Monthly Archive for February, 2007

Some thinking…

Truthfully, another reason I haven’t been writing so much is because of the past few months, I’ve been meditating a bit deeper on my values… specifically my political views. Not only have I been trying to better understand what I feel to see if I can better associate myself with an established category, I’ve gone a step or two deeper. On each issue, I’ve stopped, asked myself and considered why do I feel that way.

On some domestic issues, it’s easy. For example, I’m pro-choice… but why? What is the underlying ideology, and do I apply that ideology across the board? In this particular case, I think it comes down to individual, personal freedom. I should dive perhaps one step deeper, but at this stage, I’m confident in holding that each individual should expect (eg, is entitled to) a level of self-governance and personal decision-making freedom to do whatever they want, as long as exercising that does not infringe on anothers ability to do the same.

[Note here that I personally do not consider an embryo to hold the same entitlement as a full-fledged "person" but have not yet concluded exactly when that embryo becomes a "person" with said entitlement.]

Perhaps some better examples would be wearing seat-belts or helmets, smoking or recreational drug use. In these cases I say, “To each, his own,” if you’re willing to live with the personal consequences.

Well, with that, I’m going to skip ahead and, without a lot of detail or background, ask…

Is there a such thing as an anti-Israel neo-con?

Interest

I haven’t been diligent about posting lately. I dunno. “Blogging” has sort of lost it’s luster, ya know? Actuallly, I’m not sure if it’s the bloggin itself or if I’m lately just feeling powerless and apathetic toward the things going on the world. All the things that used to really get me riled just don’t have that effect anymore. I just haven’t felt much like complaining.

As for the remodeling… I haven’t had time to do much more ‘visible’ work. So while I’ve been working on things here and there, none of it has recently been worth mentioning. So, I’m still not mentioning it. Hehe.

So… anyway… it’s Sunday morning. There’s snow on the ground, but the sun is shining. I’ve got to get my taxes done.

More on global warming

Today I found this article about the ‘myth’ of global warming. Actually, the guy is very careful to say “Global Warming, as we think we know it, doesn’t exist.” It’s not the ‘warming’ itself he denies, but the idea that mankind is behind it. Later on he says he doesn’t deny we’ve seen a warming trend.

But then he mentions the “Little Ice Age”, so I had to look it up at WikiPedia. I’m not sure Wiki entry confirms nor denies his theory that we’re coming out of a previous cool period, but it’s still kind of interesting.

What I clicked on Sunday

Bizarre. The Fars News Agency (of Iran), reports they’ve developed a cure for AIDS. The official announcement will be coming in a few days.

An enlightening article about some critics of the ‘global warming’ hype. I’m not a chemist, a climatologist nor an astrophysicist, so I contend that I know at least as little about the technical details as anyone reporting in the media, politicians and lobbyists. I’m growing more and more skeptical of the reports claiming human activity is to blame and I’m not really buying into the Al Gore “it’s the end of the world” rhetoric. Until I see data that convinces me, I’m content suspending judgement. But even so, I think there are plenty of other good reasons to curb our use of fossil fuels and reduce our dependency on foreign oil.

And the biggest thing that’s got me irked today: Real ID. First, some states are going to fight it by passing legislation against it. Kudos! In case you don’t remember, here’s some background. Remember that Congress didn’t really get to vote for nor against this. No. The Real ID Act was tacked onto the bottom of a popular military funding bill that few were likely to vote down at the time. And even after it was passed, few in the media reported on it. So anyway… I’m glad to see it’s finally getting some air-time and that some people are speaking up about it.