Category: Musings

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I was thinking about the slippery slope

I’m beginning to think that this concept isn’t taught anymore by parents or by our educational system. While it may be a somewhat fallacious argument, as a thought experiment The Slippery Slope can be a cautionary lesson too.

After all it does not necessarily follow that equal rights for everyone, will result in bestiality, paedophilia, and the end of civilization. Althought there are those who would construct that argument.

I personally believe that in the realm of ethics an exploration of the slippery slope is a worthwhile exercise.

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I guess it’s a tough concept to explain with a society that’s as fractured by special interests and the perception of special rights as ours is today.

Back at the dawn of time, I was taught about the slippery slope by my parents. My education on the subject was via philosophical discussions that my parents had or that happened during holiday get togethers.

Even in middle and high school we had discussions about slippery slopes using some of the morally ambiguous characters from literature.

My Granddad and Dad would sometime get into these discussions and it was only after many years and some information from my brother that I realized these discussions were perhaps more pragmatic than philosophical.

The Slippery Slope is at it’s core a description of how behavior becomes accepted and in the worst case even respectable due to repeated justification, excuses, and rhetoric.

Our politicians are pretty good examples. Influence peddling, favors for political contributions and the like. All of which are technically illegal, but which are often ignored because someone somewhere else is doing something 100 times worse.

You find yourself on “The Slope” when you justify an action you know to be wrong, using any variety of excuses.

“Well, just this once.”, “It’s not going to hurt anybody“, “That sign only means if you’ve got bad tires.”, “They can afford it, they’re wealthy, or better off than me, or insured.“

This is how you end up with a dozen people falling into a partially frozen lake.

This is how you have people believing that any imposition of law or order must obviously be racism.

This is how you end up with people more and more easily justifying that some criminal behavior is ok. 

‘My kids needed Christmas I only stole that Xbox for them”. ‘I wanted to watch the football game so I took the TV from that rich white fucks house, what does it matter? He’s insured.”

This is the slippery slope that so many of our leaders used to talk about.

Before you say “Yeah, well you’ve never had it rough”, trust me, I have.

I’ll tell you a story sometime if you’d like. 

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My point is that we’re on a very slippery slope in our country right now.

We’ve seen the abuses from organizations like the IRS,TSA, DHS, State Department, & FBI.

We’ve seen what happens when government agencies believe they’re immune to prosecution and above the law. “Operation Fast & Furious”, Brutal & cruel screening procedures at airports, the release of Illegal immigrants from DHS holding as an attempt to scare Congress into avoiding the sequester.

Even the assault on the 2nd amendment has elements of the slippery slope. “We’re going to just take this one kind of gun.“, “We’re only going to require this, or that, or this other thing, for you to exercise your 2nd amendment right. “

But the scope of the requirements and restrictions keeps evolving and growing.

NYC “We’re going to limit your drink sizes because you people can’t control yourselves and are too fat. You’ve become a health burden.”

Now we’re seeing the Mayor initiating legislation to hide cigarettes. Again this is billed as “For the good of the children, and the general health & wellbeing of the people“

NYC is, no matter how you cut it, abridging the rights of the people to engage in their personal pursuit of happiness.

These slides lead us toward a destination that is radically different from the Democracy that our forefathers envisioned.

Unfortunately, like the icy hill, once you’re over the edge you can’t stop until you hit bottom.

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We as Americans, need to think about how much we have to lose, and how far we have to fall. 

Call on your representatives to stop the abuses. Let Congress & The White House know that you The Citizens… (We The People) have had enough, and that Washington has your full and undivided attention.

Demand investigations, and that lawbreakers within our government be brought to justice No Matter Who the are.

If we don’t put a stop to it now, there may be no stopping it till we hit bottom.

Just a thought…

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What do you use Skype for?

Alright, I’m going to come clean… Well maybe not “Clean” but clean in the sense of confession.

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I’ve never used Skype for anything other than tele-sex.

I’ve never had a conversation, video conference, or chat on Skype that didn’t involve images of my naked flesh being transmitted god knows where.

I’m not sure at this point if I heard the Skype ringing sound, that I wouldn’t start stripping due to Pavlovian conditioning.

I’ve set Skype up for people and helped them test it. So I’ve been involved in non-pornographic uses but I can’t say I’ve ever had a conversation with my Mom or family using Skype.

So is this what people use their computers, high speed data connections, and those high resolution web cams for all the time?

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I’ve noticed that some Televisions have Skype like cameras and internet connectivity. I admire cutting out the middle man (the computer) and I suppose that arrangement would permit pole dancing as part of your virtual sexual escapades.

I’m amazed that complete strangers will say something like hey wanna skype? 

The next thing you know they’re showing you parts of their bodies they’ve never seen and you’re naked doing the same thing.

I can’t really fault it though… 

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It’s the ultimate in safe sex.

In some ways it’s better than real sex. You know that awkward moment after sex with strangers? The “What the hell do I do now?” moment when you’re not sure if your supposed to talk, or just leave?

Well with Skype, you just hang up. It’s a lot easier than telling someone their moneys on the nightstand and to lock the door when they leave.

Oh gotta run… Skype call coming in.

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Got Nothin!

Don’t know if it’s that theres’ too much to comment on or that I’m teetering on the edge of not giving a damn.

But for today… 

I’ve got nothin. My head is as empty as intergalactic space.

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What a Week!

Pressure cookers?

For real?

I had to think about that one… Then I had the inevitable Aw Shit! moment as the physics and chemistry played out in simulation in my head. 

This does support my assertion that anything at all can be used to ill purpose. All it takes is the will to harm others.

I do hope that the perpetrator(s) is hunted down like a dog and served justice.

Preferably a justice befitting the crime.

I was surprised to see the Pakistani Al Qaeda denying any involvement. That seemed unusual to me since they love anything horrible happening to Americans, and often lay claim to things they couldn’t possibly have any connection to.

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Then theres Westboro Baptist Church claiming they will picket the funerals in Boston.

Uhhh, Westboro if I were you, I’d sit down and shut the hell up!

You really don’t want to piss off Boston and the rest of the country on this one!

Do you even have enough people to call yourself a church anymore? Oh right all you need is 3 gathered in his name.

Of course with Westboro I’ve always wondered whose name they gather in. They do seem to have a rather intimate knowledge of Hell and the people that are going there.  

Just Sayin…

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And then… Anonymous hacked Westboro’s Facebook page in response to Westboro claiming they’d picket funerals in Boston. 

You have to love it.

The talking heads on all the networks are another group that needs to sit down and shut the hell up.

Blathering on and on about stuff that is contradictory or just completely wrong is not journalism it’s gossip.

Anderson Cooper shamed himself on Wednesday standing in a parking lot with another CNN “personality” and some “expert“. While… a Hospital and Federal building were being evacuated just blocks away.

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The two CNN “Journalists” didn’t even break stride in their gossiping to take note of the potential news taking place behind them.

It was shameful.

The NBC reporter from LA was equally irresponsible and frankly annoying in his breathless reporting of the Boston federal building evacuation.

Someone needed to get that man a double dose of Valium.

I’d turned the TV off sometime on Monday and really haven’t been watching more than 15 minutes at a clip. More than that and I want to vomit, due to the piss poor reporting.

It amazes the hell out of me that Twitter is faster, and often more accurate in reporting news than any of the “Big News” organizations.

I guess 140 characters limits the hyperbole. (It sure as hell limits mine…)

YourAnonNews actually does a great job of getting all kinds of current events out on twitter. The irony that they may be affiliated with the infamous hacker group Anonymous isn’t lost on me.

It was YourAnonNews that was covering the Ricin mail that was sent to Sen. Roger Wicker and President Obama. YourAnonNews reporting was simple, to the point and amazingly accurate. Here’s the NPR report about the suspect

I’ve noticed that when YourAnonNews gets it wrong on Twitter, they send out corrections as fast as they sent out the original item. 

YourAnonNews is gaining my respect for simply saying “This Happened” With no further commentary or spin. 

Barack obama gun control ap 328

We managed to Piss off President Obama when the Senate blocked the gun control plan.

I caught just a snippet of the president berating the Senate and to some extent it felt like he was talking to a bunch of children (Which is when I turned the TV off).

The president claims that he has the public on his side. Really? I don’t think he’s got as much public support on gun control as he thinks he does.

Perhaps he should consider polling OUTSIDE Washington and the Democratic party.

I’m sure that more and more gun control laws will be floated but I strongly suspect they’ll meet the same fate. 

It’s not that people aren’t willing to discuss solving the problem… It’s that lots of people question the wisdom of making yet more laws that either won’t be enforced or can’t be enforced. 

And aren’t we still waiting for the whole Fast & Furious investigation and trials to wind up? Seems that we should clean up the problem inside DHS so that they can follow the law before we create new laws.

I personally didn’t like the Presidents tone. He lost, he shouldn’t be a sore loser.

Isn’t “don’t be sore losers”  what the republicans were told repeatedly in November? You know I’m a whats’ good for the goose is good for the gander kind of guy.

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It was YourAnonNews who first broke the news about the fertilizer plant explosion in TX. Here is the Fox Coverage. The other was USA Today and I wont subject you to the infinite ads.

My Twitter feed lit up about 2 hours before the mainstream media made their first reports about the TX explosion.

I’d be really depressed and angry if I watched all of this on the live repetitive loop.

A couple of weeks ago a friend sent me this blog article Why you should stop watching the news 

So I’ve been weaning myself off the 24 hour news cycle and taking control over what invades my life.

Twitter serves this purpose well. I see the 140 character descriptor and if it’s of interest I’ll open the link (if any) otherwise it’s like water flowing off my consciousness and out of my life.

Eventually, I can see myself not bothering with TV at all.

Think about it. The “News” as it’s called is really a concentrated loop of bad crap that lasts about 18 minutes. It’s interspersed with commercials that in one way or another make you feel bad about yourself. 

You need a new car – the subtext is that you’re not stylish or wealthy enough.

You need this or that drug – Reminding you that you’re mortal, aging, and perhaps not enjoying your life as much as you could or should because your health is failing.

Be happy buy more crap – as if we all don’t have enough useless crap in our lives.

I’m enjoying the control I’ve been exercising. I’m also feeling a lot better about a lot of things.

Perhaps the brightest spot in this week has been my phone interview and apparently doing well at a friends company. Perhaps there will be some of my own news to tell in the near future.

Have a good day, and remember You’re in control you don’t have to be victimized by TV. It is your servant not the other way around.

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I wouldn’t be taking a Carnival Cruise

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All joking aside what is going on with Carnival cruises?

To have so many ships in such a short time with serious / sometimes critical problems is concerning.

An engine fire could be called an accident, or an anomaly and it’s a good thing that the fire was controlled even if that meant 5000 passengers had a hellish week while the ship was being towed in.

Honestly, it could have been a lot worse. Fires on ships a sea are bad things. It’s not like you have a place to go, and you’re not going to hear a fire engine whizzing by to put out the flames. Sure you can hit the lifeboats then what? You wait for rescue, that is IF a distress call got out. Otherwise it’s up to the emergency beacons or radios in the lifeboats. The only place that a fire would be worse is in Space.

If the fire was a “one off” I’d be well everyone was lucky and I’m sorry their cruise was ruined.

What caught my attention is that Carnival has a fairly substantial number of it’s fleet reporting problems.

The problems being reported aren’t little things like a light bulb or a toilet not working.

All of these are engineering related problems.

Which in my mind begs the question… Are these ships being maintained properly? My knee jerk response is to say obviously not.

Looking at the dates the ships were completed you can see that they’re all pretty new, they shouldn’t be having these kinds of problems. There are freighters and fishing boats and other luxury liners that are operating every day which are much older.

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What does this say?

There are a couple of theories I can put out there.

1) The engineers maintaining the ships are young and inexperienced.

Ask any older worked if the person that replaced them could read well, or really understood cause & effect or could logically think through a problem to its resolution and you’re probably going to get a general trend in the answer. The trend will be towards “NO”.

 

This could simply be symptomatic of the retirement of experienced workers and their replacement with inexperienced or inferior workers.

Where do the mechanics and engineers on these cruise ships come from? Are they fully qualified to be doing the jobs they’re doing?

OR

2) Carnival Cruises is simply not paying to have the proper maintenance performed.

It wouldn’t be the first time that public / passenger / employee safety took a back seat to maximizing profit.

You really don’t want to think about how much fuel one of these ships burns per hour. With the world wide fuel prices bouncing all over hell and gone, it might be a situation where executives and accountants were trying to keep the bottom line in the black.

To do it, they started curtailing the routine replacement or refurbishment of critical components. I can hear the “Make it last another cruise” arguments now.

Having more than a passing familiarity with the business end of a screwdriver I’ve heard that argument myself. “Do we absolutely have to replace that powersupply right now? Can’t you make the machine work just a little longer even if it’s not perfect?”

Regardless of which of the theories is true or close to the truth.

I think that Carnival should be ordered to cease operations.

Each of their ships should be inspected from stem to stern and none of their ships should be allowed to leave port with passengers until all necessary maintenance has been completed.

Thus far, around 20,000+ passengers have been lucky. No-one has been seriously injured, they’ve only been inconvenienced.

It’s only a matter of time before something catastrophic happens and people start dying.