fame is a footnote

I suspect this is probably as good as it ever will get.




So now would be the time to salute my awesomeness and/or offer me your humble services. Don't let this opportunity pass you by.

p.s. You're welcome to Google for the paper in its entirety, I didn't feel like linking the pdf lest a certain author and potential reference of mine be keeping tabs on who links to his papers. Not that I have anything bad to say about him (nice man, really), it's just weird if he's reading my views on abortion and bruised bananas, you know?

this week's controversy piece

I've come to the conclusion that Pro-choice is definitely not, at its core, the inverse of Pro-life. Strictly speaking, Pro-lifers should be pitted against the Anti-life faction, but they should be working with Pro-choicers to create a social environment where the choice to not kill fetuses becomes a no-brainer. And certainly, that's what's happening in less-radical circles, or so I trust.

Personally, the thought of aborting a life is abhorring to me, but so is the thought of removing my right to choose to give life. To take away the choice over an act is to discount the value of that act. What I might have done out of love would be indistinguishable from what I am forced to do by law. I want babies to live, yes, but I also want babies to grow up having no doubt that they were and are wanted by their parent(s). Too much emphasis is placed on the fact that if we're given the right to choose, 'murder' might be chosen. That's a big worry, but allow me to look at the flip side of this coin: what about the fact that if we're given the right to choose, life could be chosen? It's a fine, fine line, but an important one. Anyone celebrating someone's decision to keep a baby is essentially Pro-choice (as well as Pro-life), because if there were no choice, there would be no decision to make or to celebrate.

Bottom line: Choice and Life need eachother. They are two fundamental bases of humanity - why shouldn't they coexist?

And now the excerpt from Dan Savage that started my little train of thought:

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Sept 11, 2008
http://www.thestranger.com/savage

The 17-year-old daughter of Sarah Palin, the GOP's vice-presidential nominee, is pregnant. The news was released by the McCain camp during a busy week—a hurricane, the Republican National Convention, Dick Cheney getting us into a war with Russia—so it didn't receive the coverage it deserved. To recap:

Seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin got her ass knocked up five or so months ago by 18-year-old Levi Johnston. Among the hobbies listed on Levi's since-yanked MySpace page—"fishing, shoot some shit, and just fuckin' chillin'"—was this revealing tidbit: "I don't want kids." But Bristol, says her mom, "made the decision on her own to keep the baby," and is now engaged to Levi "Shootin' Shit" Johnston.

As the adoptive parent of a child born to a pair of unwed teenagers, I'm certainly not in favor of abortion in all circumstances. But I believe that it's a choice teenagers should be able to make for themselves—with input from their families whenever possible—and, so it seems, does the GOP's VP nominee. Sarah Palin is pleased that her daughter made the decision—on her own—to keep the baby.

But Sarah Palin doesn't believe that other girls should be able to make their own decisions. Sarah Palin believes abortion should be illegal in almost every instance—including rape and incest. So Bristol Palin is being celebrated for making a choice that Sarah Palin would like to take away from all other American women. Apparently, today's GOP believes that choice is a special right reserved for the wayward daughters of Republican elected officials.

Oh, and Sarah Palin also believes that birth control shouldn't be made available to teenagers, she opposes medically accurate sex education, and she backs abstinence-until- marriage sex "education."

Sigh.

The GOP has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into abstinence "education" programs during the Bush years. I believe this enormous investment of public funds begs the obvious question: Are our children abstaining? Sarah Palin's aren't. Despite this massive outlay on the part of the American taxpayer and the example set by her Christian parents, Bristol Palin became sexually active while still in high school. Excuse me, but if abstinence education can't keep the daughter of the evangelical governor of Alaska off the cock, what hope is there for the daughters—and some of the sons—of average Americans?

I'm a cad for writing this, of course, because shortly before Bristol and Levi were paraded before cheering throngs at the Republican National Convention, the Palins asked the media to respect their daughter's privacy.

Another special right: When it comes to respecting your family's privacy, Palin and the GOP see no need. They want to micromanage the most intimate aspects of your private life. And if their own kids fail to live up to the standards that Palin and the GOP seek to impose on your family, well, that's a private matter between the Palins, their daughter, their God, and the thousands of screaming imbeciles in elephant hats waving McCain/Palin signs on the floor of the Republican National Convention.

i am an exteemed customer

and now a word from your friendly neighbourhood reconomist

I did the Grouse Grind 3 more times (a grand total of 4 for this summer). I know I promised to organize a big GG outing for you all, but things just happened too spontaneously due to the irregular weather. I haven't yet brought anybody up that I've managed to beat (my time hovers around 1.5). The likes of Candice "I haven't trained in years" Wong, Kenny "I'm a social smoker" Tai, and Reuben "I'm asthmatic" Heredia all left me trailing in the dust. I'm not at all surprised nor affected by this, but apparently some people were. I had a chat with Candice about this, and we came to the conclusion that I either physically appear more athletic than I am, or I am so quick to motivate people to do the Grouse Grind/ Sun Run/ Run for the Cure with me that they think the only reason I would want to do it is because I'm naturally good at it or at least better at it than they are.

That's just silly talk. I naturally suck at many things I regularly pursue. Sure, I could be in worse shape (it could always be worse!), but even at my best I would never think to compete in anything athletic against anyone but myself. It's because I naturally suck at it that I choose to pursue it - to be a well-rounded person, not because I'm masochistic. Nature versus nurture. The fun is finding out you naturally lack in something you need, and nurturing yourself to be better at it. If you weren't born with it, and you know you need it, then you muster up the willpower and get it yourself. The ability to do so is much more attractive than sticking only with what comes easiest and least painful. I'm not intrigued by the things that come naturally; ingeniousness, after all, is like being born inheriting a cognitive empire, but it's persistence, hard work, and willpower that make a person.

That's partly why the last three weeks up have been so depressing for me. With an MA freshly in my pocket, and no promise of another challenge in the form of employment on the horizon, I mostly moped about around home with the intention of writing job applications that don't seem to be getting any notice. Thankfully, an opportunity came up for a full time temporary receptionist at the MOA. Despite being somewhat mis-qualified, I'm having an absolute blast there as the resident receptionist-economist (reconomist) and am slowly getting over my phone-shyness. It will be sad when it ends, but I've promised myself that I won't go back to the brain-dead lazy bum that I was for 3 weeks. Knowing my propensity to make rational-sounding excuses later on to justify reneging, I've backed up that promise by signing up for a French course at Continuing Studies (to motivate the brain cells and improve my hirability), and signing up for the Run for the Cure 5km (to make sure I always make time for running). As with any economist familiar with the lessons of game theory, I don't ever want to hear or make another far-fetched promise that isn't backed up by a commitment device, I've just been let down too many times.

I really miss the mountain. After my full-time stint as a reconomist is over, I'll try to squeeze one more GG session in before the season is over and I am back to hanging out on a treadmill with the incline all the way up for the rest of the year.