Cruzin' the internet.

I don’t get it.  I don’t get why the people that live in the majority of political standpoints lying between the extremes sit back and let the crazies dominate the airwaves.  I never see a headline on CNN where one side says “I like ‘A,’ it’s great” where I don’t see something right below it saying “Not only is ‘A’ bad, that guy is an idiot for even kinda liking it!” So Obama finally comes out in favor of making internet a utility.  Which it should be.   Immediately below that is Ted Cruz saying that Net Neutrality is Obamacare for the internet.   I don’t get it.   The only motivation for Cruz to be against it is to be against it.  Or, perhaps, that he gets a ton of funds from corporations that want it to be not a utility.  In 2014 are we saying that internet shouldn’t be as much of a right as water, gas, electric, etc?   Hell, phone is a utility, right?  How is that fundamentally different than internet?  It’s not.  You can make arguments, say that the infrastructure and tech is what you’re paying for, but that’s stupid.  Phone, electricity…same shit, just 75 years earlier. I don’t…

Dunning-Kruger Effect, yo.

The Dunning–Kruger effect was put forward in 1999, though they have noted similar historical observations from philosophers and scientists, including Confucius ("Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance."), Socrates ("I know that I know nothing"), Bertrand Russell ("One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision."), and Charles Darwin, whom they quoted in their  paper ("ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge").

Geraint Fuller, commenting on the paper, noted that Shakespeare expressed similar sentiment in As You Like It ("The Foole doth thinke he is wise, but the wiseman knowes himselfe to be a Foole.")

So much this.  I live in a world where I have to constantly envy the people that suffer from this.  While they probably live simpler, less stressful, and happier lives, I guess they also have the unknown possibility of really screwing something up and getting fired.  Whereas I would get fired for some screw up that I really spent time trying to make the right decision about knowing it was probably wrong.

But maybe I’m the Dunning-Kruger of Dunning-Kruger diagnoses. 

(source of information in the first paragraph:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect )

I'm broken.  We're broken.   Seriously, we're all broken.  There are people that walk around thinking they aren’t and I’m convinced they are the worst of all.  Not the worst people, but the people that are (not necessarily to the bad) the most ignorant of the human condition.  I was recalling an episode of “House” the other day called “ignorance is bliss.”  The sick guy in that one was found to be intentionally drugging himself to lower his 178 IQ closer to his wife’s 87 IQ.  He loved her but couldn’t relate to her, or to any normal humans, without dumbing himself down.   And maybe ignorance is bliss.  Or egocentrism at least.  What a blessing to go through life either thinking that nothing is bad or thinking that you are perfect. I both love and hate my constant self-analysis.  I think that it gives me a better handle on what is really going on in the world, but it also causes great consternation upon the realization of my failures and shortcomings. Isn’t that, though, a narcissistic view?  That I have a better grasp on reality because I think I have a better grasp on reality?  Well crap.  Like I said: Broken.

Against Execution.

The CDC tweeted that hearing news about bombings can create stress and gave us some tips about dealing with stress.  I was sitting at my coffee table when I read that right after looking through the pictures of the evil that some piece of shit decided to enact on innocent civilians. I realized that I was clinching the table and digging my (almost non-existent) fingernails in to the wood.   The ragedisgustangersadnesshatred that I felt after looking and reading about what happened is too typical these days.  There are nearly 7 billion people in the world.   7 BILLION.  I know about 200.  All it takes is a couple little spineless shitheads to kill or maim or terrorize the rest of us.  On the flip side I have no idea how you stop such small groups of animals.  It’s times like these that my brain goes all “Law Abiding Citizen” on me.  Catch this/these guy(s) and leave him in prison or execute him?  Not good enough.  Flay him.  Or blow his foot off and let him bleed out in agony.  I don’t like these thoughts but I can only wonder why we are a nation of "the punishment doesn’t fit the crime." 

Can't.

Rage.  Anger.  Sorrow.  I have 200 words but I’m thinking a million.  I’m wondering about mental health.  I’m wondering about gun control or gun reform or just guns.  I’m wondering how you justify ANY tolerance for guns after something like this.  I hear the arguments about illegally getting weapons. I hear the arguments about education and responsibility.   Does that really matter when you have someone shooting 14 kids?  Or ten?  Or one?  can you stand there and really give me an argument as to why this isn’t a statement that the ease of weapon procurement is out of control.  Are we going to 2^nd amendment this thing?   Should we do that now?   I’m sure that at some point I’ll be more reasonable about it but, right now, how can you rationally justify any of them in the hands of citizens.  Especially semi-automatic weapons.  We do what?   Nothing.  Nothing after Auroura.  Nothing after Columbine.  We got sad and cried and talked about how bad it was.  But we did nothing.  What is our government for if not to keep us safe?   I blame both sides.  The ones that want less control. The ones that are too afraid to fight for more.   

Oh Sweet Deacs

I don’t understand Ron Wellman.  Actually, the sad thing is I probably do.  He probably sits in the same group of people as Lindsay Lohan, politicians, and CEO’s.  So much power and so much influence.  SO many people kowtowing to your every thought.   Enough people telling you what you want to hear to overcome the immense criticism and/or warning signs clearly laid out before you.  How do you blame the psyche of someone like that for the things they think?   I believe that most politicians, famous people, etc. start out as normal people with normal thoughts and emotions.  And then the sociopathic tendency, that is laid in them genetically, lashes out and takes control when it is fed the meal it’s waiting for: power.  At that point you become flawless, unquestionable, and infallible.  All the negative criticism?  Haters.  All the difference of opinion?  Idiots.  All the justification?  Justified. How can he sit and watch Wake flounder in the two biggest money sports at Wake? I say money, because that’s what it is to him. The inability to think he’s done anything wrong.  That’s how.  Bzdelik’s great and I’m proving it by our marginally better than zero performance this year. Horseshit. 

Guh.

There must be some end to this madness.  There must be an end to divisiveness that keeps us from being able to have reasoned conversations without fear that there is some alienation occurring between the speaker and those that differ in opinion.  Or, hell, those with the same opinion.  That’s what drives the speakers, right?  “Leaders?”  The worry that whatever base they have pre-established by labeling themselves as democrats or republicans don’t turn their backs and make any appeal towards reason now impossible.  People can’t be centrists because the country feels like that position is too much of a compromise.  It doesn’t live up to the lack of gray area issues.  If you look at the party lines of the two parties, you may find one general theory that is the same.  What you find, though, is a yes on the right when there is no on the left, and vice-versa (I hate when people pronounce it ‘vicey’).  If you’re pro-life then I’m pro-choice.  You’re pro-welfare then I think it’s horrible.   I blame the internet.  There are 330,000,000 people in the country.  If you can find three (3.03x10^-9%) to agree with you then so starts your snowball of pure righteousness.