how to be a genius

     Want to be a genius? Work harder than anyone else.

a useful proverb

"He who knows not and knows that he knows not is ignorant--teach him
He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep--wake him
He who knows and knows that he knows is wise--hear him
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool--shun him."

misplaced compassion #1

     One of the things still being perpetrated in the name of compassion in the United States is permitting babies to be born in prison, and to remain there--perhaps for years. They are citizens who have not been convicted of any crime--and even an instant spent behind bars by an infant is a travesty of justice and worse. Suggestion--pregnant inmates be removed from the prison to give birth, the child to be restored to them when and if they leave the prison. No exceptions.

a bicameral UN

     In the United States, we have a bicameral legislature. Some countries have unicameral legislatures. Bicameral means having two chambers--in the United States, the House of Representatives and the Senate. When the young United States was arguing over the form its government should take, some people wanted a legislature with proportional representation--the more citizens, the more representatives in the congress. Others wanted each state to send the same number of representatives to a national assembly or congress, so that each state would have an equal say in passing new laws--no matter whether the states were large or small. Each plan left many people disgruntled, and sure that it was unfair. A compromise was reached--the United States would have two legislative bodies. One would be the Senate, with two senators from each state. The other would be the House of Representatives, with each state having a number of representatives determined by its population--the more people, the more representatives. A bill must pass in both houses to become a law.  The Senate confirms presidential appointments and ratifies treaties with foreign nations. Money bills must originate in the House of Representatives. There are few other differences.
     Suggestion--the United Nations could solve its large state/small state problem the same way the United States did--by having two chambers--one with a delegate from each country, the other with delegates apportioned according to population. 

trial in absentia

     A trial "in absentia" means conducting a trial when the defendant is not present. Some other countries do this, but not the United States. In the United States this would be unconstitutional, because every defendant has the right to be confronted with the witnesses against him or her. This means he or she must be present at the trial. It means any evidence against him or her is made public at the trial. No one can be convicted "in absentia" in the United States. This should be argued in the United Nations, with the goal that it become a worldwide standard.

how not to pray

"Dear God, please change the laws of the universe for my convenience" is one way not to pray.

how it's done elsewhere

    An ancient right of the people that still exists in some monarchies is an appeal to the crown for a new trial. That's not something that a chief executive can do in the United States, and it might be a good idea. In some countries, anyone who could make their way into the presence of a member of the royal family could be granted a new trial--the fairness of the trial monitored by the royal family. Perhaps governors of states should be given the same capacity in America--or the president for federal crimes.

Stand By Me

     Most "teacher" movies make me want to yell, or start writing letters. "Stand By Me" was no exception. The principal locked the fire exits of the school. because troublemakers were using them to enter the building. Every time I try to work up some sympathy for his plight, I think of hundreds of students dying in a fire--and I can't do it. Hollywood should not have tried to make a hero of him for this--no on should have. He should have been jailed--and should still be in jail as I write this. Some rules you just don't get to break--and making it look "cool" when you do may be worse.

do we still need handwriting?

     My guess would be that less and less attention is paid to handwriting as a needed skill, as more people type whatever they have to say--or "text" it.  It certainly will still be useful to know how to put things on paper with a pencil, but the ability to write attractive and legible script (now called cursive) will probably become a thing of the past. I spent laborious hours on this as a child, and I'm not sure I'd wish the same on today's children, especially as there seems to be no need for it. As an older student and a young woman, my ability to write script improved--when I wrote at a normal pace, my script was (and is) attractive and legible. When I was in a hurry, I became one of the fastest pens in the East--you need a good rollerball for that, a ballpoint can't keep up. Being able to type rapidly and accurately is now important for everyone. Some help (and how to help) should be given at younger than high school, where many students first encounter it.

time is life

     The older I get, the more I resent people wasting my time. Sometimes it seems as if they do it intentionally--perhaps they are scoring points somewhere, in a great cosmic time-wasting game. No one can give back an instant of it, or add any more to my days to make up for it--if they could I'd be very old, anyway, which wouldn't answer for wasting my time when I was 30 or 40 years old. Other people are "spending" my time--or they are deciding how I should spend it. I wonder how they spend their own time?

peer pressure?

     A young person said to me recently that every decision is a moral decision. I'm inclined to think that this is obsessive, and that a lot of decisions are fairly neutral--but that could be because I am much older, and have already excluded anything that bothers me from any options I might consider.
    I have heard the idea that all decisions are moral before, as most people have. Something that I think is being lost is the idea of a decision being social--as in "how would this decision affect other people?"  This got a bad reputation among the hippies in the 1960's and 1970's, and is still frowned on today by many--wondering what the neighbors think. But a considerate person and a good citizen ought to wonder what the neighbors think. The neighbors  wouldn't, or shouldn't be thinking of your decisions unless they are living with the consequences of them--as something they can hear or see.  As my grandmother and Kant said, "what would the world be like if everyone did that?"

citizenship

     I have encountered adults who do not understand that there are separate nations,  each with the right to make its own laws. When taught about an American law or concept, they assume that it is something worldwide. The same people, when asked if they are American citizens, generally answer no--without a question as to the meaning of the term. These people are obviously Americans--they have no accents, and no notion of any foreign country. Did they attend very bad schools? I believe they didn't attend school at all.

Suggestion--truancy may be America's #1 problem.

democracy

     People who have been raised in what was once considered a "standard" American fashion ought to have a fair "grounding" in democratic processes.  Growing up with at least some brothers and sisters,  parents who taught them to take turns, neighborhood kids who decided as a group what to play, and school "group" experience, the idea of decisions made by a majority should be familiar.
     The offspring of a particular group of parents have a difficult time with the concept of democracy. Their parents taught them to take turns, of a kind, but they took turns being the king or queen of the household for a day--everyone had to do everything their way. Another day someone else had a turn to be king or queen of the house. These people have no experience with group decision-making or shared power. The only experience they have of going along with someone else's decisions is based on the idea that they will have a turn at "commanding". Without this "turn-taking", they resist being subject to anyone else's will--even if anyone else means everyone else.

Suggestion--we identify and re-educate these people.

"Dixie" and the "stars and bars"

     I attended a professional sporting event many years ago in Atlanta, Georgia--a former "confederate " state.  Here in the North, and in the rest of the country, the national anthem is usually played before a professional sporting event. In Atlanta they played "Dixie" instead. I was with several other northern people--we may have been the only people in the stadium not standing up for this performance. This is still outrageous to me, even after more than thirty years.
     I don't remember seeing the "stars and bars" flying when I was in the South, but it wasn't as much talked about as it has been since. People have sued to have it removed as a racial affront. This shouldn't be necessary--it's a political affront--and not merely because the South lost the Civil War. It shouldn't be necessary because it should be prosecuted for what it is--treason. The people flying that flag made war against the United States and its people. End of story.

original sin, part 2

     As long as we're on the subject of original sin, I'd like to share how this was taught to me, many years ago. The "original sin" for which humankind were cast out of paradise was excuse-making.  That's right, excuse-making--along with lying and blaming someone else--anything but accepting responsibility for one's own wrong-doing.  Also hubris--wanting to be as gods. Read the story if you don't believe me. God told Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of a certain tree. They ate it and God caught them.  Eve promptly blamed the snake by way of explanation, and Adam promptly blamed Eve. No apologies, but plenty of excuses. No offers to right the wrong, or to do better.  Just excuses, lies and irresponsibility.

original sin

     If, according to the popular doctrine of original sin, we are all born sinful because it took sex to get us here, was the test tube baby born without original sin?

the meaning of life

Why, yes, grasshopper, I do know the meaning of life.

1. the condition that distinguishes animals or plants from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally.
2. the sum of the distinguishing phenomena of plants and animals, esp. metabolism, growth, reproduction and adaptation to environment.
3.  the animate existence or term of animate existence of an individual.
4.  a corresponding state, existence, or principle of existence conceived of as belonging to the soul.
5. the general or universal condition of human existence.
6.  any specified period of animate existence.
7.  the term of existence, activity, or effectiveness of something inanimate, as a machine, lease, play, etc.
8. a living being.
9.  living things collectively, whether animals or plants.
10.  a particular aspect of existence.
11. the course of existence or sum of experiences and actions that constitute a person's life.
12.  a biography.
13.  animation; liveliness.


There's more, grasshoppers. Check your local dictionary. This is from  Random House .

quantity/quality

apple orange apple orange apple orange











How many apples?












I usually use  a picture for this. You'd be surprised how many people answer "6".

another koan

If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it crash, does it make a sound?












Yes, but no one can hear it.

where does food come from?

     There are still people who insist that they have never eaten "a cow"--although they eat hamburgers. There are people who insist that they have never eaten anything that came from a farm--because that would be stupid and old-fashioned--or even pretend, as in Old MacDonald. I might have assumed that this was taught by ignorant parents, or that these people had never been to school, which is more common than anyone can imagine. Recently I began to suspect that perhaps some of the more outrageous notions of this kind are being taught in some school, somewhere. My suggestion is that we find out, and soon.

a koan

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?












Positing that you went to the market and bought a chicken, and it laid an egg, the chicken came first.
Positing that you went tot the market and bought an egg, and it hatched into a chicken, the egg came first.

make me an app

    Would a technical genius please make me an application that will alphabetize a list for me?