Curt Doolittle

Source: Facebook

  • THE POOR “The absolutely poor constitute about 12% of the US population — the m

    THE POOR

    “The absolutely poor constitute about 12% of the US population — the majority of which is caused either by being a recent immigrant, or by the choice or necessity of domestic independence: living alone, or being a single parent with child while unable to support that domestic independence. And statistically speaking about 4% of that population will always be poor due to problematic genetics. And the inefficiency of the US system of redistribution via services rather than direct monetary contribution is more problematic than the number of poor. So, the financial cost of helping the poor in this country is not a problem. The envious middle class are the problem. And our focus on inefficiently serving the poor through costly government intervention rather than building an educated populace and an economy that satisfies the envies of the middle class is the causal problem. The question is whether we will fix it or cease to be a viable political system because we fail to.”

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-05 10:30:00 UTC

  • ANNUAL PHYSICAL UPATE Blood pressure 108 /80. Pulse 68. (Ok. Eat your heart out.

    ANNUAL PHYSICAL UPATE

    Blood pressure 108 /80. Pulse 68. (Ok. Eat your heart out.)

    Turns out my liver is OK (that was scaring me). Just need to keep losing weight.

    Some loss of bone density in my spine due to high thyroid dosage needed to suppress the cancer cells. Need to increase calcium and vitamin D.

    Getting some small curvature from carrying heavy laptop bags around.

    Really high allergens. Need to reduce exposure.

    Everything else looks good.

    Stomach is still really problematic. Endoscopy next.

    Still need cancer screen.

    So two priorities: stomach endoscopy and allergies.

    Guess I’m gonna live. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-04 19:35:00 UTC

  • REASONS FOR USA WAR WITH IRAN OVER ISRAEL (From my post at The Times Of Israel)

    REASONS FOR USA WAR WITH IRAN OVER ISRAEL

    (From my post at The Times Of Israel)

    1) Obama will either support israel or lose the election.

    2) The conservatives will support israel for the following reasons:

    a) for sentimental reasons (protecting the little guy)

    b) for ideological reasons (they’re our jews, and our allies)

    c) for strategic reasons (a base of operations for protecting oil)

    d) for geopolitical reasons (the usa cannot tolerate a nuclear iran as the core state of islam creating a unified anti-commercial ideological political alliance from syria to pakistan which can hold the world hostage over oil)

    e) because iran is building an exchange that is not denominated in dollars. If this exchange is successful it will deprive the USA of the ability to export and deflate debt as an indirect means of progressively taxing foreign states for US military protection of the system of finance and trade. While speaking of this is impolitic both inside and outside the country, it’s just the reality of how the international system operates.

    f) And while the finance system is in bed with the democrats, the oil system is in bed with conservatives.

    So those are the reasons. And its pretty hard to argue with them if you want the average american to hold onto anything approximating his current standard of living.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-04 15:20:00 UTC

  • TWO SOLID DAYS OF HEALTHCARE 1) Blood pressure 118 over 80. Eat your heart out.

    TWO SOLID DAYS OF HEALTHCARE

    1) Blood pressure 118 over 80. Eat your heart out. I know.

    2) something not quite right with the liver and dramatic change in cholesterol.

    3) bone density test today.

    4) heavy metals test this afternoon.

    5) trying to schedule ultrasound test for my neck and chest. Although I’m pretty sure i’m clear. Just don’t feel that bad any longer.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-03 15:19:00 UTC

  • DEBATING AND TEACHING AS THE CRUCIBLES OF THOUGHT You cannot get good at boxing

    DEBATING AND TEACHING AS THE CRUCIBLES OF THOUGHT

    You cannot get good at boxing or fencing without sparring partners. Likewise you cannot get good at a subject without teaching it or debating it. Although — you can amuse yourself with the pretense of untested wisdom, a mind on its own is little more than an echo chamber. Debate affords one greater flexibility in taking risks, and teaching is the test of whether or not you can reduce your ideas to communicable narratives that survive attempts at refutation. Personally I think both are valuable and necessary tools. And unless you master both well enough to test your ideas by both means, it’s hard to prove you know anything at all. There are plenty of teachers without ideas. There are plenty of debaters with ideas who lack rational arguments. But the only test is the successful mastery of both.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-03 11:06:00 UTC

  • PARENTS TORTURE LIONESS BY DRESSING CHILD AS ZEBRA Saw this on the news this mor

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fbahS7VSFsHUMOR: PARENTS TORTURE LIONESS BY DRESSING CHILD AS ZEBRA

    Saw this on the news this morning Proof that a kid in a striped shirt is catnip for lions. Now. what’s interesting is that this isn’t the only video on Youtube where a kid in a striped shirt attracts the passionate interest of a lioness.

    “Hey. Lion. Hey. Not only do we have opposable thumbs. But we can make stuff like glass, and dress our kids in costumes that put you in a feeding frenzy”

    Now, why does this video remind me of internet debates about politics?

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-03 10:42:00 UTC

  • ACCIDENTAL EXPERIMENT DIARY i’m trying to eat clean. But there isn’t much to eat

    ACCIDENTAL EXPERIMENT DIARY

    i’m trying to eat clean. But there isn’t much to eat in the airport thats safe.

    I had a bowl of lettuce with olive oil, salt and pepper, a banana and an apple. I also had a handful of tortilla chips. The chips must have had something in them – either MSG or sulfites. I suspect sulfites in the oil. WIthin about ten minutes I hade is this odd feeling — a relaxing feeling. A tingling in my jaw joint spreading to my cheeks. And a slight asthmatic reaction from my lungs as they respond to the allergen. A very short sense of dizziness. Loss of energy. Lost of multi-tasking. Enhancement of focus. Normally I have one of two follow-on reactions. The first is drowsiness. The second a sort of confusion followed by depression. It can affect me for twelve hours. Or, If it’s serious it lasts for about three days, with a half life of about twelve hours. But I can feel it gone by the third day. Right now the dizziness is pretty serious. I guess I didn’t make it very long on my trip this time without running into something dangerous. I was hoping to stay clear of problems the entire time.

    I’m going to fly into seattle, pick up my car and go to the hotel. And, I’m going to try and track this carefully and see if there is a way to manage it. Right now I feel my sentence structure degrading. (Fascinating.)

    Source date (UTC): 2012-05-02 15:06:00 UTC

  • WILL THE USA ATTACK IRAN? AN ANALYSIS OF THE STRATEGIC INCENTIVES THE USA WILL l

    WILL THE USA ATTACK IRAN? AN ANALYSIS OF THE STRATEGIC INCENTIVES

    THE USA WILL likely intervene because Iran is developing an alternative exchange for oil that is not denominated in dollars. THis exchange will eliminate the ability of the USA to finance it’s debt and to finance its military program by eliminating foreign demand for dollars in order to buy oil that is denominated in dollars.

    The USA is only able to provide the extraordinary level of income to its citizens because of its control over world finance, trade and oil, made possible by the inheritance of the British naval system after the second world war, and the USA’s ongoing military supremacy from the buildup of the cold war.

    More importantly, the USA pays for its military program through an inventive and progressive alternative to taxes: which is to export debt then deflate it. This effectively charges growing economies for the USA’s policing of world trade without the difficulty of extracting tariffs or taxes on individual states — which would be intolerable to politicians and populations alike.

    However, this strategy was most advantageous when most of the world was either economically primitive or embroiled in the luddist, anti-modernity World Communism movement, leaving commodity prices comparatively low for Americans. At this point in time, there is no one for the USA to charge for policing the world, because the entire world has abandoned tribal agrarianism and adopted consumer capitalism as its economic model. In this new world, it is in the interest of everyone else to pay their portion of world defense costs purely out of self interest.

    Therefore the USA must either stop Iran and retain its military complex, or allow the world oil system to fall under the control of a pan-islamic movement led by Iran and funded by oil revenues.

    There are arguments in favor of either direction. Our current president is perfectly happy to see the rise of a well funded militarily expansionist iran as the core state of islam. Libertarians are by their nature comfortable. Conservatives by their very nature are not.

    Israel is aware of this strategy (I know, because I know people so to speak) and is attempting to force the hand of Obama during the election season and force him to go along or lose his election, or have to wait four more years, during which Iran will be able to finish making all the materials without having to actually assemble a bomb. But having the materials is a s good as having the bomb. Further, they will move into production with their exchange and begin to undermine the dollar.

    China had hoped to use the Euro as a competitor to the dollar, but that is not going to happen. Europe cannot stand. So china will support the rise of this currency. So will the rest of the world, in order to contain the americans. The net effect is that the USA will have to withdraw its military and very likely europe will have to remilitarize rather than continue to have the USA and the developing world subsidize their economies.

    I can see a possible future for the world that is built on an iranian currency, not an american, where the US government collapses and sovereignty falls to the regions so that the west returns to its natural form: a collection of small states. My libertarian side likes this view. My conservative side argues that the quality of life of the average american will so significantly be reduced that this alternative is simply intolerable.

    Source date (UTC): 2012-04-30 12:18:00 UTC

  • ACTUAL COST OF AN IPHONE 4s (Of course the argument being made is that we should

    http://www.businesspundit.com/iphone-costs/THE ACTUAL COST OF AN IPHONE 4s

    (Of course the argument being made is that we should make them in the states rather than in china. And that’s not going to happen.)

    Source date (UTC): 2012-04-30 10:17:00 UTC

  • (Its it me, or did nothing interesting actually happen today?)

    (Its it me, or did nothing interesting actually happen today?)

    Source date (UTC): 2012-04-27 21:37:00 UTC