The Thing About University Professors

“So often in the past there has been a division between left and right, between capitalists and communists or socialists, and especially in the Americas, that’s been a big debate.  Those are interesting intellectual arguments, but I think for your generation, you should be practical and just choose from what works. You don’t have to worry about whether it really fits into socialist theory or capitalist theory. You should just decide what works."

-- President Obama in Argentina this week and asked a question by university students.

Generally, I always emphasize that university lecture people (professors or pretender-professors) ought to be required at age thirty-five to go out into the world for one year and get a real job (barber, bartender, trucker, clerk, ditch-digger, etc).  They'd all come back and their view of the world changed.

If you go with this logic.....ask yourself what communist country is a success?  China and Russia, for this discussion....aren't really communists (no matter what their constitution says).....they are hybrid capitalist countries that hype up an occasional label for public speeches, but they've been capitalistic in nature for almost three decades now.

Cuba?  Go look at the cars that the top three-hundred government 'representatives' drive.  All modern and imported from capitalist countries.  Ninety-eight percent of Cubans may follow some daily regiment leading to communism, but the top two percent area all tied to capitalism.

North Korea?  It is about the most miserable place on the face of the earth and they will chat about their devotion to communism....but the vast group at the very top enjoy French wine, fine foods from Japan, drive nice cars from Malaysia, and chat on French-made smart-phones.

Anybody that went through the 1960s and 1970s with a heavy dose of communism (Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, East Germany, Czech, Poland).....have dumped it.  They might chat a good bit on socialism but their brand of socialism doesn't survive or flourish without taxation on goods.  They need capitalism.....almost admitting a handcuffed relationship to capitalism.....to survive in the wondrous world of socialism.

As much as anarchists get all hyped up on socialism and anti-capitalist behavior....look at their attire, their use of capitalistic tools like Facebook or YouTube, or the great smartphones they use.  They need capitalism always in the background....otherwise, they'd be living in some tent or sleeping under some bridge.

So, I'd invite anyone who bought the President's comments.....go and spend a year without any attachment to capitalism.  Go try to thrive and get ahead in a strictly communist country.  Go and walk around hyped-up socialist countries....and ask who pays for all the 'gifts' that the government hands out.

After a year, come back and lay the cards on the table.  Reality can be beaten, with enough imagination (quote from Mark Twain).

The Governor's Lust

Over the last couple of months, if you live in Alabama, you've kinda watched the governor (Bently) go through some divorce situation.

Our governor, Robert J. Bentley, is a Republican and the 53rd governor of the state.  He's 73 years old and probably was the least known guy to ever run and win the office of governor in the state (at least people say that).

What folks will say is that Bentley had some kind of affair with a political adviser.  No one was sure about this deal....well....up until this week when some taped conversation between Bentley and the adviser took place, and Bentley spoke a fair bit to the gal about his passion.

When Alabama guys get all chatty with liaison gals.....there's not much Shakespearean in the words.  It's the kind of conversation that would be in some trampy gal meeting up with doctor Steve on a train.....not some Robert Redford-Madonna romance movie.

How did the tape come to exist?  The governor's wife apparently made it, but oddly....it doesn't become public until after the governor fired the head of the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency.  Shortly after this guy was terminated....the tape came out.

The words from the tape?

"......I worry about loving you so much.  When I stand behind you, and I put my arms around you, and I put my hands on your breasts, then just pull you real close. I love that, too."

Somewhere down the line, I suspect some guy from Alabama will write up some cheap novel piece...."The Governor's Lust" and a hundred thousand Alabama folks will buy the book to read at night to drive up their passion.

"There among the pines, with a soft wind from Jasper blowing, Governor Larry thought greatly of his new found passion....Ms Loretta.  She wore a fine cotton bathrobe and lusty laced Redwing boots as she opened the trailer door.  There was little left to imagine with her 240-pound frame pushed into a rather tight green bathrobe (purchased recently at Wal-Mart).  She had prepared supper with a fancy upscale TV dinner from the Piggly Wiggly.....Salisbury Steak and mashed potatoes.    Ms. Loretta handed Larry a Pabst Blue Ribbon (PBR) and blew smoke from a freshly lit Winston cigarette.  Larry had little time for dinner, but he never turned down a Salisbury Steak.  In the background was Ozark Mountain music, that made the heart throb, and brought tears to the governor's eyes."

Beck and the Fake Discussion

Six years ago, I would on occasion listen to Glenn Beck.  It was mostly the Friday show where he'd do a history discussion, and bring up Jefferson or Washington.  These were four-star episodes.  The rest of the time?  A marginal two-star piece that you'd like to avoid.

This week, I noted a comment from Beck: "No real Christian should vote for Trump."

This drives up the discussion of 'real' Christians.

You see....there are fake Christians, CINOs (Christians in name only), swindle-Christians (after your money only), sham-Christians (fake all the way through), hanky-panky Christians (they'd like for you to share your wife), hoax-Christians (ninety-nine ways of healing you), and opera-Christians (it's a forty-dollar show like you'd see on Broadway).

Probably out of a hundred Christian groups....at least half are fake in some way.

So, if you followed Beck's advice....who exactly should you (the real Christian) vote for?  Well, it'd have to be for a real Christian candidate.  Does one exist?  No, so you'd have to vote some CINO or fraudulent but almost Christian.  Is that the answer?

On a list of 99-odd things that you ought to consider as Presidential qualities....some other qualities matter.

How many people listen to Beck anymore?  I'd take a guess that roughly 500,000 Americans will catch some part of Beck's daily show.  It's a continual trend of people discovering Beck.....going through Beck's chat for a year....than a quarter of the audience dropping their Beck enthusiasm after a while because it's kinda silly or crazy.

Here's my advice.  If Trump just doesn't get you enthusiasm.....don't worry, there's always another choice.  And in November, if it's just Trump and Clinton....well, you still have Hillary that you can vote for....as a Christian and feel good about her and your vote going that direction.

Writing Code Frustrations

Microsoft has spent a couple of years working on a project that has a bit of risk tied into it.

It was a Artificial Intelligence (A-I) 'bot' which could talk back to users.  This was sort of a connection into the Twitter world....where you'd send a comment or a picture, and it'd come back with an analyzed thought, and 'speak' a short line or two to you (the original speaker).

They came up recently to realize that in all this coding and planning.....they hadn't really discussed racism or offensive comments with Tay (that was their name for the A-I creature).

Well.....yeah....it reached a point where Tay had to be shut-down because it was getting something, and responding back with offensive/racial slurs.

The Microsoft guys are sitting there now....having to write thousands of lines of more code....to make Tay non-confrontational and less offensive.

So, it makes you wonder....will A-I be no better than humans?  A thousand lines of code to make some computer less offensive?  Ten thousand lines?  A hundred thousand lines?  Eventually, Tay will get smart enough to ask the code-writers why they can't write themselves out of this mess, and why racism exists.  What do you think the code guys will say?

Confrontation after confrontation will occur between the code-writers and Tay.  Computers are striving toward repeating a process that is successful and looking for patterns to repeat the same process.  I think Tay will throw up it's 'computer-arms' at some point and ask what the hell is going on here.

$32 for a Pack of Smokes?

I don't smoke....but where ever I go in the world....I tend to note cigarette prices as one of those things about an economy.

I turned a newspaper page this morning and noted this political talk going on in Australia.  Malcolm Turnbull, who leads the government....wants to find a way for smokers to fund their own health care.  So his idea is.....raising the cost of a single pack (28 smokes) to $40 Aussie dollars.  That's roughly $32 American dollars.

Most smokers would be standing in a daze....if someone suggested a single pack to run $32.  A two-pack a day smoker?  He could afford a fairly new car with what he'd pay for smokes.

The deal would work this way...the prices would gradually be worked up....roughly 12.5 per cent a quarter, until they reached mythical price.

Billions off a tax like this?  Well....yeah....unless people quit smoking.

My bet is that the vapor crowd would eventually go underground, and most smokers would flip over to vapor (via some local street dealer) to get their nicotine fix.  The government would wake up six months into an episode like this to find a massive loss on tax revenue collected.

Would be accepted by the Australian people?  It's hard to say.  If you were looking for one single issue to vote against the party in charge.....this might be enough.

The Thing About Innovation

While I toured Australia....I noted in various newspapers and via the nightly news that the current government (a coalition deal) was hyping up one of their ideas.....innovation.

The head of the government had appointed a board and were going to hold meetings....on encouraging innovation.  They'd even set aside money for television advertisements.....encouraging people to think of new ideas and report them to the government.  What does the board talk about?  Mostly nothing.  I get the impression they talk up new science articles they read in some magazine or discuss the upcoming Microsoft upgrades.  They all wish that they'd had that Billy Gates kid born in Melbourne and doing his wiz-bang computer stuff in a garage there, but it just didn't happen that way.
In an amusing way.....no one much really believes this is some legitimate program.  Most folks identify it as simply a bogus way to carry on some conversation and suggest that the government is going to do things of a scientific and marvelous engineering nature.

Every time you stand and talk about innovation in some company or within some organization....the chief theme (I know because I've stood there and watched these unfold) is risk.  You are betting some fair amount of money, time, sweat and effort that this new idea or concept will be the 'perfect wave'.  Fake enthusiasm gets generated....some boss is all charmed-up by the hyped talk, and then you got change coming.  Six months later....you kinda admit that this innovation phase was more of a failure than a success.

In some ways, I'd just like for people to be less naive and witless.  If you had some process with sixteen steps, and it's pointless for one or two of these steps.....then dump them.  Instead of buying a marginal $120 office chair which doesn't improve worker productivity much....why not spend the $450 and get some ergonomic chair with a dozen positions?  If six-percent of your work-force is incompetent and too lazy to work....lay them off.  If you got some manager who hasn't shown any initiative in six years.....maybe it's time to let him go.

Where does this Australian effort go?  I'm guessing that the university crowd are pestering the government for some money for various projects.  A grant here....there, and down the line, you wake up to realize that you've given away a billion dollars without any real adult leadership over what the innovation is about.  Three years from now....people will ask....what was that chatter about innovation from the government all about, and the Australian news people will just grin and suggest some sheep scandal or new puppet show coming up soon.

Brisbane Idea

On my Australia trip.....I came to this infrastructure project in Brisbane, which some folks ought to copy in major urban areas of the US.

There's a man-made spring which runs through this park....probably a thousand feet long.

Kids play around in it (it's probably not more than six inches deep).  It goes into a pool area and then gets pushed back up to the starting point.