House of Eratosthenes

Just this last summer, I came up with one of the Things I Know that is not worded nearly as badly as some of the others. Looked good enough for a TIK number, so I gave it one…TIK #213.

Thing I Know #213. Being a grown-up is all about being able to choose from two options, both of which suck — selecting the one that sucks less. We seem to have a lot of people who’ve managed to reach legal maturity without cultivating this skill; they want a good feeling out of every decision they make, and every decision they see someone else making. I don’t remember anyone, with or without the authority to do so, promising anyone else that this goal must always be within our reach. So when real life makes this an impossibility, nobody should be surprised.

I’ll have to say I have only foggy recollections of what my inspiration was. Perhaps it was my project rescuing an eighteen-year-old car, which had served me faithfully, after someone backed into it and caused thousands of dollars worth of damage that the insurance company said was a total loss. That’s a great example. Two options — pour lots of money into an old machine that’s already at end-of-life, or go car-shopping when I have no intention of going car-shopping, for something that wouldn’t be nearly as reliable…both options suck. All who doubt me, pick one of them, affix their name to the choice they’ve made, and wait for the criticism to sail on in. You won’t wait long.

And hey, I didn’t hit anyone. This is something that happened to me. But that’s life.

Or it probably had something to do with Iraq, with a bunch of other smaller issues tossed into the mix. Here are all these damn dirty democrats giving us these long lists of reasons why going into Iraq was a mistake, and all these reasons have to do with why we should feel bad about it. Hey, great, point made, there were disadvantages involved in what was done, and we all feel bad about them. But that’s only half the battle, Mister Argumentative Bush-Hating Person. How about answering some of the tougher questions — as the people you criticize, have done? What was the issue with our policy, and what should that policy be going forward? Nobody said a peep about that. If you waited a very long time, someone would step forward and say “we SHOULD HAVE gone into this other place, over here…” And that comes close.

But it still shows a childlike reluctance to choose from two choices, when both choices suck. Go into Iraq, or just admit we’re never going into Iraq and neither is anybody else. Those are two sucky choices, alright. I have strong issues against President Bush now. But he does deserve credit for being an adult. He chose one of the choices. Many among his critics have yet to demonstrate to me, according to TIK #213, that they are adults. They seem to want a good feeling out of every decision made…by anyone…about anything. Which is a wonderful definition of childlike thinking, if ever there was one.

Yes, I can see Iraq is a great example. On the feeling-bad part, I have deep sympathy. I take great offense at this invitation that I should hop on the bandwagon and, like the damn dirty donks, say to myself…”and since that ultimately makes me feel bad, I should look back on it and declare it a mistake, even though I made it only indirectly.” Like all thinking adults, I take great offense at this.

As a man who was put on the planet, presumably to do something to help others, I’m not here to feel good about every single decision I make.

As a man who was put in a somewhat good place, with somewhat significant advantages and comforts and tools and toys…I can’t think of a damn thing I owe to anyone who came before me, who felt good about every decision they made. Or even aspired to such a silly thing.

And there are many other issues besides Iraq that offend me this way. Health care, minimum wage, gun control, death penalty, members of Congress trolling bathrooms for gay sex. I deeply resent this subtle undertone that all correct decisions must make everyone feel good, and that if a decision fails to do this, it must be the wrong one.

Sowell Now, I don’t know if Dr. Thomas Sowell reads my blog. I have long operated under the premise that hardly anybody does. But how then do you explain this gem, which popped up in his “Random Thoughts” just this last Tuesday?

People who refuse to face the reality of hard choices are forever coming up with some clever “third way”– often leading to worse disasters than either of the hard choices.

I’ve been robbed, but I’m not calling the police. I’m quite flattered. MORE than flattered. This was much less likely to be a case of unattributed intellectual theft, than great minds thinking alike. And should I ever be inclined to doubt that, I have only to read a little bit further down at the Doctor’s other thoughts. I tell ya, if I’m to be “copied” this way, Dr. Sowell’s name is very, very high on my list of people I’d like to catch in the act of so copying. I just love the way this guy thinks.

Wise people created civilization over the centuries and clever people are dismantling it today. You can see it happening just by channel surfing on TV or hear it in rap music or read it in the pompous nonsense of academics and judges.
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Many on the political left are so entranced by the beauty of their vision that they cannot see the ugly reality they are creating in the real world.
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It is amazing how many people see no problem with having pay levels determined according to what third parties would like to see, instead of according to supply and demand.
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Chutzpah department: When disbarred former D.A. Michael Nifong mailed his Bar card back to his state Bar Association, he included a note decrying “the fundamental unfairness” with which the Bar had treated him. This from a man who was ready to ruin three lives and polarize a community, in order to win an election.

Back to the subject at hand.

I would be just FINE with repealing any age-limit on voting based on chronological measurements. I look around at the average eighteen-year-old, and I think…wait…that’s not an adult. And then I see some folks aren’t even ready to blow out their eighteen candles, and they are more than adults.

So a certain birthday has very little to do with what’s needed in a voting booth. My test seems to make so much more sense — can you choose from two options, both of which suck? In my fantasy world, that becomes the new standard. You can have your new voter card, if you can choose between…I dunno…me deflating all four tires in your car, or me coming to your house and drinking all your beer. Hopefully, we can come up with some choices that are less silly and artificial than those. But I would want both choices to suck. If you’ve got the mental acumen needed to declare one of those choices the “lesser of two evils,” accept the consequences and move on, you can vote. If not, see you next time.

You can have your new voter card, if you can choose between…I dunno…me deflating all four tires in your car, or me coming to your house and drinking all your beer.

Well, I’d opt for the latter, assuming you and I drank all the beer together. I can’t think of a more enjoyable way to deplete the beer reserves in El Casa Móvil De Pennington. As a means of getting my new voter registration card, of course.
- Buck | 09/05/2007 @ 12:53

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Imitation is the Sincerest Form XXWednesday, September 5th, 2007

Imitation is the Sincerest Form XX
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007