Bullshit

Disclaimer: yes, this post will contain "cursing." It will contain multiple occurences of the word "bullshit." If this offends you, please stop reading now. Am I concerned about my children reading this? My children see images of war, instances of violence and hatred, and people being cruel to each other everywhere they look. I'm much more concerned about those things than about them reading the word "bullshit."

If someone were to ask me what my favorite curse word - heck, maybe my favorite word altogether - is, it would probably be "bullshit." I guess that gives some insight into my current frame of mind.

In the movie, "The Talented Mr. Ripley," Phillip Baker Hall's detective character has a great line: "I don't care for bullshit; I don't care to hear it. I don't care to speak it." If only we all, as a society, would adopt this mindset. It just seems that no matter where we turn, we are bombarded by bullshit. Our government bullshits us. We bullshit each other. Our schools are bullshitting our children, and our children are learning the art of "the bullshit."

Author and philosopher Harry G. Frankfurt, in his short treatise, "On Bullshit," writes: "One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share."

People say things, not because it's true or relevant, but because it seems like something they should say, or just because they enjoy the sound of their own voice. No one wants to be real anymore, they just want to smile, open their mouths, and let the bullshit spew forth.

So how do we stop it? We can't. All we can do is recognize when we're being bullshitted and try to see through it. We can also try to eliminate the bullshit from our own worlds. Ah... a bullshit-free life... sounds pleasant, doesn't it?

Photoblog #5

Photoblog #4

Eva recently bought a 400-or-so-page book - she's working her way toward "War And Peace" I suppose - and just about every spare moment you can find her curled up somewhere reading it.

She was very upset the other night at bedtime because she couldn't find her new book. I told her where I thought it was, but that she couldn't read it because it was already late. She said she didn't want to read it, she just likes to sleep with it.

I was skeptical, figuring she wanted to fire up her little book light and take in a few more pages. A couple of nights later, I went up to check on the girls long after bedtime, and found Eva, as pictured above, curled up with her new book.

A true book lover.

Hypocrisy self-check

About 4 or 5 "blogs" ago, I wrote about the corporations' hypocrisy in giving charitably, only to benefit from the act of giving.

I was thinking that if we use our charitable contributions as a tax write-off, then aren't we guilty of the same? And aren't we also "in violation" of the Biblical command to let your giving be done in secret?

If we're to truly give, in a selfless way, then perhaps we should "pass" on the receipt next time we make a Goodwill donation... or give with cash at church, so that no record is kept and no "end of year" tax receipt sent... or maybe next year we don't even file a Schedule A form at tax time... why would we, if all of our giving is supposed to be done in secret?

I drove a Segway!

How many people can say that? My friend Cliff and I went to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention last week, and one of the highlights for me was getting to scoot around on a Segway. It was actually really easy to control, once you got the hang of it.

I had a dude at the convention take a photo with my cell phone of me on the Segway, but then I forgot to "store" it, so it went bye-bye. I did take a photo of Cliff on the Segway, and did remember to store that one. Lucky Cliff.

Like most conventions, I ended up with a bunch of magazines I'll never read, some crap I already threw away, and the memories of exciting technology that will be boring old junk a year from now. Can't wait for next year!