Protect Me
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I'm Stupid. At least I'm a lot stupider than I thought I was. The world is full of dangers, and I guess I'm too stupid to figure it out.

I'm sure glad there's Smart People around. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and glad that there's people smarter than me looking out for my interests and minding my business. People who, unlike me, have their lives in order and have the time and the wisdom to care for poor misguided, stupid sheep like me. People who, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that I shouldn't have to suffer because of my own ignorance and stupidity. People who have taken it upon themselves to seek out the things that might be dangerous to me and preach at me about those dangers. People who, in my own interest, have decided that if my limited intellect can't (or my perverse stubbornness prevents me from) comprehending the dangers, then they will demonize, ban, prohibit and/or outlaw all the dangerous things in my life.

I was sitting in a motel room in Oregon on July 1st (I think) watching Oregon Public Broadcasting (the cable selection at the motel was severely limited and I was tired of watching the Weather Channel). On the screen was an alleged documentary on fireworks. It started with pretty pictures of public fireworks displays, then cut to footage of private individuals setting off fireworks. The voice-over talked about the number of injuries each year from fireworks (a few thousand, if I remember correctly). It then mentioned that most injuries come from illegally obtained fireworks. Then it cut to pictures and descriptions of a town in Peru where several hundred people died when unregulated fireworks stands (in PERU) caught fire in a narrow street.

Now,what conclusions are we supposed to draw from this about fireworks use in America? That people should be responsible for their own mistakes? That fireworks are inherently dangerous and that if we choose to use them, we are responsible for that use? That choosing to use fireworks implies an acceptance of the risk? That parents should supervise their children's fireworks?

No. We are supposed to come to the conclusion that because we sheep are too stupid to understand the dangers involved with playing with fire, fireworks should be further regulated or banned altogether.

Like I said, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside...

 

by Cziltang 
Posted: Thursday, July 15 2004 05:29:00 PM

On Blogging
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Since my wife's grandparents died, I haven't been writing much. Nothing I have to say at the moment seems anything but trivial. Perhaps it is the shadow of death still clinging to us. Perhaps I'm just too tired to think. Perhaps I'm just recoiling a bit from the "vanity press" nature of blogging.

I saw today in The Register that 8000 new blogs are created every day. 45 percent of blogs haven't had an entry in 3 months. But a significant portion are updated every day.

Even when I'm on a roll, I've never posted to this beast daily. I'm all for inane blathering, but even I don't have that much to say. Keeping Sturgeon's Law in mind, I am confident that I fall comfortably into the 90% that are crud. And I'm really OK with that. I never expected a huge following and I've mostly kept myself cognizant of the fact that I do this for me anyway. In many respects, the only reason I post any of this stuff is that making it (potentially, at least) public forces me to cut out most of the whining that occasionally creeps into my private journals.

There's no earth-shaking point here, I'm just trying to get back in the swing of things and get my life more or less back to normal. Writing semi-regularly has become a part of what I consider normal.

by Cziltang 
Posted: Tuesday, July 13 2004 09:21:36 PM