The relationship between parent and child is always, at least partially, adversarial. Parents must discipline their children, or the socialization process will fail. As we grow up, in order to become adults, we must fight for independence from our parents. Our parents will have trouble letting go. Our parents will not always realize the difference between proper discipline and improper repression. Neither will we, the children.

Google News shows how often the Internet news media mention various presidential candidates:

Bush 239,000
Kerry 151,000
Nader 9,400
Cobb 528
Badnarik 472
Peroutka 219

Bush gets more coverage than Kerry. At first I assumed this was due to lots of non-campaign stories focused on President Bush's official duties, but after reviewing the headlines for stories that mention Bush without mentioning Kerry, I don't think coverage of official duties explains why Bush gets 60% more coverage than Kerry. The news media simply focus more on Bush than on Kerry. Bush is President, so he gets more ink. Almost half of the stories about Bush don't even mention Kerry.

More than 80% of the stories about Kerry also mention Bush. The coverage of Kerry consists almost entirely of stories comparing Kerry to Bush.

Kerry is mentioned 16 times more often than Nader. The typical Nader story covers either his various ballot access woes, or his potential for grabbing votes from Kerry (as though Kerry owns them). A typical headline: "Nader Emerging as the Threat Democrats Feared" — Polls show that he could influence the outcomes in nine states by drawing support from Mr. Kerry. Nader is treated as the spoiler candidate who took Florida away from Gore in 2000, even though every non-Bush/Gore candidate on the Florida ballot received more than the 527 votes separating Gore from Bush.

Kerry is mentioned 300 times more often than the Green candidate, David Cobb. There is no particular theme to the coverage of Cobb's campaign, but when a major news outlet like The Washington Post covers him, they frame the story like this: "Outside Spotlight, Greens On the Go" — Like other minor parties the Greens struggle with the perception that a vote for them is a wasted vote.

Libertarian Badnarik's thin coverage is mostly local stuff covering his appearances at college campuses or his participation in various debates with other non-Bush/Kerry candidates.

Peroutka, the candidate of the Constitution Party, is on more ballots than Nader, but gets the least coverage of those candidates who could, theoretically, receive enough electoral votes to win. Peroutka is the "true" conservative in the race, strict on both social and fiscal issues, and he would follow an isolationist foreign policy.

no, we don't

one of the more damaging afflictions of modern life is this belief, or feeling, that for every perceived or potential problem we must fashion an appropriate public response ...

a new agency, law, publicity campaign, charity, punishment, educational curriculum, political movement, activist organization, niche publication, slogan, enforcement effort, covert operation, diplomatic initiative, treaty, government funding, airstrikes, speeches, donations, vaccinations ...

we don't always have to do something

(I wrote this on October 4, 2001)

There is some overlap ... it isn't like brains always come at the price of brawn, or vice versa ...

But it occurred to me this morning that if I spent as much time working out as I spend "thinking" out, that I'd be one terribly hot dude ;-) (This is not a request for people to tell me that I'm "hot" just the way I am!)

I'm a really smart guy, and I like being really smart, and I maintain that sense of feeling really smart by spending a lot of time reading and writing, a lot of time tuned into print media, a lot of time interacting with other really smart people. And, I've followed career paths that demand a lot of smarts, such as corporate tax law.

There are probably guys who think of themselves as really hot, and who like being really hot, and who maintain that sense of feeling really hot by spending a lot of time in the gym, a lot of time playing sports, a lot of time interacting with other really hot guys. They might pursue careers that demand a lot of physical activity ...

I guess I've made my choice, that I'd rather maximize being smart than being hot. I can still exercise, but I need to hold it in perspective. I'm never going to be as hot as the fellas who spend most of their time working at it.

All that carbon dioxide released by the burning of fossil fuels used to be part of the atmosphere, until it was removed by plants (the planet used to be much warmer than it is today). All we hydrocarbon burners are doing is returning that carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, where it belongs, where it came from.

If we were not doing so, then the long-term plant-facilitated removal of carbon dioxide would continue, until there wasn't any left, and then all the plants would die, and the planet would get very cold, and then all the mammals would die (including us humans), and the cycle of life on earth would end.

Global warming is simply one half of a natural life cycle, in which plants fix carbon dioxide (cooling the planet), and humans free it (warming the planet). To claim that somebody is hurt by this natural cycle is like claiming that somebody is hurt by rainfall, or evaporation, or sunlight, or night time, or the progression of the four seasons.

I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

I am developing more courage, I've had to, as my empathy has taken me new places. Buddhism appeared at first, to me, all about observation. I called it the WYSIWYG religion. It appeared, at first, to be a calming religion, one that my friend Chuck advised me to continue pursuing as a treatment for my occasional panic attacks during law school.

Note that Emerson is "not afraid of falling" ... is that because he knows he won't fall, or because he knows that falling won't hurt him? Or because he isn't afraid of being hurt? Dipping retains control, whereas falling loses it.

Well, Buddhism started out as calm observations and deep breathing exercises, but then I got better at observing, and I started empathizing with whatever I was observing. More than that, I started popping out of my own head, and entering what used to be objects of my consciousness. I started feeling my consciousness expanding beyond my ego, into parts of the universe that I had not considered "me". The first time that happened, I labeled the sensations enlightenment. Then it happened again, then it happened again, and now it happens pretty much whenever I try, which makes the universe a very busy place for me!

Is knowledge a function of energy expenditure? The creation of, maintenance of, and access to knowledge all require energy expenditure.

Perhaps conscious life forms are those entities which maintain and reproduce themselves via the probabilistic maintenance of energy-dependent knowledge systems.

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Knowledge is a function of energy, and new knowledge has opened new sources of energy for exploitation by the human race, which have then led to even more new knowledge. Technologies lead to new discoveries, which lead to new technologies, inter-fertilizing each other ...

Sure, the laws of thermodynamics tell us that matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed, only transformed ... but knowledge changes the availability of these matter and energy transformations for conscious use, including the pursuit of additional knowledge.

We are currently living inside of a positive feedback knowledge-energy bubble that seems to be expanding with exponential force, just like the universe itself. Such an exciting time to be alive :-)