Can I kick it? No, you can't.

Yeah, the glamour

Several breakthroughs this week, although not really. Very little of what I think or say surprises me very much, because I try diligently to not lie to myself. We all do, of course, but what with my opinion of myself being so consistently high, I'm pretty sure I do it less than most.

The exception that proves the rule.

I suppose readers of the blog who don't know me, and even those of you who do, probably assume that I'm some sort of arch-liberal who backs every cause that the Democrats launch forward because my soul aches so much for the plight of humanity. It's just not true, at least for the reasons you assume.

First of all, the soul is in doubt.

Beyond that, I'm not really a people person. I'm not much of a socializer, and I generally prefer to avoid contact with people, strangers and acquaintances alike. I'd just prefer to not engage in conversations in a superficial way, although it's sometimes fun to talk about trivial things with friends. There is a difference, at least as I see it.

Wow! A blog entry about the introspection of the blogger! Another first! The innernets have been crying out for more self-examination!

Fuck off, I had a glass of wine.

Anyway, I support things like a living wage, universal health care, higher taxes on the very wealthy, subsidized college education, alternative energy, and a host of other things that would be considered liberal/socialist/insert slur here. But it's not because my heart bleeds for the plight of my fellow humans. I won't go so far as to say that I don't care about other people. That would make me a sociopath, and I'm not willing to concede that yet, at least not without a proper psychological workup.

I'm in favor of these liberal concepts, mainly because I just think logically, they make sense. It's not an emotional issue for me, and I'm not an emotional person.

The causes that I support which would benefit the poor or societally fucked , I do so because improving the lot of the working poor improves our country as a whole.

If a family has health care, and can see a doctor regularly, then they probably aren't going to end up at the emergency room with a completely preventable condition, thereby slowing my medical treatment for the lacerated nose needing stitches that I received after being hit with a broken broomstick that fell out of a toilet-papered tree. It's more common than you think.

If a man makes a wage that allows him to not sweat out the last ten days of every month, maybe he feels less of a need to break into your nice home [address redacted], or hit you over the head and grab your wallet.

If we are able to increase alternative energy sources to heat out homes and move our cars, maybe we can stop sending billions to the people in the world who most want to kill us. An even larger concept might follow that if we have no need for their product, we would spend less effort propping up unpopular leaders in those countries, which really pisses of the people who live there. I don't care if they like us, but I would suggest that working so hard to make them hate us so we can pollute the atmosphere seems vaguely counterproductive at every level.

This isn't an emotional issue for me, honestly. It is, as most things are with me, about laziness. If I can save myself some work later on by working a little harder now, I do that every single time.

Today is also World AIDS Day, I'm told, and raising awareness is always a good thing, but this is one of those things that I devote less thought to than you'd probably imagine. We should find a cure, but I wouldn't slow down the effort of curing cancer or a host of other things by even one day in order to do so. If that is a little too blunt for you, I'm not about to apologize.

If there is anything good about HIV, it is that it's not really easy to catch, and is entirely preventable. And I suppose that's probably why I don't really consider it one of the top medical priorities. I know it's killing a lot of people and ruining a lot of lives. I also know that 99.9% of cases in this country were preventable.

Stop having unprotected sex with people you don't know.

Quit sharing needles, dumbass.

People have gotten it from blood transfusions, or are born to an infected mother, which is entirely unfair, and excessively cruel. As I understand it, blood, organs and plasma are now tested reliably to prevent accidents like these. Nothing is ever foolproof, but progress has been made.

Please don't lecture me about how our careless behaviors also lead to cancer, and that the guy who eats pounds of red meat and smokes deserves what he gets. Maybe you're right.

Explain to me how people who have never smoked get terminal lung cancer. How does the non-drinker get liver cancer? Some things just happen for no other reason than unfortunate genetics and bad luck. There may conceivably be a causal relationship in all cases of cancer, but science is nowhere near laying it out yet. It sure as hell isn't as obvious as sticking an HIV-tainted blood-encrusted needle into your arm.

Science will find cures for these things eventually, but it's not going to get any easier as education and research budgets are slashed so that a tiny minority of people can afford matching yachts. Your wealth may prevent you from dying in an alley, but it's not going to save your life forever.

Or you children's lives.

Just be logical. What's good for the poor is good for everyone.

It's almost 2007, and look, it is the logical agnostic quoting Christ, while His followers concern themselves with gay marriage amendments.

If that's not a sign of some impending apocalypse, I'm not sure what is.

Friday, December 01, 2006