Random thoughts...

Freedom...?

How would you define it? Do you feel free? If you don't are the limits to your freedom external or self-imposed? Could you change them? I need to revist this topic in depth sometime. But I think at the very least these questions should pop into our minds everytime someone throws this word around, particularly within the context of politics and history.

Reality...

What is reality? If you spend most of your time online, watching TV or movies playing video games, buying things online or with credit cards, working on a computer etc. how much of you life is real in the truest sense of the word. Not just tangible, although I would argue that the ability of something to be percieved by multiple sense speaks to its realness, but real. Not confined to a digital realm. not contrived by the fantasy of another, but existing by itself independent. An unavoidable fact that may pre or post date you. It used to be quite the insult to tell someone to get back to reality but in today's digital world of distraction, I'm not so sure which is which? I'm not crazy and I'm not joking. think about it for a second and you'll get there. Just make sure to jump off that train before it wrecks just outside of looneyville.

the 80's

I don't understand them for so many reasons. Popular music regressed in quality signicantly while seemingly exploding in quanity. TV exploded. Movies...too many just don't hold up. i have a feeling, but my judgement may be clouded by age at the time and other personal circumstances, but I feel there was a major cultural turning point for the worse, whose ultimate bill to pay is now just coming due.

the Stock Market

Is the most ridiculous thing which with the most respect. There is little that separates sporst gambling from trading equities. If you don't believe me look up http://www.cantor.com/portfolio/cantor_gaming a wall street company applying investment strategy algorithms to sports betting. Yet a stock broker is a respectable job and profesional gambler is an addiction. The stock market is the ultimate confidence game, you can find so many companies who are over- or undervalued based on the raw financial data, but investments in them will often behave more unpredictably than the weather. You'll even hear analysts talking about "there isn't a lot of confidence in this company right now". Why does our lazy media continue to report th stock market averages as a barometer of the economy it is silly and intellectually lazy. That is like evaluating NFL teams based on who is betting on them. How crazy would it be if the sportscast started off with "In the sports world today the Packers were the big winners, it seems that in spite of their recent loss and the 13 points they were giving to the Bears on Sunday to start the day, more bets were taken in Vegas for them to cover the spread and on the money line, than any other team in sports right now. In fact the spread moved to -17 by 4pm pacific time." it would be insane right. Or if we simply said "well sports in America is clearly thriving as Vegas experts say they have never seen so many favorites cover in a single year. And sports books are reporting more action than any time they can remember". Yet that is exactly the kind of thing we do with the stock market and the economy.

Anyway enough rambling for today...