, like the FDA (but hopefully not underfunded or ideologically driven), investments into companies and families that produce high quality healthy foods. Investments into research to provide healthy food at high quantities and investments in providing food that is primarily grown within the states. Using greenhouses and other technology to replicate out of country environments. This is not to become isolationist but to better provide citizens with job availability.
On the education front we would fund both lower level and high level education and we would invest heavily in science. I would much love to see a nation where scientists who perform at high levels could receive the kind of paychecks a baseball player gets for playing a game as both serve an important purpose (though the latter infinitely more short term than the former). There would also be bonuses to companies who do not patent their products and bonuses to research groups who share information. The goal being to create a network of information that combines the greatest minds across the whole country. Also heavy investment in bringing top minds to all levels of school to help inspire children. I’m a firm believer that people will rise to the level you expect of them, and culturally we have much evidence for that.
If I didn’t establish it well enough, Health is a blanket term for everything outside of education that is vital for living. Housing, eating, and a clean environment.
After this you would have restorative work in states. Environmental protection, infrastructure repair (such as roads, bridges, and buildings), and multiple times each decade there would be a panel formed to examine any possible ways to improve on the many aspects of infrastructure. Perhaps discoveries have been made into a new alloy that makes plumbing much safer and long lasting, or a new form of solar energy could utilize unused surface area on rooftops. Just as an example.
Investments into other countries. Supporting education and health in our close neighbors as well as struggling countries. We would also end the drug war, legalizing drugs would be a good way to stifle crime globally as their major source of income would be struck directly. Plus this is a strong luxury item that could increase profits. A small investment into honest education on drugs would be the replacement, making sure that people know that while drugs are not evil if used improperly they can hurt a person. This way citizens can make informed decisions on the products. There would be a strong push also for companies producing these drugs for honesty on labeling in case extra additives are used to increase addictiveness. Not that it helps since most people know Cigarettes are as addictive as Water (seriously I can’t quit drinking the stuff).
After that you would have Military investment. Ideally the nation would be able to resolve issues with other countries through diplomacy (why else need diplomats?), but if direct threats are made or an attack is had there would need to be a military. Investments into this branch would involve reduction of casualties and improvements in accuracy. The goal is to end a war with the least casualties on either side as possible and do it as quickly as possibly. If we can launch a missile the size of a poodle up the ass of a man threatening genocide on our people on a Friday over soup I’d be all for it.
I’m quite sure I’m forgetting major things at this point. But no nation was built on the ideals of one person. That’s the whole point of a group, someone mentions what you forgot. Whatever I’ve forgot would go down here (unless it is a blatant important oversight). In essence my ideal nation would be one that is strongly driven by education, a strong educational background leads to nothing but prosperity as long as it is available to all citizens.
So this is the first part. Yes I admit that it is somewhat utopian, but the underlying idea is that Taxes would be far less dickish and they’d work because we’d be more conservative in our spending (well pretty damn liberal if the quality is there). Now I’m using the term conservative and liberal in their LITERAL meanings, I don’t really care about the political meaning to either. That nonsense will be saved for another day.