August 15, 2008 – 10:16 am
I like to travel and I like to blog. I don’t do either as much as I might like. Microblogging gets done even less despite supposedly being easier, faster, more convenient. Am I doing it wrong?
It is common among my San Francisco friends to sling tweets in a bar or restaurant or shopping mall while friends look on. It gets less annoying over time but in a social situation the snub sticks because the act is essentially parasocial. The elitism faded after the rise of microblogging via SMS but the snub still sticks.
During a cross-country motorcycle trip I twittered my gas stops. This was a comfort for friends and family and I might find it useful if I decide to retrace my path and need a reference. That kind of usefulness doesn’t come around often.
I am waiting for a plane, typing on a sub-qwerty BlackBerry Pearl keypad into the standard WordPress post box, even though it is crippled by my primitive mobile browser. It seems I think of mobile blogging not when engaging in exciting outdoor activities, or seeing amazing things, or talking with interesting people, but when I have nothing better to do. (If you wonder, I press 18 keys to add emphasis each time.)
Usually I am happy to spend waiting time immersed in an audiobook or music. Today I posted a few words of status on Facebook when I sat down for a wait. I remembered that just a few minutes ago while driving I turned off the radio to develop some thoughts by expessing them out loud. Had I thought to buy speech recognition software and a voice recorder I could be editing those forgotten words on my laptop right now.
I don’t think I will ever get the hang of microblogging until I have a device that makes it so easy that it outweighs the lack of usefulness. And now they are closing the aircraft door and my thumbs hurt. Bye.
The Supreme Court of the United States interprets the Second Amendment as protecting the individual’s right to own a gun. Some limitations apply. Offer not valid outside of United States.
Washington, D.C. residents: you may now lock and load in the privacy of your homes.
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This discussion has legs.
Personally, I think that gun ownership is stupid. Guns don’t stop crime and all it takes is looking at other countries with strict gun laws to see what the result is.
You not wish to own a gun. That’s fine. I am a gun owner. Calling gun ownership stupid is a personal affront to all gun owners. Luckily for you, dueling is out of fashion.
It is fashionable to rest an argument entirely on favorable statistical analysis. This trend signals bad times for individualism. To rely solely on aggregated data for governance is to settle on “the greatest good for the greatest number” with the added delusion that causes are known. If anything can be decided from crime statistics it is the question of where one can feel safe without firearms.
Both sides find studies to back up their case. Both sides fund studies to back up their case. In deciding whether to own a gun, I have as much interest in crime statistics as the founders did. They were ready to kill for their beliefs. They understood that when your time comes, statistics are no more vital than table manners.
I don’t care about gun statistics because I am not fundamentally invested in preserving every human life. I am interested in preserving some and I believe that I would use lethal force to do so. Lethal force comes in many varieties. A person who would take away my right to choose a gun is not sensible to me. Such a person is antagonistic to my instinct and to my reason.
We don’t only disagree about gun rights. Heavier things are moved beneath the surface. The underlying disagreement may be somewhere in these statements:
I do not value all lives equally. Some things are worth killing for. I would rather kill than be killed. I would rather kill than let a loved one be killed. Individuals are typically good judges of their own circumstances. A collective of toothless individuals is worse than a toothless collective.
Pull out your own teeth but leave me mine. They might help you some day.
Is anyone in favor of the Farm Bill’s sustained subsidy of profitable agricultural businesses or is this a moot point among us?
