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2nd Rule of Facebook
If someone has two people in their profile picture, they are undoubtedly the worse looking of the two people.
Posts Tagged With: Social Commentary
I Want Televised Debates
I want televised debates. Not shouting matches, and definitely not 10-second-soundbite debates. I want the kind of debate you do in high school, where each side gets three minutes to present their side of an argument, and the other side gets a rebuttal and then their argument, etc. If people think this is too slow for TV, put a frame on the side with bullet point summaries. Debate shouldn't be a process reserved for political candidates, and it shouldn't be painful, although we make it so because we never do it. Debate is the most direct way to challenge your opinions and test your rationales. Furthermore, it builds the intelligence, rhetorical skill, and information of the audience. I wish we could get professors, big business, rightwing nutcases, totally ordinary people, leftwing nutcases, and the Army on the TV screen for debate. Disagreement makes compelling TV, as anyone who watches reality TV can tell you. The writers in reality TV script in extra conflict to increase the tension and thus the viewership. Why can't we do the same for our opinions?
In Britain they have the House of Commons, and every month the Prime Minister has to present himself for questioning. Not only is that entertaining, but Britain's better off for it. Tony Blair has to defend his positions, and is held accountable for how he's governed.
We need debate because no one in America listens to anyone else anymore. Right-leaning people can read WSJ, Drudge Report, and watch Fox News, left-leaning people can read NYT and watch CNN, and the president can listen to his Cabinet, and get completely different descriptions of the same events. Debate makes everyone watch the same thing and confronts viewers with contrary opinions. Here's a sample card. Put this on PrimeTime one after the other and make Bryant Gumbel the host, everyone likes Bryant Gumbel. Tell me you wouldn't pay to watch these.
Lawrence Lessig vs. the RIAA
McDonalds vs. Morgan Spurlock
Michael Moore vs. Bill O'Reilly
Billy Graham vs. Michael Newdow (the guy who sued to remove the Pledge of Allegiance)
Dave Chappelle vs. The White Race
Single Mother vs. Her Aborted Fetus (Republicans would try to stage this one, I swear)
David Bowie ("Under Pressure") vs. Vanilla Ice (It's Not the Same, I Swear)
Harry Truman (Buck Stops Here) vs. George Bush Jr. (Anyone But Me, Please)
Richard Dawkins vs. Kansas Education Board
Bill vs. Hillary, with Monica as moderator
James Inhofe ("Global Warming is a Giant Hoax") vs. The Scientific Community
Jon Stewart vs. Tucker Carlson, Part II
Any British MP vs. Any Senator, and I'll take the MP 99 times out of 100
If you're with me, spread the word.
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I Couldn’t Care Less about JonBenet Ramsey…
She was a cute six year old, she did beauty pageants, she died, and it was mysterious. This is all very sad. But it happened ten years ago, and there's nothing we can do about it. There were 94 homicides in Oakland last year, and papers outside of the Tribune could care less. People are getting slaughtered daily in Darfur, and we're worrying about a girl that died ten years ago, because one guy in Thailand confessed to the murder, and he might not even have been the killer? Of course it's extremely sad to see any six year old die, and the circumstances are mysterious. But I cannot believe that we are giving this story front page news coverage ten years on, when there are many more sadder, preventable things we could be covering in the news. JonBenet Ramsey is dead, let's give the story the brief mention it warrants in the wire section, and move on.
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Why Don’t Americans Care More About Energy Waste?
David Houle with an article on ThoughtMechanics about how Europe conserves energy regularly, and Americans conserve when they're reminded, or when it's convenient. As I commented below the article (I'm copying it straight because I'm lazy), I think part of the American problem, not an excuse for it, is our sense of Manifest Destiny and our desire for low density. In Europe houses are built closer together (because they were built in 1850) and almost every town has a main street built just for pedestrians, with no road and little parking to be found. These encourage energy conservation, whereas that hallmark of American shopping, the strip mall with a parking lot in front of every shop, encourages people to get in their cars. Look at Phoenix, Arizona - it’s huge and keeps expanding outward, never upward. America will get its head out of the ground if it can accomplish smarter design and higher density.
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A Theory
The faster people are moving, the harder it is to get them to part with their money.
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First Rule for Exes
People are free to make bad decisions, and you have to let them do it.
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