Monday, June 21, 2010

i'll take two please

PEOPLE WANT TO BE white. As comedian Louis CK facetiously strews about, "Here's how great it is to be white. I can get in a time machine and go to any time and it would be f*cking awesome when i get there. That is exclusively a white privilege."

It's true, white folks have been the oppressor in a lot of different places in a lot of different times, including the present. They have been the superior power and we have this idea that it's f*cking great to be white.

Forget it, I don't have any more energy to be metaphysical today.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

google still rules my life

i was catching up on my google reader (5am is perfect), and i noticed apple seemed to dominate the business management feed. then i saw this:

Apple is the world's largest technology company

then i saw this:

Shares in Apple rose as much as 2.8 per cent on the Nasdaq index yesterday, making them worth ten times more than they were ten years ago.


so i immediately opened my ticker feeds. $250.94 a share, down 1.96% from yesterday. market cap indeed at $228.34 billion with microsoft in fact trailing behind at $221.64B. all true, but the investment aspect was buzzing in my head more. ten fold return over ten years. but with late 08/early 09's market volatility, there was more. with a mid january low of $82.33 a share, the market had a fire sale. so compared to a decade ago, it was barely worth three times more.

forget about outperform now. with enough puts, calls, shorts, you could have made enough to retire. daytrade.

Monday, June 7, 2010

give me healthcare or give me death

patrick henry got his liberty alright, but he died of stomach cancer 23 years later. there is no such thing as right to healthcare. of course, by developing a complex government, bells, whistles, legislature complete, we can create these so called rights and define them, morality in tow. but of course, there's the concept of basic human rights. sure, we're all born free and equal, for a millisecond or two. and then life comes into focus and everything becomes relative. but all that aside, how can we say that healthcare is a right? it's a privilege. it's a privilege to be born or even living in a developed country. it's a privilege to be in an area with healthcare or some semblance of it. it's a privilege that darwinism doesn't predispose some of us to cancer, diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and the works. it's a privilege to have potable water, devoid of typhoid, hep a, cholera, and schisto. it's a privilege to have all of our basic human needs met in excess that we begin to think that access to healthcare is a right. it's a bloody privilege to be able to eat healthy, to have a job that pays enough and gives you enough hours in a day to make healthy eating a priority, to even know what health is. yes, these are all privileges.

as a wealthy nation where (fabricate large number) percent of the population suffers from issues where people around the world would consider it a privilege to have to worry about such things, sure, we are obligated to provide support abroad. but locally, the government is also responsible. but until every government pays for every medical student to attend school and pays for every hospital in every nook and butt crack of the world for every patient, healthcare can not be a right. if your country does not have a government, please disregard, crawl into a hole, and cross your fingers.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

lock, paper, scissors

we like our freedom even if we don't exercise it. we like our democracy even if we don't go to the polls. there's just comfort in knowing there are options and that we don't live in a totalitarian state. nevertheless, we program people how to think.

mental associations are a curious thing. take deadbolts for instance - the name alone sounds fierce enough to stop a burglar. but then again, the imprinted mental image is so effective that even the dumb burglars feel hampered.

these are the bare facts. windows are made of glass that shatter with mild force and you can easily kick in most doors. so then we put in alarm systems. but even if your alarm system dialed the feds, a crook could probably make it down the block - monet in hand - before anyone showed up.

so honestly, there's nothing more than a stack of papers we call the Constitution et al., a fearsome deadbolt, and a bunch of glass keeping thieves out of your home. and you thought you were thinking what you wanted to think.

nra forever? sweet dreams.

failure

IN A TRAGIC WAY, society has ingrained us to think failure as a default in the case that a plan doesn't proceed quite as anticipated. well, i guess that's not so much the tragedy as the associations we circumscribe around it. it's high time that we shift this paradigm encased in disappointment, misery, and so on - which subsequently causes us to stand in the way of ourselves.

clearly, i won't let my children succumb to these roles and the ensuing dismay. they will learn that failure is not all the horror it's made out to be. they will learn to be flexible and have contingencies in the event that something does not go as planned. and with each bungle, they will become harder, better, faster, stronger. hit it kanye. of course, when they really do eff up, i'll just have to beat them senseless to relay the disappointment and culpability. kidding.

Monday, May 17, 2010

buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

opine sounds quite like whine. some people walk quite a fine line here.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

i'm right and you know it

i've had the privilege to be awkward and to have grown up very differently from most. subsequently, i see a lot of things in a different light. of course introspection plays its part and i am bent on changing every paradigm.

this week, i think it should be about shifting from the stalwart "i'm right" position over to the "based on my experiences and assumptions, this is the way i see things." let's face it, trying to be right has led to many an altercation, divorce, disowning, beating, homicide, and the list goes on. aside from the fact that we're too full of sh*t to ever admit we're wrong, we should all accede to this compromise. with that, i rest my case against 31.6% of misinformed voters - yeah, you republicans. ;)