Musings

General-purpose musings

There are 780 posts filed in Musings (this is page 16 of 78).

Providence

For anyone who still doesn’t believe in divine providence, an instance this afternoon might change your mind.

This afternoon I checked my phone and discovered I had missed a call. Playing back a message that consisted only of a name and number made me wonder who I had ticked off this time with my blog posts, tweets, or body odor. With a little trepidation, I dialed the number and awaited my fate.

An older man answered the phone. It was Mr. John Snipes, the man who received a free home renovation from Builders of Hope. I had visited him during his renovation and left him my card, telling him to call me if there was anything I could do for him. He kept my card all this time and decided to put my offer to the test.
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Social grouping and crime

On my sleepy walking of the dog early this morning, I thought about the adolescence article in my previous post and also about Reggie Gemeille. It made me wonder if I had found the answer to my question as to what makes good kids turn bad.

The theory I’m working with goes beyond the fact that kids drop out of high school. The adolescent article talks about how schools are like big boxes where people with little in common are thrown together. People naturally sort themselves into groups and cliques, teenagers especially. What happens if you don’t find your group or clique? What if you aren’t a jock, or a rich kid, or a brainy kid, or a druggie, or whatever? What if the only tribe you’re left to identify with is that of a gang? What if that’s your only source of self-respect?
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Walking away from gas pumps

As I stopped by Costco’s gas station to fill up this afternoon, I noticed a woman in front of me put the pump nozzle in her car and then get back in her car. I can’t recall ever seeing a man do this. I suppose some women get chilled while they’re waiting for their tank to fill.

Getting back into the car can result in women getting warmer than they anticipated. There have been some reports of gas station fires apparently sparked by static electricity that built up when the driver rubbed against the car seat. Here’s video from one that happened in Oklahoma City this past January. Fortunately no one was hurt.

Publishing gun owner addresses

I’ll never understand why some gun owners get bent out of shape when someone posts the addresses of gun permit holders. It’s a public record, after all. Some gun owners defend their right to bear arms by saying their guns somehow “keep the government in check,” but the government already knows who has guns, so what’s the big deal?

And just what harm do gun owners think it will do to have their address listed? Do they think that it will somehow make them a target for burglary? Do you know of any crooks dumb enough to break into the home of someone that they know is packing heat? Isn’t that a bit suicidal?

There is already a ton of information out there on everyone. Everyone is in someone’s database, whether it be voter records, driver license records, criminal records, tax records, real estate records, credit records, medical records, travel records, credit card records, customer loyalty records, utility records, and on and on and on. Hell, some of us even give away more information by writing blogs.

Letting people know that you own a gun doesn’t make you any less safe, I probably makes you safer. Posting the info of those who point to already publicly-available information – doing everyone a favor by reminding us how documented our lives already are – only makes gun enthusiasts look petty and vindictive. That’s not the image gun owners should be trying to cultivate.

Avoid entanglements

I don’t know if Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is a Buddhist or not but I swear Facebook teaches me more about Buddhism every day.

You see, being politically-minded I enjoyed debating some of my Facebook friends on election issues. It was good fun and I did so with zeal at the time. Now that elections are behind us, I have moved on.

Facebook, on the other hand, apparently has not moved on. I have Facebook friends with whom I’ve traded political comments. for instance, that now appear in my Facebook feed all the time, even though the only thing we’ve seemed to discuss has been our opposing political views. Granted, they’re still my friends and I don’t begrudge anyone for thinking differently from me, but I find it amusing that somewhere in Facebook’s algorithms we’ve become entangled.
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Amplifying murder

Thinking more of Roger Ebert thoughts about the media’s role in mass murders, I have to agree that he’s right. The media perpetuates this behavior. If the media was more responsible in its coverage there would be less incentive for these mentally ill individuals to kill.

Mass murders are terrorism, plain and simple. A terrorist’s goal is to promote fear. Promoting fear requires the attention of the media. If terror isn’t spread by the media or other means, the terrorist fails.
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Gangster Style

Today I read a disturbing account of how a software developer became the target of Chinese hackers after he sued China for pirating his software. The hackers nearly destroyed the man’s business:

An independent analysis later found that four of the five active filters were copied almost verbatim from CYBERsitter and that Green Dam could not operate correctly when those filters were disabled. It’s possible the code was stolen in an earlier hack, but Milburn believes the thieves simply bought a copy and broke the encryption protecting the code.

In interviews with reporters, he said he was considering a lawsuit and vowed to pursue an injunction.

On June 24 — 12 days after Milburn went public with his legal intentions — the hackers made their first appearance. Working from her home office 150 miles south of Santa Barbara in Orange County, Jenna DiPasquale, 39, who is Milburn’s daughter and Solid Oak’s one-woman marketing department, received a carefully forged e-mail containing hidden spyware.

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The Giving Christmas


My family has been hounding me to give them my wish list for Christmas gifts and, as usual, I’ve been slow at responding. Many years I really can’t think of anything I need so I find it tough to come up with something.

This year I’m doing something different: I’m going giftless. I don’t want even one present. Instead, I want those who wish to get me a gift to donate their money to the charity of their choice. I would like to receive a Christmas card signed by my giver that includes a brief explanation of why this charity is important to him or her.

Let’s face it: I’m a failure as a consumer. I have no interest in collecting things. I’ve got a great family, great friends, great job, great community, and so much else. I’ve been incredibly blessed in life. What more could I ask for?

It’s not the stuff that makes me happy. Helping others makes me happy. So instead of opening a gift of something I really don’t need, I look forward to being delightfully surprised with the choices my family and friends have made towards helping someone else.

Fixing the “Raleigh Elites” problem

The blowhard representing the local branch of Assholes For Prosperity recently had this to say about Gov. Perdue’s plans for Dix Park:

“This is a billion-dollar giveaway of taxpayer resources to Raleigh elites for another state taxpayer funded cultural amenity…”

The rest of the statement doesn’t matter. What does matter is the “Raleigh elites” part. This is a theme that the political right in this state has played to great success. Rural voters feel too often taken for granted. The “elites” in our cities become easy targets.

This is especially visible in Wake County. Wake County should move forward with a light rail system, or at least a referendum on it, for crying out loud, because it will be in big trouble soon without it. Instead, rural Wake County voters don’t want to pay for something they won’t use, even though a light rail system only works in higher-density areas: precisely what “rural” is not. Charlotte has light rail because Charlotte and Mecklenburg County are so intertwined it’s easier to convince Mecklenburg voters that what’s good for Charlotte is good for Mecklenburg County, whereas Wake has a greater number of municipal stakeholders to convince.
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