A bit of this, a bit of that

Jason, this video is dedicated in part, to you. The video is from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force Movie, which I plan on seeing upon re-entry to the US.

So I had another talk with my Spanish roommates. I just can't seem to convince the sisters that we should treat things based on the actual threat, rather than the perceived threat. Mostly we're talking about terrorism, but of course this goes the other way for treating many of the health issues in the US today (and spreading to the world). We'd had these discussions before, in regards to the West VA school shootings (my roommate said she would be scared to go to school, even after I proved to her my chances of being shot at a college were statistically equal with being struck by lightning). Lately the topic has been reklindled by the Freakonomics guys. I'd highly recommend you check these out. Part 1, Part 2.

There's an interesting paradox in their belief that, "it's a war... it's us against 'them.'" When I said "war on terror" they looked at me like, "oh, no. we don't agree with that." They are against us being in Iraq, but also think the US should have removed their dictator about 60 years ago.

I am disappointed in my inability to convince them we should spend our money elsewhere, and that fighting terrorism is a waste of effort. Until I can convince my peers of these ideas, I seriously doubt my potential abilities in politics or as a teacher.

In Brazil, speed limits are enforced by automated machines that read your speed and take a picture of your plates. A ticket is mailed to your house. I made the comment that I like this system better because it was completely objective and didn't allow for girls to get off the hook all the time by fake crying for policemen. This made a woman in the car call me "sexist" (not a Brazilian mind you). That pissed me off. Luckily science is on my side. A study of 64,000 stops shows that women have a much lower chance of getting a ticket than men. I hate chauvinists, but I hate feminazis more.

On the same note... I'm getting really tired of people that argue against all the potential improvement by saying the change "isn't sustainable." Well, guess what... humanity isn't sustainable right now, but does that mean we should keep burning oil until it's gone while waiting for cold fusion? So we can't use any of these non-sustainable improvements, even if only for a hundred years or so...maybe we should we just start the eugenics program right now to keep the population in check. Along those lines I have posed the question to people, "Seeing as I believe I have above average genes, should I procreate? Even though it goes against my belief that we are reproducing too much and too quickly, should I try to "raise the average" and leave progeny who can help others better the race?" No one's really had a good answer... which probably means there's something very fundamental missing from both sides arguments. This site has a very strict stance on the issue.

My good friend Erika will be in China soon... I may have to blog more because I won't be able to talk to her about the problems of the world. She will be there for two years, and I will be unable to write to her about religion or government, due to the controls the Chinese people live under. Good luck Erika. Also, Greg is moving to Mexico within the month also. I hope to visit both of them, and as they will both be there for two years, I just might be able to pull it off.