Not-so-extreme Opinions

Hey, so it's been a really long time since I've updated my blog. Maybe you can partly blame that on me being caught up in work (things have gotten busy lately and my research has been becoming more significant)(or, ok, maybe not my research, but the software I've written and am supporting has become more important to more people) or you can blame it on ... other distractions. Today was the first day I was able to solve the Megaminx without the help of a solution guide (I was able to solve it down to 5 (out of 62) pieces out of place about 4 months ago with no guide, but it's just beyond my attention span to work out the algorithms to switch edges, rotate corners, etc.)

Desperate for Input

So I went to download Monday's Colbert Report... but then saw that there was none to be downloaded. I guess it's Presidents' Week so they're on vacation.

No South Park yet (next episode airs on March 11th... I'll be at an international robotics conference then, so I'll try to catch it live in the US!) ... so I went to colbertnation.com and ended up getting sidetracked on his interviews with prominent feminists.

Awesome Feminists

First, Ariel Levy is awesome. I'm going to buy her book, "Female Chauvinist Pigs" if they have it at Kinokuniya. I think that living in Japan has really raised my awareness and interest in sexuality and sexual identity. This is such a weird place coming from an American viewpoint. But I could write a book on that topic.

His interview with Shere Hite was awesome too... both of these interviews were in 2006 but... I was busy? I'd like to read "The Shere Hite Reader" (covering 30 years of her work) but maybe that will be afterwards.

Then there was his interview with Jane Fonda and Gloria Steinem (also in 2006) which was brilliant. I went to check out their website and it's been shut down already, but I read some reviews on why it was shut down and found a link to Air America, which I have heard of but never really checked out.

Air America

The two articles I checked out there were "Bill O'Reilly - Consistent Sexist?" and "Closing the Polls on Peace". Both interesting.

Bill O'Reilly

The Bill O'Reilly thing... hmm... Basically they're calling him sexist for some of his comments regarding Helen Thomas. I disagree. I completely agree that he's slamming on her disproportionately for being liberal / disagreeing with his opinions, and that he's kinda harsh on her about her age, but I really don't think what he says is particularly sexist by comparing her to "The Wicked Witch of the East". I mean, I really think he'd rip on an 88-year-old guy just as hard, with some other (probably offensive) metaphor. The video segment does correctly point out that his ridicule of her question is misplaced, and it points out the hypocrisy of his rebuttals against Courtney Martin from the Women's Media Center, who demanded an apology.

I guess my point here is that I think we have this culturally-ingrained oversensitivity to sexism (which I think is not the real issue here), without a proportionately healthy regard for other offenses, like personal attacks against people (regardless of age or sex) and rhetorical offenses, like making analogies that seem appropriate but are misleading. Actually, come to think of it, I'm probably guilty of the latter. What I'm saying is, I think it his statements were not only really mean (from a moral standpoint) but also wrong (from a logical standpoint), but I don't think they were particularly sexist per se.

Israel and Gaza

The other video I watched was "Closing the Polls on Peace". That was just really disturbing. Ann Wright, a retired US Army Colonel and former member of the US State Department, gives a firsthand account of a rare look at the devastation inside Gaza during this period of war. It was quite disturbing, and I guess the reason I feel that way is that I completely believe that she is honest and giving a true account of what is happening there. So many people give politically-biased reports from one side or the other, but sometimes you see someone who is really just committed to doing what is right. The same reason I (and most Americans, I guess) trust Barak Obama... just an intuition that he understands what is going on and says what he means.

Anyway, the situation in Gaza is horrific. The things the Israeli military is doing are sinister. Destroying their industries, tearing up their crop lands... using ineffectual Hamas rocket attacks as a pretext for destroying the livelihood of an entire people.

It's so hard because, having lived in Israel, I have good Israeli friends, and also Palestinian friends. I think what everyone really wants is peace. I guess from a really cynical perspective, if the Israelis drive the Palestinians out from Gaza and the West Bank, then after a few generations maybe people will adjust to the new status quo and there will be more peace than we have now. But then again, the Romans might have thought that 2000 years ago, and look at the situation now. Yes, I know it's a bad analogy. But... I just don't know what to feel.

Like, take this disturbing Flash game for example. You play the Israeli military and your job is to blow the crap out of Gaza. Your score depends on the ratio of Palestinian casualties to Israeli casualties. As in: if you kill more than 25x the number of Palestinians as the number of casualties on your side, then you win. Or something like that... I played it a few weeks ago and don't remember the exact details. But you get the point.

So... yes, I absolutely think the Israeli military is responding disproportionately to the threat, and yes, I think the US government is wrong for supporting them unconditionally. I don't think Hamas is "right", as in morally right, in their policies, but they may or may not be "right", as in effective, in what they do. I guess if getting a reaction from the Israeli military is their goal, they're pretty effective. :( In the long run, I'm not sure what will result in the greatest happiness for the greatest number two or three generations from now. But it's just terrible to hear about the destruction in Gaza. In these modern times, nobody should have to suffer like that. And as war zones go, I'm not really that well-informed, but I'm pretty sure that there are other places where things are much, much worse. When will we get beyond such primitive ways of settling our differences? I'm disappointed in the human race.

Peace on Earth?

I may sound like a hippie, but I really believe that the only way to get ahead is to embrace an abundance paradigm, so that the haves feel comfortable sharing with the have-nots, and we can actually start worrying about the best ways to help each other instead of the best ways to protect ourselves from each other.

Maybe we have to wait for times of better economic prosperity before people will feel comfortable doing that. *Sigh*...

And sorry I haven't blogged for a while. I miss all of you.