So I don’t know what the heck is going on here in Utah but today is June, and on my way to class, in the Salt Lake Valley, I came across this little pile of what appears to be… that’s right snow. Are we ever going to be done with this crap? I like the desert because it is supposed to be nice and dry but not this year it has turned into a regular tropical climate around here.
In other news, Obama is now the “presumptive” democratic nominee, whatever that is supposed to mean. Why can’t the news just tell it like it is? Here is my version of this story… “For today’s top headline we have determined that this coming November voters will be able to head to the ballot boxes and place their vote for the person whom they feel would best be able to lead our nation for the next four years, or if they don’t feel like throwing their vote away or they just can’t figure out how to write in on an electronic ballot, they can vote for either Obama or McCain. Either way it doesn’t really matter though because the colligate system has taken the voice away from individuals and given it to states.”
Just exhibiting a bit of wishful thinking here: what if a “write-in” name won the general election, how does the vice president get chosen? Could the winner just pick whoever they want? Weird.
I am sure some are getting tired of my complaints about national and local politics, but really if I didn’t complain about it what else could I do? It isn’t like I can actually change the two party system, or sew Rocky Anderson’s mouth shut. So my only resolve is to vent through the World Wide Web.
So my classes at Westminster are now more than half over, and we just barely got back our first sets of grades. Must say I am pretty happy with myself so far. I have not really ever considered myself an over-achiever, I don’t really try to get A’s, most of the time I just like putting forth a concerted effort. In my Strategy class our group presentation was the first item graded, I pretty much wrote the whole paper that accompanied the presentation, since I was in Moab when the presentations were scheduled. It came out very nice thanks to some solid editing from my lovely bride. We got the highest score in the class on that project with a 9.5/10. Then tonight I got back my first assignment for my Ethics class. It was a journal assignment, which I always thought were very easy since they are very informal and handwritten. The teacher gave mine back and made some comment like, “you did very well” and another student asked “Didn’t everyone just get a check or a check minus?” the teacher proceeded to say, “Well mostly but there was one check plus.” Now that was awesome when I looked down and realized that I had got the check plus. There is something really gratifying about being the best in my classes. I think it is because I consider my fellow students now to be much more competitive and overall more intelligent than my undergraduate classes. I will try to not let it all go to my head but it sure is nice to gloat for a bit.
So I have another ethical perspective for those that are interested it is Cognitive Rational. Basically makes an association between intelligence and morality, not that all who are intelligent are moral (we can simply look at Hitler for a stark contrast to that statement) but those that are most moral are inherently intelligent. I believe this works with Egoism to establish what my basis for thinking is. I think that people will serve the interests of others by serving their own best interest if they have a complete understanding of all consequences. In other words if people are more intelligent they are more apt (at least capable) of making a morally correct decision. Another view we looked at but one that I certainly don’t agree with was Peter Singer, check out YouTube for the crazy talk. It was interesting because he professes to be the ultimate Utilitarian. He is certainly the ultimate vegetarian; he says we should treat animals just like we treat humans. I wonder if he believes animals should treat each other the same way. Does this make the lion unethical because it eats other animals? Personally I love my meat group, so I won’t be prescribing to this doctrine at any point.
3 comments:
Yeah, I think I'll vote for Nadar, is he running again? Also congrats on the school work, I like being not a slacker in my classes also.
It would be sooooo great if a write-in candidate could win. On that note, if you want to circumvent the electronic voting machine dilemma to write someone in (stupid electronic voting machines anyway) just request an absentee ballot. That's how I'm going to do it this time around. Glad to hear school's going well for you.
Sometimes I think you should just be a full-time philosopher, due to your passion for argument.
I also agree that a write-in winner would be pretty cool, historically speaking.
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