This Just In...Sex Sells!

CNN has gone ahead and presented yet another one of my pet peeves: Criticizing something but then turning around and doing it yourself but even worse.

Here's the news: The CEO of Victoria Secret decided that the blatant display of sexuality in their advertisements and specials was becoming a bit too risque. So, it was stated that Victoria Secret will tone it down. Well, leave it to CNN to broadcast their report where they spend the majority of the time playing the "this is a good thing because we're seeing too much" as they show nonstop footage of Victoria Secret models prancing around in their underwear. It's like protesting against pornography because it's too explicit, so you hold a pornography sit-in and show nonstop adult films to show everyone how raunchy it is.

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Does Democracy make better people?

I've been watching a couple of arguments on democracy and capitalism, and what often fascinates me is that as people become smarter and smarter, they tend to make really complex arguments that muddy the waters until we hit a point where we lose track of simple, common sense. We start speaking in tongues that show how intelligent we are, and we use words to trap ourselves into complex dilemmas that need even more loaded words and phrases to get outselves to dig even deeper into our arguments. By the time we're done, we advocate death and violence because our argumentation has made it a logical progression towards this end, because we lacked the simple foresight to push forth the idea that perhaps killing people for economic reasons isn't always the best alternative, especially when we justify the ends by means that only we can spend.

In Samuel Huntington's The Third Wave, we find ourselves in a situation where democracy and capitalism is a naturally occurring event that happens after major world events, such as World War I, World War II and the end of the Cold War. Each great rush towards democracy and capitalism is followed by a backlash towards dictatorships and popular, hostile oligarchies. But does recognizing all of this really lead us anywhere or just give us the ability to recognize a dog is a dog if it barks loud enough to be heard?

There has been an argument going around democracy advocates for as many years as there have been philosophers who thought about democracy: Democracy makes for better people. In other words, if you have a democracy, people will then become better people. We back this up with quantitative studies of nations that have moved forward with capitalistic intentions and democratic institutions, and we've been relatively happy with the statement. We tend to ignore the cases where it doesn't work and then claim those "other" cases weren't really democracies in the first place. Therefore, the comment still works.

I put forth the idea that perhaps the comment has never worked. It was just worded wrong. What I think really gives that phrase power is a rewording of it so that we read something closer to: Better people make democracies. And that's not just a little quibble here that I'm putting forth. It's a much larger statement, indicating that as much as we'd like to put forth the idea that installing a democracy in a nation that has never seen a democracy is a great thing, chances are pretty good we're just going to be installing the justification for someone, or someones, to raid the empire's coffers in the name of democracy, creating that sense of corruption that we generally point out is always present in dictatorships and group-run autocracies.

What we need to be focusing on is bettering the people who might benefit from a democracy and let them build whatever government is best for their functioning. Unfortunately, this means that we're really going to be successful in installing democratic institutions into a sovereign nation that has little desire to be open and just to its people. The unjust acts will continue; they'll just have the mantle of democracy to hide behind as they raid the treasury and hurt the citizenry, all in the name of God and country.

So, what is the answer then? It's not easy, it's not simple, and it's not immediate either. If we're so interested in installing just governments for people of the world, and we really think we have the onus to do just that, then we need to be focusing on the people of these areas and see about bettering them, not their system of government. If you reward those who do good things, you send a message that good things are to the benefit of all, especially the do gooders. But if you reward a country that is corrupt and works against its own people, you only reward those in power who are benefiting from the horrible dichotomy.

Unfortunately, this has been our policy for as long as we've been doing diplomacy, and I don't see it changing any time soon. Instead, I imagine if it's even discussed at all, it will be met with resistance by economics professors and those who have an incentive to create a game theoretic nightmare of rewards that continue to honor those who have no incentive to make things better.

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Public Utilities Commission

I have a job interview tomorrow with San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission as a regulatory analyst. To be honest, I'm not expecting that I'll get the job as my experience with government jobs has never really been all that successful. The PUC itself is also going through a lot of political upheaval in San Francisco as well, so I can already tell that I won't fit into that mold of what's going on there. I've been half tempted to not even go to the interview because it feels like a waste of time, but I'm pretty sure I'll go through with it.

Anyway.

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Paper accepted for Gender and Science conference

A paper written with Kat has been accepted for the Gender and Science conference. Our paper, Seen But Not Heard: An Analysis of Failed Gender Expectations Observed During the August 1991 Soviet Coup has been accepted. The conference is at the end of March. The paper uses Burke's identity theory to explain how the Soviet leadership was taken off guard by a female reporter during their press conference on the evening of the coup.

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Those brilliant technicians at Fry's Electronics

I've been gone at a tournament for the weekend, and I just returned a few minutes ago. But I had to share a story with you about my experience at Fry's Electronics near DVC College in Northern California. I was there with a few of my fellow Forensics coach friends, and we were just wandering through the store when Jeff asked a salesperson on the floor where he might find something. After receiving directions, I then turned to the salesperson and asked, "Where might I find a Flux Capacitor?"

The sales guy said that he thought they keep those at the desk, pointing to a place where a few other employees were working. At this time, Kat and Jeff both started laughing. But seeing as how this joke still had some more steam, I went to the desk and said: "The other guy over there said I might find a flux capacitor here. Any idea where they are?" The employee I spoke to started looking down the rows of components, searching for a flux capacitor, but he could not find one. So he turned to his partner who was at the desk and asked if he knew where one might be.

Meanwhile, Kat was losing it and couldn't stifle her laughter, so she wandered down the aisle where she couldn't be seen. I kept my cool and stood there while both of these employees looked for my flux capacitor. Finally, the senior of the two of them said for his partner to search their web site to see if they had any flux capacitors in stock. So, he went to use the computer, but his computer was having trouble making a connection. So, he went to another computer and typed in "Flux Capacitor". Unfortunately, the inventory management of Fry's Electronics indicated that there were no flux capacitors in the system. The employee asked me to read the spelling and asked if it was spelled correctly. I said it was. Then his partner tried entering the information into his computer, thinking that maybe his computer might be able to bring it up in their inventory better than the previous computer. I guess their inventory has different results, depending upon what computer you use. But unfortunately, his computer couldn't find a flux capacitor either. So, he then tried searching for a "flux" and about nine items came up, but as I looked through the list, I indicated that none of the responses were the one I was seeking.

So, the two guys turned to the female employee and asked her if she knew where I might find a flux capacitor. She didn't know, but she also checked the output on the screen of the computer before she shrugged her shoulders.

I was about to escalate my request to a manager before our main coach called us and indicated he needed us back at the tournament. So, we left.

But needless to say, we laughed harder than we've laughed in a very long time.

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I passed my comprehensives today

Well, I participated in the oral part of the comprehensive examinations today, and I passed. I just have to say that it felt REALLY good. I stumbled over one question, but it was all okay aside from that.

So, my next step is to put together my thesis proposal, and then to write the thesis. Looks like the story of the 1991 August Coup is finally going to get its place in academic thesis work.

Woot.

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Derailing your own candidate

There's a documentary called Can John Smith Get to Washington Anymore? where a young man appropriately named John Smith is running against a man from a strong political family for congress. In the end, John Smith loses the race, but his career as a politician actually gets jumpstarted during the next election because of his previous run. Anyway, during the movie, Smith is calling people about voting for him and one person states: "If I get another call from a politician, I'm voting for the other guy." To this, Smith quips something about calling this guy back AS the other guy.

That's what I want to talk about today. I have a friend of mine who is OVER enamored with Obama, so he's made it his personal mission to get the guy elected. Rather than just work on his campaign, he's made it so much of an issue that you can't even speak to him without Obama becoming the majority of the conversation.

Now, I sleep with my cell phone on for two reasons. One, I use the alarm function to wake up on time, and two, some people do need to get in contact with me quickly sometimes, and I have no problem with that. But 6:30am begins the text messages of "Vote Obama for change!" from this "friend". Yes, a text message wakes me up just like a phone call. That's one thing about my prior service in the Army. I wake up to a pin dropping.

So, do people even realize they're jeopardizing their candidates by pissing off everyone around them? I'm half tempted to vote for Hillary, even though I have vowed never to vote for her. I won't, but at least you get the point. If I was on the fence, I certainly would have fallen over to the wrong side of what was desired by the person trying to garner my vote.

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Latest novel

My latest novel is called Why Charlie Died. For me, it is a special novel, because it is my first mainstream novel. It is my first mainstream novel, and it is based on a play I wrote called "Never Alone". I can see a lot of great energy for this novel, and I'm really excited about it.

This evening, I watched the third Lord of the Rings movie with Kat. It's kind of cool having someone to watch those movies with because it's just not as fun to watch these movies alone.

Kat also covered my class this evening. I'm curious to see how my students respond to that. I'll be covering for her class next Tuesday.

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