It's once again time to review my 2015 list of things I'd like to see happen, and lay out my hopes for 2016. Here's the 2015 list, with new notes in ALL CAPS:
-Less glorification of big butts.
I'M DECLARING VICTORY ON THIS, BECAUSE IT MOVED FROM A 9 TO AN 8 ON A SCALE OF 1-10.
-A Final Four for Iowa State men's basketball, and an NCAA tournament berth for both Iowa and Northern Iowa men's basketball.
OH, SO CLOSE. THAT IS, IF YOU CAN CALL ISU LOSING IN THEIR FIRST NCAA TOURNAMENT GAME AS A 3 SEED 'CLOSE'
-More action, less inaction by the U.S. Congress.
A PERPETUALLY WASTED HOPE.
-Stephen Colbert dominating late night television, with Conan and Fallon and Stewart right behind.
OTHER THAN JON STEWART RETIRING, I FEEL THIS IS STARTING TO HAPPEN.
-Common use of Apple Pay.
NOT AS COMMON YET AS IT SHOULD BE.
-Might as well go for it again -- at least medicinal marijuana legalization in Iowa.
C'MON, MAN! PROGRESS IN SOME OTHER STATES, BUT NOT IN IOWA.
-A vaccine against Ebola.
DID NOT HAPPEN, STILL WORKING ON IT.
-A week-long vacation for me.
DID NOT HAPPEN, STILL WORKING ON IT.
For 2016 I'd like to see:
At least some progress, not regress, on medicinal marijuana legalization in Iowa.
Chris Christie versus Hillary Clinton for president, with ? winning.
A higher stock market.
Just one actual, even very minor piece of legislation to make it slightly more difficult to buy a gun.
The personal, financial, and political implosion of Donald Trump.
A way to charge devices without a wire.
An à la carte option for cable and satellite TV channels.
More time for eating right, less time for exercise.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Monday, December 21, 2015
The Meaning Of Christmas (Gift Exchanges)
I can't let the holiday season go by without an annual complaint about the bastardization of some Christmas tradition. In 2012, and again in 2013, it was Christmas cards. In 2014, it was Christmas songs.
This year, it's about Christmas gift exchanges. I'm mostly referring to an event where an inane gift is blindly purchased to be given to another family member or co-worker, without an idea of what the receiver might actually want.
(I want to note that I have disdain for ANY type of co-worker gifting, often couched in the name 'Secret Santa'. It doesn't matter it it's known what that person may want, because you can be sure most workers don't want feel as if they are being forced to spend time and money buying a Christmas gift for a randomly chosen co-worker.)
Growing up, it was a common practice for a family member to draw a sibling's name and buy a gift for that person. This was a simple process, and the person could actually find out what the recipient wanted, and buy something useful.
But that wasn't good enough for my generation to pass on to their kids. No, we had to invent a silly, more elaborate gift exchange process, one that included extended family and co-workers and had no requirements related to practical gift-giving.
Blind gift exchanges may seem like fun to some folks (read: women), but what is the actual outcome? Time and money being spent on 'gifts' that are very unlikely to be used by the recipient. And to achieve that ridiculous outcome, people need to sit around for an hour or so watching undesirable presents being opened by others.
Stop the madness! Everyone would be much better off to open up their windows and throw the money spent on gift exchanges out onto the street, where perhaps a needy person could get some benefit from it.
But at least we are all honoring the birth of the Savior, right?
This year, it's about Christmas gift exchanges. I'm mostly referring to an event where an inane gift is blindly purchased to be given to another family member or co-worker, without an idea of what the receiver might actually want.
(I want to note that I have disdain for ANY type of co-worker gifting, often couched in the name 'Secret Santa'. It doesn't matter it it's known what that person may want, because you can be sure most workers don't want feel as if they are being forced to spend time and money buying a Christmas gift for a randomly chosen co-worker.)
Growing up, it was a common practice for a family member to draw a sibling's name and buy a gift for that person. This was a simple process, and the person could actually find out what the recipient wanted, and buy something useful.
But that wasn't good enough for my generation to pass on to their kids. No, we had to invent a silly, more elaborate gift exchange process, one that included extended family and co-workers and had no requirements related to practical gift-giving.
Blind gift exchanges may seem like fun to some folks (read: women), but what is the actual outcome? Time and money being spent on 'gifts' that are very unlikely to be used by the recipient. And to achieve that ridiculous outcome, people need to sit around for an hour or so watching undesirable presents being opened by others.
Stop the madness! Everyone would be much better off to open up their windows and throw the money spent on gift exchanges out onto the street, where perhaps a needy person could get some benefit from it.
But at least we are all honoring the birth of the Savior, right?
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Good, Evil, And Religion
There's been so much rhetoric lately on domestic terrorism, given the recent events in Paris and now San Bernadino, CA. It seems there's no middle ground for people who think the answer is arming ourselves with more automatic weapons, or banning said weapons, or perhaps banning immigration altogether.
This week, it was taken to the extreme by the non-to-be-taken-seriously Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who suggested banning new Muslims from entering America. It's an unconstitutional, certifiably insane idea, but he actually gets cheers from other extreme Republicans for saying it.
I plan to blog about the presidential candidates sometime before the Iowa caucuses. In the meantime, to all who think like Donald Trump, I say in the famous words of Joseph Welsh to Senator Joseph McCarthy, who destroyed lives in the 1950s with false accusations of communism: "Have you no sense of decency?"
The underlying current behind all of this rhetoric is religion. We like to think religion reminds us to love our fellow man, but aren't there as many examples of religion making us hate?
I'm not just talking about radical Islam, either. I know plenty of Christians who have no problem discriminating against gays (yes, that counts as hate), for no other reason than their religion tells them to do so. Religion and religious differences have promulgated hate for centuries, from the Crusades to the Revolutionary War to the World Wars.
I'm not just talking about radical Islam, either. I know plenty of Christians who have no problem discriminating against gays (yes, that counts as hate), for no other reason than their religion tells them to do so. Religion and religious differences have promulgated hate for centuries, from the Crusades to the Revolutionary War to the World Wars.
The other day, I came across a quote from more than a decade ago, attributed to Steven Weinberg. He's an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his contributions on the unification of the weak force and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles. (Whaaaaat?) Let's just assume he's a very smart dude. Oh, he's also an atheist. His quote pretty much sums up how this deal works:
“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.”
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