How I Assign Ratings

If you’re that mythical regular reader of mine then you might notice the title of this post is a bit intentionally contradictorily worded. About a year and a half ago I wrote a piece on exactly the opposite stance. So am I flip-flopping harder than a presidential candidate in October?

Tolerance

Let’s talk about tolerance. I don’t mean the hippy world-peace kind, I’m talking biology and chemistry level tolerance. The body and mind’s resistance, natural or learned, to changes in mental or physical state due to… okay, you get the idea.

The Brony Closet

Leaving a job is never easy. Doubly so if you liked it and/or the people. The obligation to those you leave behind is, at least for me, also a bit daunting and agonizing. I don’t like schmaltzy farewells or half-hearted platitudes. But, I also don’t hold it against folks because I know it’s hard to do well and, frankly, it’s rarely worth it nor is it required in the first place. At best it is a polite consolation.

Recently, another co-worker moved on but, before departing, she dropped an incredibly long and heartfelt bomb on us via email, where she talked about where she was going, why she was thankful, and even went through each of us one by one to give a personal shout-out. It was like a giant wot-i-think about us all and it was very honest and from the heart and also just a tad psychotic but the best humans in life often are. Needless to say, she’s now set the bar super high for whenever anyone else leaves.

Why I Don’t Assign Ratings

Not that anyone is asking, but there is a distinctly missing feature of all of my many reviews: some kind of rating. I never give anything 8.5 out of 10, 3 out of 5 stars, or whatever system you typically see. I don’t do ratings, man.

Katawa Shoujo: Thoughts

Visual novels exist as a strange hybrid of mediums. Little known to Westerners outside of the anime/manga fandom, they are not quite games but not quite simply stories either. They are more like choose-your-own-adventure books half-way between a fully animated anime and a largely text-and-static-pictures manga.

Having many times more text and dialog than either anime or manga, they devote this considerable verbiage to character building and follow the convention of being largely relationship and romance oriented. Overwhelmingly they are dating simulations depicting high-school aged characters in a sort of anime version of the Western Harlequin romance.

Tactics and Pushing

ObamaCare supporters delight in using the rhetorical tactic of focusing on the supposed good outcomes when responding to critics.

“I don't understand why people get so bent out of shape when a law is passed that actually benefits the citizens of this country…”

There’s a lot going on there. The statement begins with confusion, suggesting that the speaker is encountering something that goes against either the normal assumptions, which implies that the opposing view is not a natural way of looking at things. Note also that it focuses on the (supposed) positive outcomes only, implying that there is nothing negative about it that might justify someone’s bent shape on the matter.

Statements like these make me groan in frustration. The persuasion tactic is glaringly obvious and it almost comes across as deliberate flamebait. It also forces the other side into the defensive as well as into a very critical mode. Consider the automatic response:

“Yes, it probably benefits people, but at what cost? How are we supposed to pay for it? With Monopoly money? You can’t squeeze blood from a rock. We all want to have nice cars, too, but you can’t just pass a law that says ‘everyone gets a Toyota’ without also saying how exactly you’re going to afford to pay Toyota for all those cars. Or is Toyota just supposed to do it anyway, fuck ‘em, they’re evil corporate bastards anyway just sitting on cash, they can afford to help us little guys out once in a while!”

The Recent Ruling

It doesn't count as kindness if you have to steal to do it.

If you support policies to steal my money to pay for some stranger's insurance, that doesn't count as compassion on your part. It's just lazy and immoral.

It's lazy because if you really want to help them, you should do something about it yourself, not force me to be your unwilling proxy. It's immoral because you stole from me to do what you thought was good. I realize you have good intentions, but stealing bread to feed your starving kids is still stealing. We can sympathize, which might get you forgiveness, but it won't erase the crime.

I love humanity, I do. I want people to be prosperous and healthy. I want them to be safe from those that would harm us. I truly believe, across all political spectra, that most folks want these things, too. We don't disagree on the goal, just the path to get there.

The Supreme Court ruling was wrong. ObamaCare is wrong. Not because I don't want people to have access to quality healthcare, but because it's the wrong way to do it. We can be better than this. We shouldn't have to steal just to ensure that people don't die from preventable/curable conditions, etc.

The end does not justify the means. Because in the end, all we have are means. And immoral means are still immoral means.

If we all agree on the goal, why don't we see if there's a moral way to get there first? Don't assume that force is the only path. Don't let the politics cloud your reasoning. Be open to hear alternative and potentially superior ideas. Be eager to look for them yourself.

The Gay Issue

No doubt you've heard Obama's recent comments on gay marriage? How could you not, as the liberals have been simply unbearable in their trumpeting. Obnoxiousness aside, though, I do share their joy in seeing the President of these here United States endorsing, even tepidly, gay marriage. It is an important step, even if perhaps just a symbolic one, and it is worth celebrating. To an extent.

I’m with ‘em most of the way. It’s high time we stopped this nonsense, endorsing bigotry and exclusion, and just let people live. Whether because you favor freedom, as I do, or just want gay folks to share the same misery as hetero couples do, as many like to quip. This will, hopefully, be the civil rights movement of our era, and kids will some day grow up learning about these times in the same way I grew up learning about racism in the early 20th century.

But let's be realistic. The president’s statement is not going to change anything on its own. It's not real leadership, yet. It's just politics as usual. We wouldn't have even heard anything had Biden not basically forced Obama's hand (which he has since apologized for). Here are some selected quotes by others more eloquent than me that I find myself agreeing with on this matter. Emphasis mine in all excerpts.

The Wealth Hoarding Fallacy, or Yet Another Zero-Sum Fallacy Derivative

A frequent theme in a lot of liberal rhetoric is this idea that a few select elite are unfairly gobbling up money and then sitting on piles of it like fat cats. Somehow, we're to automatically, if not intuitively, know that this behavior is pure evil. You get this sentiment most noticeably (and most recently) from the Occupy Wall Street movement types. And boy, does it get exasperating.

Israel: How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways…

Why do most conservatives (though they are by no means ideologically alone) seem to be so infatuated with Israel? It's more than just an ally-of-the-US kind of relationship to them. It's almost like a father-son thing, though I'm not sure Israel would characterize it that way (or want it to be). But every time I turn around there's always so much talk of protecting Israel militarily, donating aid, supporting their policies and goals at every opportunity, and above all demonizing anyone who even considers maybe not giving them such a cherished status anymore.

A major complaint I've heard from self-described Republicans against Ron Paul (besides the principles-compromising admission of “Romney’s more electable”) is that he would “throw Israel to the wolves”…

I Like My Internet Unfiltered

Something I always find difficult to convey to others is my love of existence. I’m not talking about existence existence, like us-being-here-on-this-planet existence (though that’s mighty cool and amazing, too, don’t get me wrong!), but rather that certain things do exist. Quite often this is in regards to things that most would find… well, unsavory. Deplorable. Depraved. Obscene. You get the idea.

You see, I like my internet unfiltered — my Google SafeSearch off, exposing the deep dark seedy underbelly. There is much that I have seen that cannot be unseen; much that is truly awful, disgusting, or sick; and even more that is raunchy, ribald, or risqué to an extreme. I take a small risk in even admitting all this.

Absence Might Be Stronger

I've never been particularly religious, but until about three or four years ago I had never really dove very deep into it to explore what I really thought and felt. Much of the dust of that inner search had settled long before I started this blog, which is why aside from brief mentions here and there I haven't written much yet about religion. Having settled into a sort of secular humanist approach to atheism (most likely strongly related to my core philosophy), I expect that trend of relative silence here on religion to mostly continue.

However, it isn't just that my immediate interest and search has ended. A lot of my silence also has to do, I think, with a certain passive approach I've noticed in myself. Having just written a piece on my core philosophy, I noticed the stark absence of anything remotely religious in there. This was not a conscious attempt, though it is perhaps less surprising I suppose since I generally don't have any religion in my life. But I almost think this is more profound in the long term.

My Core Philosophy

I talk often about and freely align myself with libertarianism and naturally gravitate to organizations, news, and people that also share it. I find it to be a perfectly fine and accurate summary of my philosophy, it has the benefit of being the most well-known term (though still not necessarily a house-hold name) which aids in communicating, and it carries no (to my knowledge) adverse social stigma, such as atheist does in the theological realm.

Still, to anyone that actually professes libertarian philosophy or, such as myself, envelopes themselves in its history and thinking a lot as an interest, the term is still surprisingly vague. Many flavors and approaches exist, some from moral foundations and others from practical theories. It is surprisingly open-ended on how and why you end up promoting liberty.

Occupier Outreach

Reason.tv has up today a video of Peter Schiff at the Occupy Wall Street rally with a camera and a microphone engaging people there in debate. It's almost 20 minutes long, but I watched the whole thing. There's a lot I could say, with a bullet point list of time codes and comments, but the number one feeling that ran throughout the whole thing for me was this: debate is difficult.

What do I mean by that? Let's analyze my statement closer, in the context of this video and the OWS movement as a whole.

Voter Identification, National ID, E-Verify, etc.

Recently a co-worker and I were discussing voter identification in the context of some state, which I have since forgotten specifically, passing or possibly attempting to pass some law requiring it. He was in favor of it and I, unsurprisingly, was against it. The details aren't important, really, because I want to elaborate on some broader points.

As I see it, my co-worker was making two big fundamental mistakes.

Knowing Enough To Know I Know Nothing

It takes every fiber of my being to resist arguing with folks on the usual suspects: religion and politics. And it's not for the reason you might think. Sure, I hold very controversial positions (read: atheist libertarian) on each subject, so I'm bound to disagree with just about anyone I talk to. But that's not why I resist the urge, generally speaking.

I read a lot. I try to keep up with the basics in news, particularly politics, science, and other geeky things related to my career in software. It takes a lot of my time. I imagine many folks choose other things instead. Or choose to read different topics than I do. That's fine, of course.

But if all of this absorption of knowledge so far in my short life has taught me anything it is that things are always more complicated than they seem.

The Library of Yore No More

A couple friends of mine are pursuing a Master’s in Library Sciences. To be honest, I can’t quite grasp why you need a master’s degree to be a librarian, but in fairness I will simply plead ignorance of what skills/knowledge is required for the job.

Best of luck to the both of them, in all seriousness. I hope they find it an enjoyable and lucrative career, I really do.

But I think they are entering into a dying field, propped up on crutches by the government’s monopoly on libraries and their IV trickle of money.  The very concept of a library is quickly becoming deprecated.

Biting the Hand That Feeds

Last year in Massachusetts*, Gov. Deval Patrick used a special power to reject 235 of 274 proposed rate increases by state health insurance companies. This, of course, did not sit well with said companies and they went to court over it and, in the mean time, stopped creating new policies. Unfortunately for them, a judge quickly ordered them to return to business as usual.

I can't say for certain what his rationale for it was, but I am confident it involved some form of "protecting the people" kick to it. Health insurance is "too important to deny" folks, since it is for so many a matter of health and sometimes life or death, theoretically. So to allow these companies to start denying customers would be, in some way, tantamount to murder, however tangentially or indirectly.

Optimizing For Enjoyment, or Crowd-Sourcing Cool

Part of the reason I’ve resisted social networks for so long is the huge time sink they inevitably become. And in-between my day job, playing video games, and the various necessities of life (sleeping, showering, shitting, etc.), I have to squeeze reading news, hobby code projects, watching videos, and writing these posts. And that list doesn’t include the highly variable friend/girlfriend time, either. If I tried to add “check Facebook" into that I’d be screwed. Something would have to give, and I like all of the things currently on the list.

Because that’s the crux of time constraints like life: you have to optimize for enjoyment as best you can. There are only so many minutes in the day. How will you best spend them, more or less?

This Just In: Cigarettes Are Addictive

Just in time for summer are the FDA’s new cigarette rules, specifically these totally rad image warnings to go into effect later this year in September. Ah, the nanny-state.

Here’s what we all need to tell the FDA: get off my dick.