Seething Pots of Contradiction

Driving (and showers) often seem to be the time/place where I think about stuff and often come up with unoriginal conclusions about life, (the universe, and Everything!) Today was no different during the morning commute.

A few observations:
1) George Carlin was right. To you all other drivers are either maniacs, or idiots.

I think this concept applies much wider. Had NPR on this morning and there was a story about goings on in southern Thailand. (synopsis: Muslim-majority provinces with on-going violence against the Buddhist-majority government -- heavy military presence and possibility that outside Muslim jihadists might start getting influence. ) What caught my attention was a bit where some Thai soldiers are waiting for school to end so that they can escort the teachers home. Because a few weeks before the Buddhist prinicpal had been *assassinated* after school let out the one day. And at this point the six Buddhist teachers have asked for transfers. The four Muslim teachers are pretty much scared as well.

Destroying one's educational infrastructure is no way to improve your province. And violence will simply scare off investment from outside -- who (logically) wants to risk capital in a place that seems to be inherently unstable.
[Movie reference: "Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life son..."]

[Further aside: Some historians have concluded that the KKK activities post-American Civil War was one reason the South remained economically depressed for such a long period. It was less risky to invest money into western state development than the southern states.

Back to George. To me, people who see everything in black/white terms and are totally self-secure in their views are frightening. On the flip-side someone who saw everything as gray and was constantly in self-doubt would probably annoy me quite a bit as well (get a backbone you *****!) Maniacs and idiots.

2) A spectrum of rules
I read in TIME about the retiring Justice O'Conner. One criticism leveled about her case decisions was that they were often so case specific that they were practically useless as Supreme Court precedents. Sounds like good judgment in how she addressed the particulars of the case, but folk expect the Supreme Court opinions to also set the "rules" for other courts to apply.

[Aside: Pet peeve. "Judicial Activism" seems to be a nice buzzword for "court decision that doesn't agree with what we want". With all due respect I think the Conservative Right (to use a label) in the U.S. has a serious problem with being rational.]

[Aside #2: Applying rules has been an on-going stress factor in my life. One by-product of volunteering in the Fraternity has been that I get involved in discussions and situations involving the enforcement of the various by-laws and regulations that govern our organization. A lot of the side discussions often boil down to defining the "rules" for people, as well as often getting appeals to handle situations on a case by case basis. See subject title of this entry. My particular pet peeve in this area is that I'm often asked to react rationally when dealing with irrational (or at least poorly thought out) behaviors; i.e. I can get a grip on *why* someone did something, but then they fail to grasp my questioning of why they didn't consider the broad consequences of their choice(s). See subject title.]

This little section boils down to the fact that I don't think many situations are black/white. However, at some point, you need to select a gray-spot reaction, implement it, and move on. And it's probably a moving target from situation to situation -- so precedents will only carry you so far. And, if anything, the implementation should be as educational as possible. Knowledge is neutral, but I'd rather have it than not. Ignorance may be bliss, but the ignorant often seem to be sheep, and then are led to slaughter.

3) Moving On
A bit melancholy of a day today. One of the employees here who I have interacted with for over fifteen years is retiring after 35+ years of service. I don't see him much nowadays since his job functions have been automated a bit and he's not down in my office/cubicle bitching about this or that report that is wrong... However, I will keep memories of talking to him about golf (we're both in the same league), ice hockey (both of us are Pgh Penguin fans), sports in general, and how the company is/has been run into the ground (he's a bit of a skeptic.)

[Aside: The company/division I work for has changed names/ownership a few times. It was originally USX Chemicals and was spun off as an independent public company in 1986 as Aristech Chemicals. The company was bought and taken private by Mitsubishi Holding Corp in 1990 (right before I came to work for Aristech as a contractor). Mitsubishi sold Aristech to Sunoco Inc. in 2000, and now we're part of the Sunoco Chemicals division. Which, of course, makes me a drone of an eeeeeevil oil company.]

4) Subject Title
My little conclusion from today's commute. People are seething pots of contradictions. Not necessarily good or bad, but the results are not going to be predictable. Wonderful stuff this organic chemistry.


Well, time to actually get to work. MMMM.... coffee.