Marriage, the Census and You...

It really doesn't get much better. I mean I adore Orac, I love Star Trek, I love queers and I really love people who love each other. And oddly enough, while I do not actually love the census I really do appreciate it's importance. Though it is also probably true that a tin foil hat is going to be important at some point...Some point soon. I mean if you fill out the census, they will know where you are. So really, this is a sort of multifaceted PSA.

Coming soon...DuWayne, the hippie and the republican - Or why I love picking up hitchhikers...

I am the Momma of a Two Year OId Curmudgeon

Youngest has apparently decided that both of his parents are momma. Youngest also has a rather intense independent streak that is completely at odds with eldest at that age. He is also rather fond of not listening and gives a rather impressive "fuck you," face, when what he has been instructed to do is at odds with what he wants to do. Not a "brewing tantrum" face (though he is capable of this as well) and not a "malicious joy" face. No - he has perfected the "motherfucking kids today" face, that will easily shift to the face I imagine Comrade Physio Prof gets when he is about to unleash a torrent of expletives on an ignorant fucking moron. He actually looks condescending, like even an idiot should be able to tell that what he wants to do is so fucking superior to anything mere parents might think necessary at the moment.

Fortunately he then loses it when faced with steadfast defiance and his face contorts with rage - occasionally actually throwing himself to the floor. This is not something he does to me very often, because I just laugh at him - further pissing him off, but stopping the tantrum cold as his face and entire demeanor become that of the "I am NEVER going to comment here or even read this blog EVER AGAIN!!!" troll. He refuses to look at you, while surreptitiously glancing over to make sure that he is still following close, in spite of having refused your hand. He also will try to refuse your hand when you go through the parking lot, but only enough to make sure you know he is still very angry.

If tired enough, picking him up to put him in the car seat will lead to more screaming. But usually he is bent on maintaining his perceived moral superiority and will merely turn his head n any direction that ensures he won't look at you. Once strapped in, it is really fun to take advantage of his confinement to make him actually put his eyes on you. This generally will break through the last vestiges of his anger. He is very good at expressing his scorn, but his absolute adoration for his papa ensures that this can only be maintained for relatively short periods. Apparently he can hold out for close to half an hour (ten minutes or so longer than with me) with his mom and most anyone else can be held in disdain for an hour or more.

He started getting rather irritated with me today, when at the American Museum of Science and Energy, I refused to let him climb onto a un-armed B-83 nuclear bomb. It got worse when I was unwilling to continue staring at the model of the newer nuclear power plants that purport to essentially run on nuclear waste. Then he was totally enamored by the scale model of a offshore oil platform - which I admit is pretty fucking cool, but for only so long. He didn't get outright persnickety until I flat refused to let him climb onto the stools in the transient exhibit hall (money and commerce at the mo), which were the sort that are very easy for someone at his level of balance/climbing abilities. Total meltdown waited until we actually made it all the way down stairs and passed right by the large dino puzzle that we had already pieced together twice and which eldest was reasonably not interested in stopping for, as he was ready to go and had patiently waited until I was ready to drag youngest away.

On the upside, his very awesome big brother has managed to teach him to count to ten. Though he gets totally thrown off if he has to count actual items numbering more than four. Eldest made him a counting book to ten and has plans for one that goes to fifty.

Now if only I can get him back to calling me papa. I think this is a direct result of him only getting to see me once a month. I am pretty sure this is his passive aggressive way of punishing me for not reading him picture books every night. He is not nearly as keen on the Oz books over the phone as eldest is. Either that or he is pissed that his brother flees when he starts jabbering while I am trying to read to them...

In any case, I expect that any time now I am going to come see them and he'll have a cane in hand to shake at and sometimes whack people with, when they annoy him or get on his fucking lawn. Though I may have to disown him if he starts in about fucking Irish swill - it is small batch bourbon or the highway.

WTF!?! Parents...

I stopped in to the coffee shop for a cup before my psych test this afternoon, figuring I would have one of my cigarettes for the day while I do some homework. My regular coffee shop is the only coffee shop in town that still allows smoking - though that is soon to end as MI has joined the 21st century in banning smoking in public establishments.

Now as a rule, I don't mind kids in coffee shops - as long as they are reasonably well behaved. My eldest is actually very fond of going to coffee shops with papa, because it is an adult thing to do. But I have more than mild objections to children in a coffee shop that allows smoking. It pisses me off - a lot. Kids simply do not belong in places that are full of this sort of lung pollution.

So I am more than a little irritated to find two children sitting at a table next to their mother's table - where there has consistently been at least one person smoking. This in addition to the other patrons surrounding these boys with more smoke. To make this that much more obnoxious, there is a whole upstairs that is smoke free.

Good times...

Two Subjectives do not = Objective Truth

That damned Greg Laden just had to post this video, in which Sam Harris makes the absurd claim that science can speak to objective moral truth (followed up here). It hurts me head. It also makes me very, very cranky.

Before I go on, I do think it is important for me to define my biases. My biases are not something that influenced my position on this issue of universal moral truths. I spent the vast majority of my 34 years, struggling with my religious beliefs. I think that the shedding of my faith can ultimately be summed up rather simply and in a fashion that is very relevant to the discussion at hand - I just thought of this as I was sitting here typing. The last vestiges of faith were decimated, the moment I realized that there is no objective moral truth. This is not to say that my lack of faith is contingent on a lack of moral truth. Rather, that is what put me over the edge - finally.

But my biases - we were exploring my biases. While my relationship with religious dogma was peculiar in later years, it was dogma just the same. There was some kind of external force that lent authority to my moral frame - even though my moral frame was very much my own. I am done with that bullshit. My morality is my governor of my actions. I do what I believe is right because I believe it is the right thing to do, not because some god tells me to and not because there is some universal compelling force.

There are some rather serious flaws in Dr. Harris' arguments. The first seems to be what may well make this a semantic argument first and fore. It is hard to say, because unlike what I was led to believe is one of the most important aspects of using science as a tool for exploring the world, Harris doesn't seem to actually define the most important term in this discussion - "morality." It just seems to be assumed that we know what this means in Sam's head and what difference we miss will be picked up in context. Not wanting to make that mistake myself, I am going to define morality as I understand and accept it;

Morality is every individual's framework for deciding the "right" and "wrong" ways of interacting with people and the world around them. The only universal moral truth, is that excepting pathological sociopaths, everyone has a moral frame which is relative to time, space, culture and the individual. The context of time is both the macrocosm of human and protohuman history and the microcosm of the individuals own life. Moral frames are not static, rather they change as an individual grows and changes.

Sam Harris, on the other hand, seems to be defining morality as values and objective facts that influence our wellbeing. The first fatal flaw here, is that Harris is taking one subjective measure, to use as the metric for defining a subjective abstraction. This is not something I am certain of, because as I mentioned he doesn't actually define the most important term. Neither does he really define what, if we are going to be using it as the metric, becomes the second most important term - "wellbeing."

Having defined morality and then referred to it as an abstraction, I want to clarify that referring to it as an abstraction was not to detract from it's importance. Many abstractions are important, morality being among the most important. But as an abstraction, it is important to realize that by definition it can only ever be relative. Nor is there anything wrong with that - nothing dangerous or evil about it. We have laws to govern society. And most of our moral frames are largely derived from our cultural context, so while we all have our differences, there are enough similarities for us to get along. When the getting along based on moral and ethical choices fails, we also have laws and external enforcement mechanisms to back them up - flawed as those mechanisms might be.

I really need to get to bed - I have a lot of work to do tomorrow, not the least being getting to class on time in the morning. I do want to leave this with some examples of moral minutia. Thankfully, I posted them earlier, when I should have been writing my papers. But fuck it, I can probably work this into one of them.

People like to bring up things like murder, rape or care of children to make these universal claims - but it falls apart. Murder is the worst - what exactly is murder? Does this mean that any taking of human life is immoral? If not, who's line between rightful and wrongful death is the universal moral truth? But what about rape then? If there is a universal moral truth about rape, then first off, we need to absolutely define rape - something that right or wrong, a lot of people define in a lot of different ways. And even if we could agree, do we then make the claim that every culture that has looked at rape as a amoral act at worse was totally without moral compass? That they simply didn't have any moral frame? And when it comes to kids, our western ideals are born of a very different culture. That is not to say that people in developing countries don't love their children - they most certainly do. But they also have a very different attitude about losing children - their infant mortality rates require it. There have been and as far as I know still are cultures that practice infanticide to prevent a child that will starve otherwise, from going through that suffering and to make sure there is that little bit more for those who are more likely to.

We won't even go into China and the impact of their one child laws.

Fuck these claims of universal moral truths. The ideal is patently absurd and the desire to find such truths is little different than the drive to Believe in something greater than oneself.

We can try to play semantic games that make morality something else. We can call it an ideal or some such bullshit. We can make it into an abstraction of an abstraction if we want to play the games with morality that religious people play. But in so doing, we would render the entire concept of morality completely damned useless in any practical sense. Or we can accept that moral relativity isn't the end of the world. That moral relativity doesn't = an excuse for hedonism and the worst excesses of debauchery.

Look at it this way; Atheists have been around for a very long time. Atheists who are out and proud have been around for a little while now. And without some dogmatic universal moral frame, we have managed to avoid murdering people, eating babies and stealing each others significant others (though some might borrow in the context of an understanding mind - I don't think that is immoral at all - even though I don't do that myself)...We're still here and generally behaving like reasonable and even responsible people.

Some sadness at the loss of future history...

It makes me sad sometimes to know that I will never see what we are to become, should we survive a thousand years - a hundred thousand years - a million.

Will we persevere? Will we thrive? Will we ever throw off the shackles of physics that hold us to our spherical space ship, orbiting our sun?

What will we look like? What will we achieve?

At least we have imaginations to provide us with so many possibilities, even if those possibilities should pale against the reality of our future history. We can look anywhere and everywhere we please, limited only by the vast and remarkable vistas our neurons can produce.

Neurobiology, Language and Culture: Help DuWayne Again

I am moving right along with my exploration of cognitive function, language and culture. I am really enjoying my quest into human consciousness, social development and their intersect with language. Honestly, I spend a lot of time wavering between reading (and listening to audiobooks) about human cognition, evolution, language and culture - and sitting in a daze, trying to pick apart tendrils of thoughts and ideas. It often reminds me very much of being really stoned, without the accompanying debilitation. Indeed, due to the stimulant therapy and the Welbutrin, I am actually able to pick at the minutiae and consider it in and out of context - assessing the implications.

Given another year or so, I should be able to develop a reasonable hypothesis. That is, a hypothesis that will drive the research I conduct early in my career. I have developed some interesting questions that I really hope will lead me to that question that will take up much of my time in a few years. That is the investigation into the questions, not the answers. While it is theoretically possible to answer these questions, doing so would be exceedingly difficult - if not impossible, given the tools we have to work with right now. And that assumes the questions themselves are correct.

One of the big questions - or series of questions I am rather keen on right now, is the correlation between language and culture, language and cognition and culture and cognition. I have been spending much of my spare time, such as it is, exploring the co-evolution of language and the brain. I have also read some interesting stuff about the early evolution of culture. And studying psychology and linguistics, I note correlations of culture, psychology, psychopathology and language on a regular basis. The exact nature of these correlations are the most fascinating questions I have ever had. There are not many questions I have found more pleasure in exploring.

At the moment I am exploring the evolution of language and the evolution of culture for one of my papers. I am also working on a paper that explores the impact of language and culture on the expression and treatment of mood disorders.

So here is the help that I need. I have most of the source material I need, but at least one of my sources for both papers needs to be an interaction with another person. Because of the nature of what I am writing about, I am really hoping to find some folks who have some background in some aspect or another, of the topics I am writing about. I am especially interested in talking to someone with experience in cross cultural mental health services. I do actually have some people I could potentially harass for the first paper (though I would love to meet new people), I am mostly looking for someone to talk to about the second.

When I am done with my papers and they have been graded, I will go ahead and post them. I have one that I should be able to post sometime this next week. These two papers however, aren't due for another four weeks, so I doubt I am going to be able to post them for at least that long.

Back Aches, Scents and those Damned Kids on my Lawn Again

As the youngest of eight or nine - maybe ten of us, I have a plethora of older siblings whom I have mocked over the years as they have succumbed to various joint and muscle ailments. Horrifically, excepting a sister who inherited rheumatoid arthritis, I am pretty sure that I am starting down the path of general aches and pains younger than any of my other siblings. My brother Kevin doesn't really count, because his knees were trashed through trauma while playing football.

Over the weekend I was helping one of my sibs install some plumbing in a rental he is remodeling for his landlord. Nothing strenuous or the least bit difficult, I found that I could barely walk after several hours of sitting on the floor, putting the waterlines in place and getting the drainline together. I have been having problems with the left lower back for some time - rather serious pain when I stand up that settles back nicely when I walk it off for a few seconds. But this is something new - excruciating pain that just wouldn't go away.

Concerned, I went in to see my doctor on Monday (nothing says fun like dropping fifty bucks I really can't afford) who is fairly certain that it is just a type of muscle spasm that should clear up in a few weeks. Oh, and I can expect this sort of thing to occur with some regularity, which is why he put a refill on the script for Flexerall. That way I have some for the next time this problem arises.

I also finally broke down and accepted a script for the damned migraines...

While we are on the issue of getting older, I would like to implore people I might come in contact with in public to please use a shower or bath to deal with general body odor, rather than dousing yourself in perfume or cologne. Seriously, this is just fucking gross. I have absolutely nothing against wearing scent, but that should be something you share with your partner or others you invite into your personal bubble - we should not smell it more than a foot or so away from you.

In all honesty, I would much rather smell your sweat than take in the general ambiance of a French whorehouse. When you inflict your choice of scent on others, it is just as rude as walking up to people and farting in their faces.

Billions of Years in the Making

Having been rather depressed and stressed out lately, it is odd that I would actually be rather pleased to have woken up around four this morning and only dozed hear and there after. But I was stuck on a line of thought that rarely fails to excite and invigorate me - possibly why I managed little sleep. It is a thought that is so much more exciting to me than any of the religious and spiritual ideologies I explored over the years. It started small, in context to the relative scale of the whole - starting just before the dawn of modern man and moving backwards. Started in the context of what I am studying now and moving back to the beginning - or at least "a" beginning and then sling-shooting from there into the distant future.

Just considering the context of our human race, we are many, many thousands of years in the making - each and every one of us. We fought, we died - but some few of us lived, at some points the underdog of two legged mammals - our contemporaries often times far better adapted to the environment of a given time. They were too well adapted though and while many of our ancestors died in those harsh environments, when the environment changed again they were the one's left standing. We were the one's left standing, because through the eons, the genes of those ancestors are a part of who we are - right now - today.

I could move forward, but I think that most of us are at least somewhat familiar with what happened next. Through near extinction, to near extinction we evolved until we hit on a lush environment where we thrived and continued to adapt. Eventually we became very much like we are today. Having developed rudimentary language and culture, our brains became something very similar to the brains we have today - though there was considerable development as language evolved and culture evolved.

At some point I would love to write in considerably more detail about the terrible and wondrous story of human evolution, but for now we are going to go in the other direction - quite a distance through time and space, in the other direction. Because our story doesn't start there, where and when we stood up on two legs and walked. It doesn't start hundreds of millions of years earlier, when single celled organisms started to divide and evolve in that lush (for such organisms) primordial environment. It doesn't even start a few billion years before that, when this celestial body we call home was born of gravity and fire. These are mere historical footnotes in the chain of events that brought us to this time and place, where I am sitting here typing on an amazing device that totally blows those nifty digital watches out of the water.

Right now, I want to take us back further, because we are so very much older than less than a hand-count's billions of years. And it may well be that the molecules that make up our being are even older than the beginning at most of us consider it. But there is no question whatever, that every proton, neutron and electron that forms every atom that forms every molecule that forms every cell that forms us, has traveled billions of light years and billions of years to be here, today, making up every one of us. And because of the basic principle of matter, that matter can neither be created or destroyed, every bit of who we are is going to journey on, for billions of years and more when our neuropathways shut down and our last thoughts fade.

Whether the universe faces infinite expansion, or it will slowly draw in on itself until every bit of each of us, along with all other matter in the universe coalesces into an unbelievably dense bit of matter, reached critical mass and explodes - we will be there, every physical fragment that makes up our bodies, continuing on a grand adventure. Personally, I hope that the universe coalesces and explodes into a new universe. I love to think the fragments of everything and everybody that has existed or will exist in this vast, mindbogglingly huge universe will all be smashed together into a tiny ball of matter so dense that it's gravity is powerful enough to draw in and crush into itself, every bit of matter that exists in this universe.

The scale and scope the true story of human life and every other life in this universe, is enough to make a person weep at the inconceivable beauty of it. These remarkable minds we possess - minds that conceived of digital watches and computers the size of a trade paperback and so much more - they balk at even trying to comprehend the scale of our story - the story of everything around us. When you think about it, we, in this tiny fraction of time, on our tiny planet in a backwater galaxy - interstellar bumpkins really, we are truly remarkable creatures. Our existence - how we came into being, is at truly incredible story.

Not magically poofed into existence, not the result of some superbeing mucking about with our evolution - not even the result of some universal intelligence trying to experience physical substance...We, with our digital watches, computers, painfully slow space craft and sometimes wholly remarkable superstructures are the result of a far more amazing series of events. Following what the best evidence, best understanding we have of the universe around us, a story that defies imagination unfolds - so much greater than any magical explanation could ever be.

We truly are made of star stuff, the residue of an immeasurable (at least at the moment) explosion.* We, and every other sapient creature - every other life form - the placement of every bit of matter everywhere is there by chance. We just happened - through explosions and and a nearly infinite number of other chemical reactions. And here we are - quite likely others are as well, on other planets - in other galaxies and if certain theories of physicists hold out, in other universes as well.

If it is possible to consider this story, the story of us, without tears forming in your eyes, I would like to know how.**

*(bastardized in part, from a quote by Carl Sagan, Cosmos)
**(especially as I am finishing this up in the cafeteria at school)

Animal Rights Loons

Apparently the AR loons are at it again - and here is me, not paying any attention to blogs and totally missing out on the lunacy. Probably for the best, as I really don't have time right now - but I wish I did. I spent way too much time delving into the depths of postmodern extremism, in my investigation of AR insanity, not to address this in considerable more detail. Not merely from the perspective of decrying terrorist and terrorism supporting asshats, but from a cultural/socialpsych perspective.

Lumping the lot of postmodern extremists together, you actually have all the trappings of religion, sans supernatural. This is not to say that some postmodern extremists don't engage in spiritualism or even outright organized religion, it is just somewhat rare and not central to their dogmatic presuppositions.

I am not even going to try to link the scibloggers - most of the people who read my blog have probably read more of these posts than I have. I have only glanced through a couple and spent more time at it than I can afford at that. I do have spring break coming up and might come up with some time to go into this more then, but I also have several papers to write and was hoping to play catch-up/maybe get ahead of my eighteen credit semester load and devote some time to my partner...

Suffice to say they are out there and our old friends at NIO are feeling rather butthurt from the Pharyngulite and other sciblogger hoards...

I should also note that I am extremely grateful to scientists who spend their time trying to improve my life and the lives of others - especially in the face of threats from terrorists and other AR nuts.

OpenOffice users, HELP!!!

I am a huge OO fan - I have been using it for years now and have had very few problems with it...None at all really, if the comparison is Microsoft's crappy office suite - something that is completely incomprehensible to me.

The only problems that I have ever had are always related to auto-correct/auto-formatting. I have previously been able to get the shit I don't want it to do turned off - unfortunately this is no longer the case. Though honestly, I am not sure what is stuck on beyond the very worst bane of my existence.

I absolutely, without question and from the very depths of my being hate auto-numbering/table creation. I hate it when this interferes with taking notes in class. While my notes may come out looking something like an outline, they are not and do not need to be numbered. When I am editing a pre-numbered study guide, I do not want it to insert numbers every time I hit return. And honestly, when I am making an outline, I want my headings and subheadings to define my outline - not numbers or bullet points.

Personally, as little use as I ever have for numbering and/or bullet points, I am more than happy to insert that shit manually.

Previously I have been able to turn off the numbering by checking off the "Apply numbering - symbol" box under tools - auto-correct - options. When I have wanted to turn off all auto-correction, checking off the formatting - auto-correct - while typing box. I have done both of these things and that fucking "bullets and numbering" box is still showing up when I hit return, trying to edit my psych midterm study guide.

Don't get me wrong, I really do love OO and will continue to be a faithful user. At least when problems come up with OO, people actually fix them...And when something seems rather non-functional, even if for certain applications - someone either fixes it, or creates a patch...

I am just not feeling the love so much right now, having become increasingly tempted to chuck my laptop out a window...

The Intersection of Language, Culture and Cognition

While causality turns into a rather chicken/egg discussion, I suspect that the reality of it is much the same as the reality of that metaphor. While the actual mechanisms that drove the earliest development of language, abstract cognition and rudimentary culture is lost in eons of time, there is a lot that we can surmise. There are even aspects of this question we can probably describe with a great deal of accuracy. Unquestionably, this is an incredibly fascinating discussion.

Over the past few years I have become increasingly interested in the relationship between language and culture. At the same time, I have become interested in the relationship between language and cognition. I have also been very intrigued with the evolution of all three of these, for many years - and as I have been afforded the opportunity to explore the relationships I mentioned, I have become increasingly fascinated by the evolution of all three, in relation to each other.

In a turn that really blasted me into dizzying realms of abstract correlations, I have also become increasingly intrigued by the cultural relativity of psychopathology. I rather latched onto this concept, because for many years - since I was a child really, I have been beset by the idea that mental illness/neurological disorders/cognitive maladaptations are really misnamed. What exactly is it that qualifies the way one person's brain happens to work as mental illness, versus the way another person's brain works as merely being a little "odd?"*

Is it their brain that is screwed up? Or is it their socialization/culturalization - the society in which they live that is so screwed up?

As I have explored the manifestations of atypical neurology in different cultural contexts, I am increasingly convinced that the latter is considerably more of a problem. Assuming it is indeed society that is screwed up, the question becomes; "given the megalithic nature of society, does this distinction even matter?" or "is there really any reasonable solution to be found for this problem?" To the first question, I cannot but respond that yes, this distinction is remarkably important. The answer to the second question though, is much more complicated and largely depends on how one might define "reasonable."

I think that the largest barrier we face is the very nature of science research in our modern culture. In many disciplines we are increasingly running into a situation where the existing paradigm of each discipline to it's own, is becoming less and less feasible. My perception may be biased by the context of my focus, but I suspect that there is no other area where this is becoming more apparent, than in the social sciences. This is largely because the more science oriented practitioners of psychology, sociology and anthropology - even to some degree, philosophy are developing vast areas of overlap. In some cases, it is simply not possible to follow lines of research without input from each.

Yet the culture of science tends to shy from interdisciplinary cooperation, something that causes problems across the board, but which is most insidious in the social sciences. Anthropology, sociology and even psychology are seeing a major battle between those who wish to do hard science and postmodern extremists who believe that hard science is a bourgeois affectation and fallacious because we can never truly "know" anything. At the same time, most of the most practical and important work being done in all three disciplines, requires input from multiple subdisciplines of the others.

As our world continues to shrink, as historical barriers between cultures fade away, we are flying blindly into a world beset by misunderstandings and exploitations that all too often explode into violent conflicts. And the vast majority of these conflagrations can be traced directly to the intersect of language, cognition and culture. Our language, the use, the content - even the very structure of our languages predispose us to various cultural paradigms. Likewise, language predisposes us to various cognitive paradigms. But complicating all of this, our cognitive paradigms predispose us to certain language and cultural paradigms, while our cultural paradigms predispose us to certain cognitive and linguistic paradigms.

There is absolutely no doubt that untangling this web of influence is a herculean and possibly impossible task. While many correlations are blatantly obvious, causations are complicated by the very nature of nature of those correlations. But ultimately the exploration of this conjunction has less to do with untangling the web and everything to do with peripheral benefit. Exploring this intersect would teach us a great deal about who "we" are, who "they" are**, how we can all interact with less friction and who all of us might become.

Over the course of this semester, I have the opportunity to explore some aspects of this confluence. It is my sincere hope that as I work my way through my education, I will be able to functionally explore many more facets of this intersect. This nexus is relevant to my educational, research and career goals. Ultimately this nexus is the forge that shapes all of the pieces of who/what "we" are, and who/what "they" are.

As I produce various projects, I will be posting them here - hopefully in a relatively coherent fashion. This will probably mean shuffling things around, sometimes adjusting previously posted writings and sometimes I will be throwing up short posts like this one, just to get my thoughts together in a relatively coherent fashion.

I should admit now, that I will probably rarely be posting anything that is not related to this relatively broad topic. I will occasionally post personal stuff and will probably throw up stuff that really jumps out at me, but for the most part, I am going to be sticking in this particular direction. While I would really like to post about human sexuality and a host of other topics that interest me, I just don't see myself really having the time and energy. We will just have to see how things go...

*There are actually relatively objective methods for determining this, that was intended as a rhetorical question to make you think...

**I quite purposely left that very vague, because by "we" and "they" I mean several different things. I mean "we" as in individuals, a subcultural collective and a macrocultural collective. I mean "they" as in other individuals, other subcultural collectives and other macrocultural collectives.

Three Hundred, Fifty Miles in a Blizzard

It was all supposed to be so simple. I was going to see the boys Saturday and Sunday, then drive back from TN at 3:00am, so I could make my psych test at 2:00 back here in MI. Then, about 35 miles or so from the Kentucky border, I hit snow. I had been on the road less than an hour and I hit snow...

A lot of snow.

Then I got run off the road by some fucking moron who thought he should be going considerably faster than everyone else. He was trying to change lanes and was fishtailing - unable to complete the lane change and unable to stop. So I swerved and hit the wall of the overpass - not bad, just cosmetic damage to the car, none to me. I was only going 25mph at that point, because I was going over an overpass and was none to keen on changing lanes to pass people.

Being from MI, learning to drive here I have more than a passing familiarity with driving in that shit - that was not a time to be flying down the road.

I got going - asshat didn't hit the guy in front of me, because he saw me wipe and pulled over. Unfortunately, neither of us managed to get fucking moron's plate, because I was a little busy and he was more concerned about making sure I was all right. I got going again and spent the following 11.5 hours driving 350 fucking miles through a fucking blizzard.

Driving through a blizzard mind, in a state that generally doesn't get that many of them. On the one hand, there were people going about 5-10mph - on the other, the truly fucking stupid people who don't seem to understand that four wheels turning can slide just as easily as two wheels turning - and as they have four wheel drive, they think they can whip past everyone at seventy something. They also seem to think it is ok to tailgate us lesser humans who are stuck with half the drive train they have.

Never mind that at least half the vehicles in ditches are four wheel drive.

So I spent about 11.5 hours with my teeth clenched, my asscheeks clenched, trying to be on one of the outside lanes - preferably the left. That way if one of either factions of morons encroached upon my lane to the extent that I could no longer hold it, I would be able to ditch it. Or at least have shoulder to scoot into...Cause nothing says fun like fresh, thick slush...

I would say that I should have just kept the boys another night and headed back this morning, but the weather was supposed to be reasonable and I probably wouldn't be getting back until right about now, as apposed to a few hours ago. At least the last 200 miles was clear sailing, I don't think I could have taken much more of that shit.

Dialectics, History and Cross Cultural Communications

Posted to my Com class message board. A dialectic perspective of history and it's impact on communications across cultures was the topic and we needed to include an example of something we learned that turned out to be wrong. Here is a concise explanation of the dialectic perspective of communications for context. Thanks to the University of Maryland for what is turning out to be a very handy reference for this class.

It is often important to understand other cultures, from the perspective of their history because it forces us to take a more objective view of their present. An excellent example given in the book is the role that history has played in black/white race relations in the U.S.

It is very easy to forget that our present and the present of others are ultimately the current culmination of what our ancestors passed down from generation to generation. This is both a progression of traditions and heritage, as well as the transmission of changes each generation made in the face of the perceived cultural failings.

Without the considering that this progression happens in every culture, it is all too easy to judge the cultural practices that we find distasteful in others from our own progression. While there is no question that regardless of the cultural context some cultural practices are absolutely repugnant, any attempt to foster change in those cultures must take into account the history that brought about those practices. When one can communicate from the context of this other culture and it's history, it creates a communication paradigm that this other culture will be far more receptive to.

I think a very good example of this, is the history of interactions between native Americans and the European settlers. Many of those of us who were educated in public schools were taught that the Europeans did really horrible things to the natives of this land. But what we were taught actually paints my ancestors in a much better light than they deserve. It is a lot like saying that Nazi Germany mistreated the Jews.

What actually happened was nothing less than a systematic attempt to entirely destroy the cultural heritage of all native Americans. From outright genocide, to removing children from their parents for re-education, often beating children who spoke their native languages or attempted to follow their spiritual heritage. Just 120 years ago, we still thought little of gunning down 200 natives. Just 37 years ago, intolerable conditions on a primarily Lakota reservation, led residents of that reservation to take over and occupy a small town, leading to a major standoff with federal officers.

And just 18 years ago, two native Americans lost their jobs and were denied unemployment benefits for having participated in a religious ceremony involving the ingestion of peyote. While many of us assume that the exploitation of native lands ended a long time ago, even today we refuse to allow the reservations the autonomy they were promised by treaties made and broken over the past two hundred and some odd years. Attempts to assuage our guilt by allowing native Americans to open casinos on their lands is ludicrously inadequate.

I learned the Disney version of the history of interactions between European immigrants and native Americans more than twenty years ago. I have learned the considerably more horrifying truth of it mostly over the past ten years. Yet this understanding is essential to understanding just why many native Americans are extremely angry. For nearly three hundred years they have been subjected to the whims of mostly European settlers and their antecedents. Entire native cultures have been irretrievably destroyed, all others threatened nigh to extinction.

As the conquerors who wrote the history, we learn something less shameful than the reality. Our ancestors (those who have roots extending back) committed horrible atrocities, atrocities that many wanted to forget. What was passed through our generational progression was slowly changed to something far less egregious that it was. Making it easier to ignore much of the suffering this nation was founded upon and to ignore our continued subjugation of native Americans.

Native Americans have a generational progression as well. One that carries the scars of cuts hundreds of years old, given stark clarity by the wounds suffered by each generation since. Without understanding both our own history and the history if native Americans - a history that stretches for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, it is very difficult to understand the anger, the sensitivities of natives taking offense to things that most of us would otherwise consider trivial.

The Joys and Pains of Getting a Little Old

So I ended up going to Urgent Care last night, after some pain under my ribs - mostly on the left side began to spread and get a lot worse. I have been feeling sore for a few days, but when I woke up yesterday is was notably worse and got considerably worse through the day. To whit, when I have to breath deeply - or worse, yawn - it is about as painful as most anything I have experienced - though admittedly, not even close to passing a kidney stone.

I knew I didn't have a fractured rib, because I have had those and know what to feel for. I knew it wasn't a heart issue, because I pay pretty decent attention to my heart rate and know what to look for. I was mostly concerned that it might be pneumonia or something related. But while I do seem to have pretty heavy bronchial inflammation and swollen, sensitive glands, the doctor is pretty sure it is not pneumonia - though as he was giving me an antibiotic for the bronchial infection, he prescribed one that would deal with that as well.

The problem, it seems, is something called Costochondritis, possibly Tietze, because there does seem to be some swelling. Basically, there is a major inflammation of the cartilage connecting the ribs to the breastbone. Pretty much harmless, but hurts - a lot. The cause can be nothing, some trauma or simply light exercise. The doctor also mentioned that this is more common with middle age men and older.

The icing on the cake was that while he was poking and prodding and getting me to tighten various muscles - the whole experience was exceedingly painful - he noted that I seem to have the beginning of a possible hernia on my belly. He gave me some ideas about how to deal with it, but was clear that I really, really don't want to have it turn into a full fledged hernia. Indeed he said that while that still would not quite hit the pain level of passing a stone, it would probably come a good bit closer.

Gregorian Chants and Algebra do NOT Mix

Godsmack on the other hand, is just the thing...