David wrote:
Do you need better leaders? Do people need more information? Do they need a change of perspective? Or does their mood need to be changed?

And then on a practical level (and I suppose this is really the question), for whatever needs to be changed, can people willfully change it in an effective way, or is it something that simply either will change or will not change? So it may be that if the important thing is more "the mood of the people" that we can't change it as easily as if it's an issue of knowledge. It's much easier to educate people on particular facts than it is to change their mood or perspective, I think.

The reason this question is important in my mind is, let's say you're worried about global warming (which you, Brian, are). It seems to me that there's very little you can do by yourself. By your own estimation of the problem, you need people around the globe to change how they're doing things. So my question translates into this: Can you change the way people around the globe do things, and if so, how?


I appreciate these questions. I typically look to history with an idealistic lens for the answers. Would Hitler have come to power with out the Treaty of Versailles? If an equally charismatic leader came about at that time could he have instead called for a national push toward beating the British by working harder? Was Gandhi the right person at the right time or just the right person? A question you often hear political pundits pose is would Obama be president without George W Bush?

(I ask these questions not necessarily to solve Global warming or poverty, but to prevent or reverse this: http://www.livevideo.com/video/1EFA0174 ... intro.aspx )

Clearly you need a problem that is serious enough to invoke change. If there were not British people in India then Gandhi would like kinda of ridiculous going on a hunger strike to get rid of them. Though once the problem is addressed, how can you mobilize popular opinion and societal change? I believe the ingredients are basically just an ingenious argument that both shakes peoples current foundations yet connects with them and a platform: a book that sells, a person who is listened to, an organisation with influence and respect, to get people to give an open mind to the argument.

I am trying to write a novel that both espouses my beliefs and is entertaining/interesting/humorous. In the broadest of terms I believe the problem is glorified ignorance, selfishness, a lack of a longer perspective, and apathy to the massive problems facing mankind. I believe the wealthiest nation in history is capable of so so much more and that we should both hold ourself and others to higher "elitists" expectations.

So what is my tangible cure to tell people who want to change the society...

I have yet to come up with an ingenious argument or solution for that question other then writing this book about a cool guy who befriends a celebrity baseball player. Ideally I would like to see a national dialog that gets the same public outcry that vilified Michael Vick for not escaping a dogfighting culture, vilify people who can not escape conforming to a culture of self indulgence. Further a dialog that addresses the real concern of the more efficient and forward thinking Chinese overtaking us and what that would mean (Phillip was leery the David Brooks article that posed that question, but I loved that article). You get these cultural debates which change culture through one of the attention getting platforms I previously mentioned.

A culture obsessed with "freedom" to be as dumb and lazy and selfish as we want, is hard to combat.

Do you think my description and kind solution of the problem at hand is the hyperbolic ramblings of a naive young man?

Déjà vu do (Short Story)

Déjà vu do

I love…love doing enjoyable social things, especially with the involvement of women. However, I don’t like doing them alone. Its quite paradoxical, I love being sociable but am too scared to with some sort of confidant. My good friends have all moved away and my second string friends have a first team squad where they spend most of their time; therefore, I am spending most of my time in isolation. A get the since a majority of my life has been in isolation. Another paradoxical thing, it is only when I am isolated and crave other human beings, that I am most terrified one actually might be secretly present.

I hate telling the same story, but because I do so little, I have only a hand full of quality anecdotes. Inevitably I repeat them, so if I catch myself then I stop the story awkwardly and ask the person if I am repeating myself. Most of the time the other party was nice enough to not tell me, but when they respected my request of honesty it just really pissed me off. If I realize midway through an unprepared story is not as great as when it happened, I start to embellish. I typically get really giddy about telling an awesome story that stars me, but the giddiness gets reversed to angst when I realize I have told it or its lame.

I am with my friend Craig, who is in town from Transylvania. He is the one living an adventures life and I am telling him about my mundane existence as a substitute teacher. I become self aware of this horribly boring story detailing my life and ask him to tell me about the peace work he has been doing in Tanzania. As he is telling me, these two girls overhear and it just so happens they are also doing peace work and the really incredible part is they are also doing it in Tibet. I am typically rather horrid at talking with ladies, but tonight it is like there interest match up perfectly with mine. There is a weird...trippey quality to the whole experience. It feels like constant déjà vu, where I have been there before, but it’s like a Dali painting where all time is stopped.

This déjà vu is with really obvious things. Like at the restaurant a couple sat down and I felt a deja vu that the waiter was going to bring them food. However, I get the since that it was the same couple, ordering the same food, from the same waiter, in exactly the same circumstance, that engulfs my brain and makes the situation feel more then familiar. This new found deja vu is not something I hate, its actually kind of enjoyable from the monotony of the day to day. However, I have the sneaking suspension that it is driving me insane.

I digress, as I was saying this pretty beautiful girl invites me over to her apartment, which looks like mine, but it is somewhat more opaque. I am trying to stay positive, because this constant déjà vu is somehow brining me down, despite how badass this scenario is promising to be. I am directed to her computer and shown pictures of her in dimly let clubs being social and fun. After I view the fortieth or so picture, the déjà vu becomes intense. I am not sure if it is because I have seen her pictures before, or if it seems my whole life is sitting alone bitterly watching others live a segment of the life I wish I was living.

So, I guess I blacked out during the awesome part, but I am pretty sure it was awesome. I am really disappointed because I don’t know if I made out with her or we did more or hopefully not less. I am terribly sad I can not remember this total contrast from my usual routine.

As I am sitting in my room figuring out how to keep this bizarre scenario from turning in to something that is not uplifting. I decide to enhance it, so I got my buddy to buy me weed. This is the first time I have bought it and am worried about having a criminal record, but I am so bored and need something to enhance this déjà vu like day.

So as I am sitting in my room having smoked a good deal of the marijana, a rush of intense fear engulfs me. I am at first not sure why I am so scared and then I remember that the sense the déjà vu is giving me is that there are Pakistani terrorist in my basement waiting to film my beheading. I couldn’t move, nor did I want to, because I new with the lights on in my bed the element of surprise was removed from their plan and I was temporarily safe. I eventually desperately had to pee, but I could not get up because they were waiting to abduct me. Part of me realized I was acting like I god dang four year old, but I remembered through the déjà vu, that it was when I got up to pee that I got abducted by terrorist. Therefore, the only way to prevent it was to stay in bed. Eventually, I just decided that I could not hold it in any longer, so I just went for it and I pissed myself.

The previous night I kept repeating to myself, that I was flushing the weed down the toilet when this experience was over. I could not put myself through that insane paranoia again, so I simply could never ever smoke again. However, I hate wasting things. I figured I wouldn’t plan on smoking, but what if I girl came over, then it would be really fun to smoke with her. While, girls absolutely never come over, I recalled the Boy Scout motto of always be prepared.

A friend of mine who I hated was however coming over. We had been friends from high school because we both had in common but one thing, we both didn’t want to not have any friends. He was mean, loud, bossy and just generally terrible. However, despite me hating him, I was excited to have someone to go out with, since it was Halloween and felt obligated to go out to the bar. I figured with my parents out of town, we could have some drinks here, and then go out to the bar scene in Alexandria. He agreed to drive, so as I waiting for him I started drinking. He eventually called me to tell me that a better offer came up and he wasn’t going to hang out. I was only kind of drunk at this point, but figured that tonight would be a good night to just drink and smoke until I reached Nirvana. So I played video game guitar and I guess drank for a while. Then I felt if I really wanted to convince myself I was a rock star, so I considered smoking the weed. Since I wanted to done with it, I figured the best thing to do, would be to smoke all of it, which was a fucken insane amount for me. It was like a suitcase full, which somehow did not feel like what I purchased. However, I am pretty sure I did smoke it all. I played the game for a while until I kept feeling like there was someone coming down stairs to do harm to me. So I went up to my family room and turned on the television and watched Barack Obama give a speech on Cspan. I got depressed about how I was too smart to be trapped at my parent’s house and not working for the president and doing something altruistic. So I figured I would go all out tonight and then be done after tonight and start my life a fresh tomorrow. The weed made me super horny, so I figured I would walk to the bar that was about a mile or two down the road and use my drunk to pick up a girl. I took the back roads to progress down before I would cross the main road and hit the strip mall.

Oh nooooooo, what had I done.

In got lost in the woods. Though these woods were not like the woods seemed larger and more haunting then the neighborhood woods. How did this happen. Nothing bad happens when I don’t leave the house.

As the marijuana was starting to take affect, it dawned on me what an idiot I was for smoking so much. I recalled that pot: first, dulls reaction time, second it heightens your senses, and third, it also can make you paranoid. As soon as I recalled them happening they occurred. So, on top of my natural paranoia being heightened, there is also the added paranoia that just comes from smoking. I thought about what a truly a brilliant decision I made smoking the night after I wet the bed. Then I laughed at the even more brilliant decision walking in woods, a setting that fostered oh so many childhood nightmares of being chased with chain saw yielding serial killer. I new I was high, but I did not feel high, and I new these woods were going to be the end of me before it even happened.

This was the moment that I die! Oh yea, I am going to die. God, please don’t let me die tonight, I beg you! This is not when I am supposed to die! I want to write a book and be president and meet women I can marry. No I can’t die tonight! I am going to die. I started to laugh and then chanted that I am going to kill you before you kill me. I didn’t believe it but figured if he heard me it might scare him away. Then I thought it could be the cops that I heard and if they caught me I would be arrested for drugs. But sure one arrest would totally be worth not being abducted by Jeffrey Dahmer. The cops also probably wouldn’t be to found having my bullshit friend’s army knife on me. Then the thought what if he is a supernatural being, who can not be beat. What if I end up in hell and I am forever burning and in a pit of lava, and I am alive forever and underneath theit of lava I am being pulled apart and I am forever alone. There is nothing but pain. I cant deal with this, why I am going crazy. I work hard, I am cleaver and nice and yet somehow I am going to die tonight. They are gong to abduct me and its going and be tortured by way of jamming things in my orifices and sticking a sharp long needle in my eye. I am going to die the same way the guy they named vampires after killed his victims. I can’t let this happen, but what can I do. I am helpless against my minds own paranoia of the worst. Is this how my entire life has been, in this perpetual state of misery, is this deja vu. Then suddenly I heard a loud helicopter like rumble, that I thought might also be near by DC having a nuc be detonated. So I impulsively dove to the ground, handily recalling my school days of getting low in the instance of nuclear inhalation. Then suddenly I was hit, I was right to be paranoid they were after me. I had yellow blood all over my jacket. I thought if I was going to die, I had to get a hold of my life and fight both the real and imagined monsters. As I grabbed the knife I knew this was a turning point in my life.

As I awoke after briefly dozing off as I hid in leaves, I hoped that was the low point in my life. It was still dark and I was covered in wet leaves and again felt like I was reliving something. The fun of experiencing constant fake deja vu was gone. So I tried to overcome this disorder.

I am overcome by the emotions of fear, angst, and a feeling of disgust. I guess I can be at peace with myself.


Sitting in that rather comfortable chair the cloudy paranoid details of the dark period suddenly vanished in a moment of sublime relief. I funny thought occurred to me; the déjà vu very well might have been real. If so, it was quite the relief to realize that it was not the paranormal that was not what was driving me crazy. However, I still didn’t feel particularly good, especially physically. Then thanks to my amazing memory, I realized why. It was the rush of electric current that just so happened to run out of juice before it was supposed to kill me. Then two semi profound thought bobbed around in my head, which conveniently sum up my circumstances: what we project on the inside is inevitably what we project outwardly and coming to terms with ones mortality makes the time before we face it more relevant. I actually don’t really know if that is profound, because I was not an ideal state of mind. I then asked the executioner if I could get to a free pass on life since they fucked up my execution. To which he replied, no sorry and then got jolted back in to another sting of some more trippey deja vu.

This blog needs a theme

During winter break I will retool my blog for bigger and better things. To all loyal readers (obviously no one) dont worry the same thing you have always loved about this blog (clearly nothing) will still be there (hopefully it wont because no one reads my shit).

Tim and Eric have an Awesome show

After watching clip after clip of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job I wonder what makes me adore this show so much. Most people after watching this show I imagine probably lament something to the affect of "it's so stupid". However, that misses the genius of the show; the complexly crafted absurdity of television. Whether that be the millions of unqualified people who so desperately want to be on television that they will sign up for anything or the people who have no who have been somehow been granted access to production equipment which leads them to exploit the latest in video technology with the result being an excessive weirdness. What makes this show so immensely enjoyable is the level of absurdity pursued. Whether it be a parody of a 80's public access video rebelling against wiping once butt, a home video showing you how to handle your child clown if it falls asleep, or Rain Wilson selling an encyclopedia filled with all the different numbers in existence. Take this in comparison to Snakes on a Plane which didn't take the absurdity nearly far enough or other shows on Adult swim that just repeatly go for over-the-top randomness in their absurdity instead of intelligent satirical references like Tim and Eric do. There is just so much dreadful material that somehow gets watched or people our forced to watch (educational training and what not) that so intellectually mocks the absurdity of it all makes Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job so fucken awesome.

So copy and paste this link in the address bar and enjoy(if you are reading this blog I have to imagine you will at least kinda enjoy it)

http://www.adultswim.com/shows/timandericawesomeshow/indexpage.html#video

Attention Abortion issue voters: you’re not having an Impact

Attention Abortion issue voters: you’re not having an Impact

It is first important to state that I am pro life; I believe that the government can intervene and make a thoughtful judgment as to when life begins (obviously with accountability to their constituents in mind). However, I have also developed a level of political practicality, which is why abortions has slipped from my sole political issue when I was a teenage, to one so far down the spectrum that at most it could have a subconscious affect on who I vote for (for instance: if both candidate our in all ways terrible). So, a logical next question would be: if you believe abortion is murder, how can it slip so far?

First, I would argue that it is not obviously murder. I have made a judgment that it’s at best morally dubious and in particular, late trimester abortions our pretty scummy. This however is not the same thing as shooting piercing hot led in a fully developed and fully alive human being. If the paramount goal in stopping abortion is stopping murder then giving aid to those who suffer from dire starvation, spurring global development or preventing genocide should be political issues that should be given far higher precedent to while contemplating ones political ideology. Though, pro-lifers often neglect these issues while on the candidates’ issues page and instead opt to do a Ctrl F for the word abortion and have their mind made up.

Second, even if you do believe that abortion is tantamount to murder; can it be stopped politically. Four almost eight years we have had the most anti-abortion candidate to hold the presidency since Roe V Wade, yet abortion is hardly any closer to getting overturned then it was at the beginning of the millennium. This is because the majority of the country is NOT against banning all practices of abortion. Those who consider themselves pro-choice has only grown since the 1970’s, so unless you can come up with unique/ingenious argument as to why the majority of Americans our wrong on in being pro-choice and get them to listen to it, then its not changing. Therefore, at this point totally eliminating the practice is simply not going to happen so why not just demote the issue in favor of more pressing concerns.

Therefore, it must be encouraged for those who our pro life to speak out against it. If you truly care deeply then study all angles and try to come up with that renowned thesis lessening the practice, yet do this in conjunction with other policies that save lives. So, if the true goal of being pro-life is because you want to save human lives, then examine the cost benefit analysis of assorted policies that save human life and diversify your political currency on more practical policies, at least until more then half the country suddenly decides to see it your way.

my letter to the McCain campaign

Dear Mr. Conway,

There is more then simple liberal bias as to why the media has neglected (or least in comparisons with his opponent) Mr. McCain. It is because Mr. McCain has lost his charm. It as if the McCain campaign had not learned it's lessons from last summers meltdown in a attempt to court the always wary Republican base. In attempting to make Mr. McCain look presidential you have vanquished so much of his off colored humor that made him so beloved by iconoclast everywhere. The perception of Mr. McCain I see radiating from the campaign team is of a stuffed shirt. Instead, you should have Mr. McCain make frequent off color yet funny jokes. Presidential elections our as much a personality contest as anything else, so why not make a better attempt at highlight Mr. McCain's likable personality. Other wise he looks an awful lot like another humorous GOP candidate who ditched his humor in 1996 and lost by a heft margin.


Thank You

Brian Adams

religion and brian

I have had a radical shift on religion in the past few years, going from a former alter boy to an agnostic theist. When my parents go away to their bay-house, they ask me to take my brother to Catholic mass, which often leaves me disenchanted. The top qualm I leave with is that Judeo-Christian religion offers an "indisputable" meaning to life, if you only have faith. My disillusionment is with the intellectual stagnation and scared behavior if one "diverts off path". I do not necessarily discredit or disagree with prominent religion diverse philosophies and some of the guidelines toward striving for this meaning or the collective spirituality and believe all offer clear truths. However, life's meaning is to complex and unknowable to settle on a definite answer or meaning in once life span.
Therefore, if you do find a path that you believe suits you, you should still continue to be an independent-thinker and allow yourself to give thoughts to diverging perspectives toward life's meaning and not close yourself off to the narrow truth you have found, in say, Evangelical Christianity.