With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
The good life, as I conceive it, is a happy life. I do not mean that if you are good you will be happy - I mean that if you are happy you will be good.
Too much sanity may be madness and the maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be.
I enjoy paying taxes. With them I buy civilization.
January 29, 2003 - 1:05 a.m.
Before I forget I’d like to thank allisonhazen for listing me as a favourite. I’m guessing that she found me though Carey since she’s listed as a favourite too.
The finite math class didn’t do as well as the calculus class on the first quiz. The average grade was a 3.8 out of 7, barely passing. I hope they get into the groove as the semester continues. What do I do about a student that writes xn when the answer is xn? This happens now and again and I’m never sure what they mean? I have the worlds worst handwriting and my superscripts are still distinguishable from the regular writing. One student with great handwriting did it so I’m guessing that she actually misunderstood and got it wrong. On the other hand she is bright and got all the other questions right.
I keep forgetting to tell people who would care. One of my students looks so much like Mercedes McNab, Harmony on Buffy. I hope she has a better attitude towards school. I hope she isn’t a vampire.
Tonight I went to the Knick game and won the game with Alan again, that’s three in a row. I actually changed the way I went about picking the scores. I took myself out of the loop. I don’t use my own judgment about how good the teams are or think about the match-ups. I just look at their records at home and on the road. It seems to be working. I actually have a more elaborate predicting system but that takes more work on my part. I’d have to do online research before the game.
My sister Sue is coming in tomorrow from Plano, Texas. I won’t be able to pick her up at the airport or see her till the evening because of school. I’m also going away this weekend to see The Kennedys with Lawrence. Now I have to remember to call Heather and see if she and Jason can go too. I haven’t seen them in far too long.
I missed the State of the Union address? From what I hear there wasn’t anything earthshattering. One of my officemates asked me when I thought the economy would turn around, I said, “when a Democrat is elected.” I pointed out, as I have here, that there was more economic growth under the worst Democrat than under the best Republican going back to Wilson. So why do the rich support the Republicans? Because the basic Republican philosophy is that the way to improve the economy is to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich. Even though they end up doing worse on the deal it is too hard for the rich to resist that. The old bird in the hand thinking. They never couch it in those terms but it is what Republican economic policy is about. They lower taxes which gives far more money back to the rich, and lower social spending, that goes to the poor. He wants to lower taxes on capitol gains and end them on dividends. The only money that would be fully taxed is what you get for working for a living. If people object to this they scream, “class warfare.” It is class warfare, the rich are making war on the poor.
OK enough of that rant. It won’t do any good. I’m preaching to the choir here. The only thing I might accomplish is getting someone to be more active. Oh yeah, one more thing. Every Bush speech should end with the announcement; “Brought to you by the Green Party and Ralph Nader.”
Is there anything harder to do than resisting temptation? It is so much easier to do something than to make yourself not do something. That’s why dieting is so hard. I’m trying to lose weight but finding to many excuses to cheat. Spider Robinson said something in the Callahan Chronicles that got me mad. Someone had a way of making foods that taste good but your body can’t digest so they have no calories. Callahan’s response was.
“Glandular cases aside the only genuine cure for fat is to not be a hog. Your method would encourage fat people to keep on being hogs—so, they’ll keep on being fat people, regardless of what they happen to weigh. You’d know one anywhere.”
How revolting is that? Fatness is a moral failure. It doesn’t even have to do with your weight. Fat people bear the mark of Cain.
OK that’s enough righteous indignation for one entry. I think that’s enough of everything for one entry. I just need a way to end this. That wasn’t a good last line. Neither was that. I know I’ll end with a poem. It has nothing to do with anything I’ve written hear but was thinking about Poe.
| Annabel Lee by: Edgar Allen Poe |
It was many and many a year ago, |
The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy - October 07, 2008
On the Road to Westchester County - October 06, 2008
Inside the Madison Square Studio - October 05, 2008
I'm a Bosniac and I'm debating like I've never debated before - October 03, 2008
Islands in the Stream of Consciousness - October 02, 2008
Email me: GordonLew at gmail
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. Horvendile January 29, 2003
