What's been churning in my head? Math all week long. It was fun while it lasted, and I learned some new things. I love learning new things.
What needs to be churning, but isn't? Politics. I still have some decisions to make and haven't been able to bring myself to face it. Can I just say how thrilled I am that we have caller ID and don't have to take calls about politics? Between that and the mute button on the TV so I don't have to listen to the political ads, I have been able to keep my stress levels down.
I did get to hear Senator John Ensign speak at the high school yesterday after school. I counted only about 18 students there and almost that many adults (13?). I found it interesting and since I agreed with what he had to say, it didn't disturb my traquility.Can you tell I'm into trying to keep things calm lately?
Then today I watched my netflix documentary "The Yes Men Fix the World." The thing is...I really thought it was fascinating, but I don't agree with them (that capitalism doesn't work). They've pulled some outrageous stunts. They put up some fake websites dealing with companies that they don't like. Then they wait until someone contacts them and wants them to speak at their convention or on the air.
They go "representing" whatever company (DOW chemical, HUD, Halliburton) and promise to do things that they think the company should be doing...like when they claimed while being interviewed on the BBC that DOW would make restitution ($12 billion worth) for a chemical spill in India which killed many and ruined the health of plenty of others. Took an hour or two before they were discovered to be playing a hoax. Meanwhile DOW stock slid way down. They then visited the town in India (Bophal) to see if the people there were mad at them for giving them false hope. At least the ones they put in their documentary weren't mad.
I think they take their examples (and I'm all for DOW paying out more than the average $1000/person that they did for the chemical spill) and then sort of extrapolate it too far into saying that capitalism is greed and we need more government (I'm putting my spin on what I think their spin was...are we dizzy yet?).
I want to see "Waiting for Superman" (Senator Ensign mentioned it yesterday). I don't know if it does more than this, but it is supposed to show how the union is getting in the way of improving education. "No Intelligence Allowed" by Ben Stein was pretty interesting. "Food, Inc" was fascinating too.
Though I have to say that I hesitate to watch these things sometimes because I don't consider myself good at detecting flawed arguments (though I think I am increasing my skill in that area). Take "An Inconvenient Truth" for example. I haven't seen it yet, but I know they misused data (or it was incorrectly interpreted or whatever) and it makes me wonder how many documentaries do the same thing to make their cause seem right and I would follow along and let myself be led wherever they wanted to lead me. Safer not to listen? Sometimes.
Since the election is Tuesday, I guess I will have to get into the political mode and do some studying this weekend. And some praying.
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