Vancouver

Aaaah... Home. I think for a large amount of people true "home" never changes. It gets redefined and questioned, but there's that one place that really connects with you. For me that's South Dakota. It's a combination of the people, weather and landscape.

Dr. Ramachandran made a discovery that emotional memory is just as important as visual memory. It turns out that without our emotional memory we won't remember something. I think this is linked in with home. The word home was first defined when we were young as a safe place. Consequently, that safe place becomes an emotional place of happiness and satisfaction. And yearning. I want to go home.

Now before Congress: The "Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act," that requires doctors to inform women before they have abortions at 20 weeks or later that the fetus may feel pain.

My take on this:
Inform Bush that women and children dying in Iraq are *certainly* feeling pain.

- Alissa Harrison

So there are a lot of upset people regarding the election, but there are some people that are really confused about it. Read this article about a statistician trying to make the numbers work. Remember Nixon was only in office a year after he was reelected....

I'm back from Oregon after a 6 day adventure with Dori to visit relatives and friends. Besides good food and company a lot of interesting discussions were shared. In particular a some Rep vs. Dem spectulation came about.

One day I was curious and searched google - why do urban centers vote democrat? I came across a republican message board where someone posted the question. First couple of posts were quite benign, like, "I don't know, but I would like to know." Slowly the posts grew more offensive and accusatory, like, "Urbanites live off our hard work" and "People from the city think meat comes from plastic". It was clear that these Working Republicans felt that the current system of taxation and spending was the fault of democrats in the city.

So Dori and I were talking about this and what is on our wishlist. Our "wishlist" is those things that we're about to buy because we "need" them. For example, my CD player died and so I "need" to get a new one for my pickup. In contrast to Dori's grandmother in Oregon who is 89 years old and will probably qualify again this year to have her heating bills paid for three months this winter. I wonder what's on her wishlist? I think she was talking about needing a knife sharpener. As we left she wished she could offer us some money, but "I only have $10 in my purse."

I'm just going to suggest that the difference between "perception" and "reality" are two different things. While the perception may be that we "never" have enough, let's stop and look at what we really have. We have so much more than we ever have in the past. In a strictly material sense, we are more wealthy than we have ever been, despite taxation and other percieved drains on our money. However, our Quality of Life (QOL) has only changed slightly and possible even dropped in the last fifty years. The last statement was easy to make, because I haven't defined QOL and furthermore, I haven't lived fifty years. But I stand by it anyway.

So you tell me. What is QOL? I'm sure it smells a bit like wealth, but definitely something more than that alone. Probably some family connections, maybe some cultural enrichment. If we quantify QOL, what's the scale, 1 to 10? What is your QOL?

One the trends of humanity is to invent processes and devices to save on simpler tasks so that we can tackle more difficult tasks. The by-product of this trend is that we have ended up with for more time for entertainment (and entertainment is more complex) then we spend on survival.

What do you do with your free time?

So, here I am blogging in my free time. I've also been known to drink beer, windsurf, converse, swim, drive through the hills, et cetera. In my generation I have seen a new trend that rates the quality of activities. Some base the quality on the emtional value, others on it's impact on the environment.

What are "good" activities?

I mean, if we're going to talk about a globally aware society, we have to look long term. Clearly, consumerism as an activity is emtionally satisfying, but maybe not so good for the environment. I mean I find great joy in being able to buy gear and learn a new sport, or watch a movie or anything else that requires me to consume. Consumption is bad for the earth, every natural process has consumption and production aspects, that is the beauty and robustness of nature.

Can we produce anything to contribute to the planet?

So do we produce anything? I don't know. I mean we've save a few billion trees from forest fires. I'm sure the trees would thank us for that. We've also save a few species from extinction, once again if you could ask the panda, we might get a thanks. What about all the species we've put out of business and the trees we've cut down for our homes. In the end, what is it that we produce? CO2? Plants rely on us for the carbon dioxide, but now we over produce that and besides wouldn't other animals be just as adept to producing CO2 as us?

Can we make the Earth better?

So do we produce anything, and if we do, does it make the Earth better? What is better? Well, that's a good question too. How do we know the earth is worse right now? We have to have a metric, and if you can measure something you can value it. So let's say we correct our "environmental mistakes" will the earth be better, or are we just preserving it for our own selfish consumption.

Wow. I have been in Vancouver for 2 years. I didn't want to come here, because I hated big cities. They are full of crime and undersirables. Mostly people that live off the system.

Now, after living in Vancouver, I have come to appreciate this city for being a vibrant example of what humanity could be and look at rural areas to be sometimes a bit backwards and well, clueless.

What a realization.

From where I stand today I would argue with the person I was 2 years ago. Who would win that arguement?

An indie rock band or a town of 33 people in Wyoming.....

You decide.

Well, it seems that Bush stole the first election and somehow won the second. What a sad reflection on our country. This is a man who has offended nations around the world with his illegal war, aggresive tactics and blatant disregard for the life on this planet. What once could have been viewed as a president out of control has now been endorsed by the majority of Americans. This further increases the danger for Americans abroad, in addition to the increased likelihood of domestic attacks. Americans have rejected safety in favor of more invasive "security" legislation, rejected a healthy planet in favor of cheaper gas and rejected personal freedom in favor of religious legislation.

This is not the America I grew up in. This is an emotional, obese, lazy, selfish, self-centered and violent America that is mesmerised by polemic, empty news of the day rather than spending the time to exercise, study the issues at hand and educate themselves about the world.

There are at least 40-million Americans who foolishly voted away the true freedom that America represents.