Best Obama Moment: Interrupted By 'Duck Ringtone' (Aflac?)

via youtube.com

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

One of My Photos, Featured in Schmap Guide to Albuquerque!

Schweet. One of my photos of the Casa Rondeña Winery is featured in the 8th edition of the Schmap guide to Albuquerque. Go check it out! :-)

You can see the full-size photo here.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Obama's Stance on Same-Sex Marriage Puts Him on the Wrong Side of History -- AlterNet

[In 1996] Obama took a position on the progressive edge of the Democratic Party, and he did so with unmistakable clarity: "I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages."

Since then, as Obama traced his dazzling arc to the presidency, his stance on gay rights has become murkier, wordier, less courageous.

He has so far spent no political capital to turn [his] promises into reality... On June 12 his administration filed a brief defending the legality of DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act] by comparing same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia.

via alternet.org

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

CNN Covers Unlawful TSA Detention Of Steve Bierfeldt Of Campaign For Liberty

via youtube.com

Soon it'll be illegal to carry books on an airplane. "Why are you carrying those books, sir? Do you have a good reason to carry those books?" Because of course, there's always the danger you might exercise your brain and learn to think independently. Can't have that!

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

From Obamaland with Love, Part II

I just had a thought, a follow-up on something I quoted in my previous post:

Is any of this fair? Of course it's not fair. But what are we going to do about it: poke out the eyes of all the sighted so blind people don't feel they're missing out?

This is actually a brilliant example. Here we have something in the world that makes people unequal in some physical capacity: some can see, some cannot. Assuming that we are compassionate human beings who want to keep people from suffering, how do we respond to this truth of reality?

Welcome to Obamaland contends that the Left/socialist/communist/hippie/whatever response would be to poke out the eyes of sighted people to make things equal. Yes, this is equal, but not fair to the people who happened to have the ability to see. This response makes things equal by needlessly inflicting pain or limitation on somebody, for the emotional gratification of someone else. The playing field is leveled by taking something away or by hurting someone. As a Buddhist and someone generally not in favor of harming others in general, I don't like that method of making things equal.

What would be a better, but no less humane response? Instead of crippling the haves, empower the have-nots. Create infrastructure and resources to aid people who are blind -- equip transportation with voice announcements, translate signs into Braille, train and allow widespread use of guide dogs, etc. This response to the problem is humane to both parties. It does not punish those who can see, but it equalizes the opportunities for freedom and success by the blind. Here again the playing field is leveled, but it is leveled by empowering and raising people up.

Extend that kind of reasoning to other problems, and you will see great answers to the problems. Millions of Americans can't afford healthcare? Find ways to reduce the cost of healthcare, or to reduce the need for it, or to reduce abuse of it. Large businesses are failing? Let them fail (clearly they did not have what it takes to succeed in a capitalist society) and help the newly unemployed find new work. Of course, these are great answers, but not easy ones. When you think about things this way, it becomes clear that the Obama administration is not about finding great answers and putting them into practice. It is about finding easy answers that don't actually solve the problem or make it any better. I'm looking at you, bailouts and socialized healthcare!

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

From Obamaland with Love

I'm getting further into Welcome to Obamaland, and I'm loving this book. One thing that initially bothered me a bit was how author James Delingpole describes Leftist desire for "equality" to be a bad thing. After all, isn't that what America is about? Equality? Well, he clears up that problem on page 65:

Unfortunately when Obama talks of equality I fear he means... the liberal-left version of "equality" -- not equality of opportunity but equality of outcome. This state-enforced "fairness" is in fact the very opposite of fair because it completely overlooks the most fundamental point about human beings: we are all different.

(emphasis mine)

This is why so many conservatives are so opposed to national healthcare like what Britain has, and what America will soon be getting thanks to Obama. Universal healthcare will not mean that uninsured, low-income people like you and I will suddenly have access to $50,000 cancer treatments and shiny new hospitals that richer people can easily afford. It just means that existing, crappy levels of healthcare will be foisted upon more people.

An aside: one of my friends recently mentioned how the Chik-fil-A restaurants put out a coupon for free meals, with no strings attached. He went to the nearest Chik-fil-A, and was greeted with the sight of cars jam-packed into the parking lot, an overflowing drive-up window, and a traffic cop trying to keep the cars flowing and out of each other's way. My friend's first thought? This is just a small taste of what Obama's free healthcare will be like.

Delingpole points out over and over that the reason socialism and communism suck so bad is because they try to erase the differences between people, and usually the result is we all end up forced to settle for the lowest common denominator. He is (and I am) strongly in favor of equality of opportunity and equality before the law. But being "fair" by punishing people for being different, or for having more of something others do not have, is wrong-headed and stupid when taken to its extremes:

Some of us are blessed with spectacularly attractive, curvy bodies... some of us can smoke 100 cigarettes a day then die of old age; some of us don't sunburn easily; some of us can write snappy commercial jingles...

 

Is any of this fair? Of course it's not fair. But what are we going to do about it: poke out the eyes of all the sighted so blind people don't feel they're missing out? Enforce sex rationing for particularly attractive people so they don't get any more nookie than the rest of us? ... Why not handicap really good sportsmen and women by insisting they always play with one arm behind their backs?

At the beginning of the book, I thought it was a bit outrageous that he compared left-wing politics to "seeing the world as we want it to be," and right-wing politics to being more realistic and seeing the world as it is. But when you see examples like these, you realize that he may be right. I'm a Buddhist, and Buddhism places heavy emphasis on seeing the world as it is, not as we want it to be.

The reality is, we are all different in various ways. I'm not particularly attractive, but would it be right for the government to force really handsome guys to ugly themselves up just to make me feel better? I'm much better with computers than most people, but would it be right for the feds to force me to type slower, call tech support for things I know how to fix, and print out needlessly crappier photos from Photoshop? My wife can speak three languages fluently while most Americans can barely speak their own native language; should the government force her to only speak one language? That would make things "equal" but not "fair" -- there's nothing fair about crippling people, and nothing fair about needlessly watering down talents or characteristics or bank accounts that they may possess.

I believe everybody should have equal opportunities, and the cream should be allowed to rise. But if you happen to be smart, or if you have money to afford great healthcare, or if you can do more things than other people, is it right for the State to hobble you just to smooth over the jealousy or sense of entitlement of others?

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

China Should Hire Apple To Police Porn -- InformationWeek

The Chinese government would've done better to outsource its censorship to Apple.

Apple has learned how to impose restrictions with impunity. Its iPhones sell well despite (or perhaps because of) the company's tightly controlled technical ecosystem. It maintains a mostly untarnished image in the press despite its disdain for the press. It ferrets out internal leaks using tactics that would be the envy of most authoritarian regimes. And it bans iPhone applications, like the porn app Hottest Girls, without alienating its fans.

There's something sad about the fact that China's view of acceptable content so closely resembles Apple's.

via informationweek.com

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

States Considering Move to Opt Out of Federal Health Care

"Our health care freedoms are very much at risk by health care reforms proposed in Washington, D.C.," said Arizona state Rep. Nancy Barto, the Republican legislator who sponsored the measure. "We needed to act as a state to protect our citizens and ensure that they will always be able to buy their own health care and not be forced into a plan they don't want.

"Our state legislatures are looking at what's going on in Washington as trampling state's rights," [Christine] Herrera says.

via foxnews.com

Damn right it tramples states' rights. That's pretty much all the federal government does, especially these days.

WAKE UP PEOPLE. It's the Tenth Amendment of the freakin' U.S. Constitution: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Buyer's Remorse

So, like a lot of people, I voted for Obama. Boy, what a mistake that was.

Why did I vote for Obama? Well for one thing, I was out of the country, and swept up in the full "Obamania" that flooded basically every inch of the globe outside of the USA. Also, like a lot of people, I thought Obama was going to be something of a centrist. Though I am socially quite liberal, in politics I am strictly conservative. It was always obvious to me that neither Obama nor McCain were good choices for America -- nowhere near as good as somebody like Ron Paul. But after eight years of Bush, and after listening to all the disgustingly hate-filled campaign speeches of McCain and Palin, I was fed up and figured, "Obama's the lesser of two evils."

Anyway, I voted for Obama. You have my humblest and sincerest apologies, and you can sleep sound tonight knowing I'm filled with tremendous regret at my foolishness. Not that my vote would have made much of a difference against the surging tide of rabid supporters, but it would be nice to stand on the solid ground of knowing I did not vote for him. Alas, I did vote for him.

Boy, what a mistake that was! Or was it? The political cynic in me would like to point out a few possibilities for why my voting against Obama wouldn't have mattered anyway:

1. A lot of people in both parties are pretty un-American these days, and both parties are corrupt to the bone. I find it hard to believe that McCain would have done much better so far. He probably would've made a similar mess of things, or at least made a superficially different mess on the same scale.
2. The President actually does not matter much except in superficial ways. The administration is filled with shills for Monsanto, AIG, the Federal Reserve, Big Pharma, and all the other cronies who are sucking this country dry and killing our freedoms. They, or other shills, would be there regardless of who sat in The Big Chair. Those folks have been eff'ing things up since long before Obama popped onto our national radar.
3. A lot of Americans really are on the Left, and (as James Delingpole points out in Welcome to Obamaland) the Left has pulled off a stunt: they've mass-marketed their product (socialism/communism) as being warm, fuzzy, and caring; and they've succeeded! Their brand of Cuddly Communism has achieved great market penetration! And if you have any doubt that it's all marketing, witness Obama's recent "town hall" on ABC. They chose a woman from the audience to speak, and lo and behold, the Obama crew had a whole B-roll of video footage about the woman and her family, ready to show as she spoke. As Adam Curry says, politics is just "show business for ugly people." Although, Obama's a pretty handsome guy...

Again, I'm sorry that I of all people got taken in by the Obama thing. I had hoped that the way he appealed to Americans and got many of them off their asses and out to change the system would have led to something positive. Please know that I voted for him with reluctant resignation to the fact that our system is broken, and that the only other contender was no better and probably much worse in some ways.

America, please forgive me! If only it had even been remotely possible to elect Ron Paul...

"The choice we conservatives have all had to make: between the world as it is or the world as we'd like it to be; between the spray-on niceness and ease of the glib, leftist consensus or the opprobrium and rigor of conservativsm." -James Delingpole, Welcome to Obamaland

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Books in Progress: Welcome to Obamaland

I just borrowed Welcome to Obamaland: I have seen your future and it doesn't work. It is simultaneously fun, hilarious, and depressing. Fun and hilarious because it's well-written; depressing because the author (James Delingpole) really has seen our future. He lived through Britain's own Obama: Tony Blair.

As he says in the introduction: "I am afraid I have a terrible message to impart. I have just seen the future. Your future. And I'm sorry to say it sucks." This book is basically a message from America's future, warning us of what the next (probably eight) years will be like.

Some choice quotes so far:

"The brave, independent American eagle will become the American turkey, oven-basted by the nanny state of Barack Obama."

 

"In politics, unfortunately, fashion counts for rather more than integrity or ideology."

Oh, another reason I'm loving this book already: clearly, Delingpole is a Simpsons fan, because he makes a reference to "Obama-worshipping surrender monkeys." If you don't know what that's a reference to, then I'm sorry for your loss. But if you do get it, then you will appreciate why I am so rapidly coming to respect this book and its author.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

U.S. Demands China Revoke Web Filtering Requirement

U.S trade officials demanded that China rescind its mandate requiring that Web filtering software come pre-installed on all PCs sold there, maintaining that the directive could violate trade terms established by the World Trade Organization, Reuters reports.

Starting July 1, U.S. computer makers are expected to adhere to a deadline requiring Web filtering software, called Green Dam-Youth Escort, come pre-installed on all computers sold in China.

via crn.com

I didn't realize at first that this requirement also applied to manufacturers outside China, but that makes sense. It is good to see somebody fighting this nonsense, but of course most manufacturers will cave and do whatever China wants -- gotta get that Chinese money while it's still hot.

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

China Bans Sex Content, Including Sexual Health Education

Ordinary web users in China will be banned from surfing sex-related medical and research websites from next month, amid an Internet crackdown on pornographic online content, according to new regulations.

Medical information service providers must install software to ensure only professionals can access sites that carry information and research about sex, the regulations on the website of the Ministry of Health (www.moh.gov.cn) said.

"The health sections of web portals are not allowed to conduct sex-related research services," the regulation added.

via degenerasian.blogspot.com

This is just... wow. China is socially conservative as it is, but now they're eliminating the one channel for non-embarrassing inquiry into sexual education and health. We've seen in the USA just how well things work out when you dumb down sexual education. I'm sure for China this will result in only milk, honey, and manna raining down from heaven.

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Pics from Tonight's Isotopes Game

For both me and Suzy, this was our first baseball game. We both had a blast -- especially since we had AWESOME seats in the club section on the VIP level! Woot. Thanks, Linda!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Oh noz! Jon & Kate + 8 = Divorce? ZOMG.

TLC began airing a promotion for Monday's edition of "Jon & Kate Plus 8," and as promos go, this one is ominous: Recently, Kate Gosselin explains, she and her husband, Jon, have made "some life-changing decisions that will affect every member of our family."

via seattletimes.nwsource.com

Thank goodness we have REAL NEWS like this, to distract us from stuff that actually matters.

(Posted via web from Real News)

My job is too big for one man, says Dalai Lama -- The Independent

The speech put the firmest cap possible on the idea that the Lama should be the sole repository of leadership for the Tibetan people. "When we put the whole responsibility in the person of the Dalai Lama, it is dangerous," he said. "It is appropriate that a democratically elected leader lead a people's movement. In reality, a change is happening in the responsibility of the Dalai Lama as the temporal and spiritual leader. This, I think, is very good. A religious leader having to assume political leadership, that period is over.

via independent.co.uk

(Posted via web from bits of buddhism)

Will.i.am, Perez Hilton

Gossip blogger Perez Hilton has claimed he was assaulted by hip-hop producer and founding Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am and his bodyguards in Toronto, Canada. Hilton claims the attack happened during an after-party following the MuchMusic Video Awards show. On the morning of June 22, 2009, Hilton posted messages on Twitter claiming he needed police.

via mahalo.com

Err... If I needed the police, especially while being "assaulted," Twitter is NOT on my list of the first ways I would try to contact them.

Of course, if I was trying to get PUBLICITY and rile people up, rather than actually get help from the police... Well, then Twitter would be a perfect choice. Surely that's not what happened here, though... Right?

(Posted via web from Real News)

What is the Legitimate Role of Federal Government?

The legitimate role of the federal government is expressly described in Section 8 of Article I of our U.S. Constitution. A brief summary of these limited federal powers is: collect taxes, provide for our country's defense and general welfare, regulate interstate commerce, oversee legal processes (naturalization, bankruptcies, patents, copyrights, federal courts, etc.), operate a post office, and govern the District of Columbia.

That's it!

Where in our constitution do you find the multitude of other "programs" and "initiatives" of today's federal government -- from education and environment to health care and housing? These are only partial examples of the powers that need to be delegated to the several states.

via bakersfield.com

A proper return to state sovereignty would solve a LOT of our problems. Even assuming the various "communist" or "socialist" tendencies of the current federal government are desirable, why not let the individual STATES do those things? If my state really wanted to be anti-business and communist, that shouldn't mean the other 49 have to follow suit.

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

"Signature Strengths" Questionnaire, My Top 5 Strengths

I just took the (very long!) VIA Signature Strengths questionnaire, which I saw mentioned in The Art of Happiness at Work. Here are my top 5 "strengths" according to the questionnaire:

Your Top Strength: Forgiveness and mercy
You forgive those who have done you wrong. You always give people a second chance. Your guiding principle is mercy and not revenge.

Your Second Strength: Love of learning
You love learning new things, whether in a class or on your own. You have always loved school, reading, and museums-anywhere and everywhere there is an opportunity to learn.

Your Third Strength: Spirituality, sense of purpose, and faith
You have strong and coherent beliefs about the higher purpose and meaning of the universe. You know where you fit in the larger scheme. Your beliefs shape your actions and are a source of comfort to you.

Your Fourth Strength: Appreciation of beauty and excellence
You notice and appreciate beauty, excellence, and/or skilled performance in all domains of life, from nature to art to mathematics to science to everyday experience.

Your Fifth Strength: Bravery and valor
You are a courageous person who does not shrink from threat, challenge, difficulty, or pain. You speak up for what is right even if there is opposition. You act on your convictions.

via authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu

FREE BOOKS -- I'll Mail Them To You!

I've been sorting through my collection of books, and there's some that I want to pass on to others. I'd prefer to give them to someone who is actually interested, so I'm offering them here. I'll pay for the postage. Any books that aren't claimed by June 28th, I'll go ahead and donate to my local library.

If you want one or more of these books, e-mail me (thomas [AT] hochmann [DOT] org) or DM me on Twitter (@hochmann). Give me your address and tell me which books you want and I will send what you want to you by Media Mail. As I said, I'll pay for the postage. I'm happy to spread books to people who want them!

Here are the books and the condition of each one:

• [fiction] Judas Unchained by Peter F. Hamilton -- acceptable condition, some wear on cover and binding.
• [politics] Russia and Arms Control by Stephen J. Blank -- in good condition, minor wear on cover.
• [spirituality] The Four Agreements Companion Book by don Miguel Ruiz -- like new condition.
• [spirituality] The Tao of Inner Peace by Diane Dreher -- good condition, older copy w/ minor bends in cover and a few pages.
• [philosophy] The Tao of Teaching by Greta Nagel -- good condition, minor wear on cover.
• [christianity] The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn -- great condition, almost like new.
• [spirituality] The Way of Chuang Tzu by Thomas Merton -- very good condition, very small bends in cover.
• [spirituality] The Way of the Wizard by Deepak Chopra -- acceptable condition, minor water damage to bottom of pages.
• [spirituality] Zen and the Art of Happiness by Chris Prentiss -- acceptable condition, some bent pages and bent cover.

Important notes:

1. This is first come, first served. Whoever contacts me first about a book will be the one who gets it.
2. If you want something faster (like Priority Mail or UPS) or if you want a tracking #, we'll have to work something out so you can pay the cost of shipping.
3. I will only mail within the U.S. I won't mail to Canada, Mexico, or any other country, and I won't mail things to APOs or FPOs, sorry.
4. No warranty! You're getting a free book, what do you expect? ;-)
5. I have the right to refuse to mail anything to anybody, for any reason or no reason. I probably won't refuse, unless I think you're a Nigerian scammer! But it's still my right. :-P

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

I Hate OpenOffice. Yes, Even More Than Before. GRR.

I've said it before, and now I'll say it again: OpenOffice is a piece of crap. Setting aside the formatting errors that creep into large documents, the horrible bugs that crop up when using Asian fonts, the bloat, and the crashes, OpenOffice has managed to piss me off yet again. I refuse to use it myself these days and I actively discourage people from using it if possible. However, Suzy still has some old files she created with it...

You can maybe excuse formatting issues that occur when making complex documents -- as something of a programmer, I know that the programming necessary to do complex layout is not trivial. But this is not one of those problems. It is perhaps the most newbie bug I've yet seen in OpenOffice and it is not at all something that should occur in a "professional" piece of software. Here's the scenario facing my not-a-computer-expert wife, Suzy:

• When installing OpenOffice, it gives you the option of installing it without a Java Runtime Environment (JRE). Without a JRE you can't use certain tools, but it also means that you have less bloat and performance problems on a low-end machine. The key point: this is an option when you install. It is not some weird, unofficial hack that only geeks would do. It is supported and offered at installation time. Remember that as I continue my description.
• Now, while using OpenOffice, my dear Suzy decides to change the formatting on a picture. She double-clicks on it, and a window pops up with lots of options. She clicks one of the tabs that says "Macro," to see what kind of choices are in there.
• Having clicked on the "Macro" tab, OpenOffice presents her with an error that says "JRE is not installed, yadda yadda yadda." Fine, there's nothing wrong with letting the user know that some tools are not available when the JRE is missing. So she clicks "Okay" to dismiss the message.
• The message pops up again, instantly. She clicks "Okay." The message pops up again. "Okay." Error! "Okay." Error! And so on and so on, ad nauseum.

So how can she get out of this endless loop? The only way is to have Windows forcefully kill OpenOffice while it's running, in the process losing any changes she made. There is no other way to get around that endlessly repeating cycle of error messages.

This is about as noobish as you can get in programming, folks. What's worse than not handling errors in a program? Handling them with inescapable pop-up messages. If you accidentally click the wrong tab, you may be stuck in a cycle of error messages that can only be broken by losing all your changes since you last saved!

Also remember how I said this was an option offered when installing OpenOffice? Yep, that's right. So in this situation, because you used a supported feature of the program (that is, installing it without the added bloat of the JRE), you get punished with an endless loop of error messages that could cause you to lose data!

This kind of crap is not acceptable in a productivity app that wants to be a contender for business use. It's doubly distressing to see this in software that has been around so long and reached the supposed level of maturity that OpenOffice has.

Again I say: Is this really the best the open source community can do? After all these freakin' years, is this our best answer to Microsoft Office? I think all the OpenOffice developers have managed to do is copy all the bad stuff of Microsoft Office (clunky interface and boatloads of bugs) while simultaneously being left in the dust by newer versions like Office 2007 (which has a kick-ass interface and is extremely well-behaved software).

Bleh. On the plus side, seeing this kind of stuff makes me REALLY glad I did not end up with a job in IT, like I hoped for so many years ago. Suzy's a smart girl, and even she has difficulty with the sheer stupidity of software like this. How on earth could I help people who have no clue?

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

When Being a Father Exacted a Price - The New York Times

My father's best legacy were the dazzling smiles he gave when he could not afford to. As a son of a former landowner whose lands had been confiscated by the new [Chinese] Communist government, my father suffered during the Cultural Revolution.

via nytimes.com

I don't usually go for sappy Father's Day news stories, but this one really shows how a good father (and indeed any good human) lives his life.

Side note -- if this small taste of what terrible things Communism can do shocks or interests you, I highly recommend reading "Blood Red Sunset" by Ma Bo. It's a jaw-dropping account of what it was like to be on the inside of China's Cultural Revolution, with book-burning, intimidation, and hard labor camps even for those who supported the movement. Go find it on Powells, Amazon, or at your favorite bookstore.

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

WARNING: Fake Twitter Invites Carry Malicious Worm (via @mashable)

The emails carry the subject line “Your friend invited you to twitter!”, while the sender’s address is spoofed as “invitations@twitter.com”. Unlike a typical Twitter invite, however, the email contains no invitation link: instead it carries the attached file Invitation Card.zip, tempting the receiver to download it. The attachment, of course, contains W32.Ackantta.B@mm – a nasty, email address-harvesting worm.

via mashable.com

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Obama's Response to Iran is Surprisingly Sane

Although I disagree with a lot of what Obama and his administration have done so far, I do appreciate Obama's approach to the situation in Iran. It is nice to see he is not jumping on things like the House is, hurling condemnations on issues that don't concern us (and especially don't concern our elected officials). His response thus far is surprisingly true to America's ideals, and actually earned admiring words from Ron Paul -- which is a positive testament to how sane this response really is.

Obama said: "If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion."

Obama has not yet said whether he thinks the election was stolen.

via washingtonpost.com

Good. I hope he doesn't ever say, because it's not his job or his business to say.

What is Obama doing right here? He is criticizing violence and repression, which is exactly what an American President should do. Not getting caught up in the details of the election and whether or not it was rigged -- that is smart. The election, fake or not, is none of our business. But if America is supposed to be a "beacon of freedom" like so many people claim/dream, then Obama's response so far is commendable. As he should, he's supporting the protesters only in so far as he condemns violent action against them. It's not his duty nor a wise thing to do to take any sides with regard to the election or other politics.

So for once, kudos to Obama from me.

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Jammie Thomas - $2 Million for Downloaded Songs

Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother of four, was ordered to pay nearly $2 million in damages to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for the illegal downloading of music over the Internet. The court's ruling was made on June 18, 2009. Rasset will have to pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs she downloaded from peer-to-peer file sharing sites.

via mahalo.com

A list of which songs she ended up paying $80,000 a piece for can be found in this Wired article. $80k for a Reba McEntire song? Ouch.

(Posted via web from Real News)

Ron Paul Statement Opposing Condemnation of Iranian Government

Here again, we have Ron Paul standing up in the face of snap judgments, media manipulation, hypocrisy, and unnecessary meddling by our government:

Of course I do not support attempts by foreign governments to suppress the democratic aspirations of their people, but when is the last time we condemned Saudi Arabia or Egypt or the many other countries where unlike in Iran there is no opportunity to exercise any substantial vote on political leadership? It seems our criticism is selective and applied when there are political points to be made.

via ronpaul.com

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Mom's Birthday & Early Father's Day Celebration

Some pictures from celebrating my mom's birthday and (a bit early) Father's Day -- me, Suzy, my mom, and my step dad Guido.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Around Santa Fe - June 2009

Some pictures from walking around Santa Fe, mostly near Saint Francis Cathedral and the art galleries along Canyon Road.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Solar Halo in Santa Fe Today

We looked up at the sky today and saw a perfect circular rainbow around the sun, called a Solar Halo. It wasn't extremely bright or colorful, nor were there any "Sun Dogs" (bright spots around the halo), but it was easy to spot anyway!

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Buddha Statues at Project Tibet, Santa Fe

A couple of Buddha statues at Project Tibet, located in Santa Fe. The script on the first picture is the mantra, "Om mani padme hum."

See and download the full gallery on posterous

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

The Tough Do NOT Get Going

To paraphrase Sun Tzu in his Art of War, when the going gets tough, the tough do not get going; they disappear, only to reappear again, renewed and reimagined.

- David Whyte, Crossing the Unknown Sea (p. 183)

Each day, and in fact each moment, is an opportunity for you to re-imagine yourself. Who do you want to be today?

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Happy Flag Day!

via wikipedia

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

"Too Big To Fail" (via @obamunism_us)

I’m not sure at what point companies became “too big to fail.” First it was the financials; now it’s the auto industry. What gives these people the right to make mistakes and not get the axe? The government does not exist to keep people employed. I don’t care how many people you work with, as few as ten or as many as tens of thousands, if your company fails, it fails. Look for another job like the rest of us. You have a right to work but not a guarantee. There is a huge difference.

via obamunism.us

Imjetta and Navitor69 made two great points as well. Imjetta pointed out that we not only get all the risk of this stupid investment-at-gunpoint, but we also don't get any of the return. You think Obama will send you a check if GM's stock goes back up?

Navitor69's point was that even *if* GM was "too big to fail" and it was worthy of survival, we already HAVE a mechanism for letting companies restructure themselves and try to get out of debt. It's called BANKRUPTCY, and it doesn't require the amount of government interference or risk to taxpayer money as these ridiculous bailouts.

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Socializing General Motors (via @obamunism_us)

I’m so glad that President Obama has forced me into being part owner of the new failing GM so that my unborn children will have a secure future. Meanwhile, I am already supporting scores of other people’s children, people who think they have a “basic human right” but not a “basic human responsibility” to be parents.

via obamunism.us

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Captaincy

David Whyte's Crossing the Unknown Sea, a book that explores the notion that "work is where the self meets the world", is quickly becoming a kind of religious scripture for me in my approach to work. Whyte puts forward a number of interesting ideas about work and how we relate to it. One in particular has spoken to me in recent months: what Whyte calls "captaincy."

Captaincy is our ability and willingness to take responsibility for things, our ability to not only take the wheel when we have to, but to keep an eye on the wheel while the actual captain/boss is on the job. Seamen who rely too much on their highly competent captain may find themselves facing disaster when the captain uncharacteristically misses something, and his crew has decided that he holds all responsibility for staying aware. Their years of experience at sea go out the window, because "it's not my problem." Or perhaps nurses, knowing a doctor has misdiagnosed or mis-prescribed something, may indirectly see a patient come to harm or death because they do not have the courage to take the wheel. They don't stand up when they know they should.

In Crossing the Unknown Sea, I have thus stumbled across one of the great virtues of the job I have now. We are a small crew, and we all have to be capable of being the captain. We should be competent in all areas, and strong in as many as possible. The bosses aren't always around, and even when they are, we should be competent and experienced enough to know what direction they would choose most of the time. This is something I like about my job. We're all expected to have this quality of captaincy. When we're suddenly staring a problem in the face, we have to be able to steer the ship away from the rocks and get things done with no casualties. Sometimes we face the problem together, sometimes one of us must face it alone. This makes us well-rounded, experienced, and confident that we can do what needs to be done.

The sad thing is that a lot of people seem to lack captaincy, and in fact want no part in it. We can see this in all sorts of areas of life these days. For example, politics. A lot of people in America seem to want a kind of nanny state, some other entity that can both manage our lives and take the blame when things go wrong. Or we may want Wal-mart to be forced to take care of our kids. Why should I be the captain and educate my children about things like violence, sex, etc. when my local government can force Wal-mart to check IDs and babysit my children's DVD purchases for me?

Of course, it is possible to go the opposite direction, too. To be a captain you have to be humble enough to develop yourself as one through learning and experience. It's not enough to merely assume that you are one because of some innate gift from your creator. Helicopter parents, for example, might cause more problems than they solve if their hovering interferes with the work of people who actually do know what they are doing in educating children. There is a difference between being a captain and being an ass. A good captain generally doesn't think he's hot sh*t, but he does stay true to his experience and knowledge when it's applicable.

If you're allergic to responsibility, you may think that having the abilities of a captain means you're going to have more stress and more stuff on your plate. That may be true to some degree, but it also means you will be awake. You will be fully engaged with the things in your life. My job is actually pretty enjoyable because I know that my work is an expression of who I am, what I've learned, and what skills I have. I'm lucky to have a work environment that fosters that kind of attitude. Having captaincy means having the ability to be more than a replaceable, cookie-cutter cog in a machine. You must have the confidence to express the things you know and can do, and to know when the time is right for those things.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Three All Important Questions For You (via @dhowell)

Kelly McCausey asks three important questions which can help put your life (and especially your work life) into focus. Can you answer these tough questions honestly? Will you let them inform your life for the better? Read the questions and see what your answers are.

Some people don’t like to be asked tough questions like this.  They don’t like to be confronted with a reminder that they have the ability to choose whether they will enjoy their life.  They prefer to wallow, whine and rage against the machine as if they live lives in helpless captivity.

What about you?  Do you realize you have the ability to choose?

via sparkplugging.com

(Posted via web from hochmann-y goodness)

Buddhist Book Review: Zen and the Art of Happiness

Though I am wary of "Zen and the Art of ____" books in general, I did grab Zen and the Art of Happiness as a cheap-o purchase at a local thrift store. I can't pass up a book that's remotely related to Buddhism or spirituality, especially if it's cheap! 

First, let's get the obvious out of the way: this book has very little to do with actual Zen or Buddhism. There are lots of great quotes from Zen masters and wise sages of old, but that's about it. Think of it as "Zen Lite." The essence of the book is admitted up-front by the author: learn to be happy, and you will have happiness. That simple idea is the sun around which the chapters orbit. Some orbits pass closer to that sun than others.

There were moments when Zen and the Art of Happiness began to scared me. Sometimes it ventured off into territory that reminded me too much of The Secret, a book that really scared me for a variety of reasons. Some pseudoscience starts to creep in with discussions of the Universe "communicating" with you through events, sending you more "good events" when you start acknowledging this "communication" -- as if the Universe is a needy puppy that wags his tail even harder when you give him the attention he's been begging for. This book is not dangerously materialistic or me-centric like The Secret, though, so that's a big plus.

I do think the overall point of Zen and the Art of Happiness is a solid one, and one worth discussing. Don't try to "get" happiness as if it were something you could crumple up and stuff in your jeans pocket. The only way to find happiness is to get out of your own way and allow yourself to be happy. I do think the author loses sight of that sometimes, going off on some tangents that are interesting but of questionable help to the reader. Not to mention the occasional shameless plug for something else the author has done or written, without much elaboration on it except simply to advertise it. Dear Mr. Prentiss, please don't tell me your son discovered the ultimate secret to recovering from addiction and self-destructive behavior without sharing it in your self-help book!

There are some good lessons in Zen and the Art of Happiness, but as is always true with spiritual books, you have to put the spiritual tires to the pavement and actually put the lessons into practice in your own life. This is not, despite its size or the promises on its back cover, a "just add water" solution to your woes.

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

Book Review: Laughing Boy

As a birthday present, one of my bosses gave me a copy of Laughing Boy. I was slightly puzzled at first -- she knows I am a bookworm, so a book is a natural choice; but why an older novel, a self-proclaimed "Navajo love story"? Then she pointed out the message she wrote inside: "This is my grandfather's most famous book." Yes indeed, Oliver La Farge was my boss's grandfather, and this was his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

I love novels about Native American stuff -- the more authentic, the better. I don't know firsthand how authentic Laughing Boy really is, but it is a truly wonderful book that has an authentic feel to it. La Farge wrote this book the way I think a Native American story should be told, based on my limited academic understanding. Past, present, and a sense of future destiny are often woven together like a rich tapestry of time. Moments of powerful emotion overflow the pages in bursts of short, sometimes contradictory exclamations, one right after another. When a character is drunk, you feel his drunkenness on the page. When there is an emotional crisis, you can feel the struggles tugging at you. And when you get to the last words, the book winds down to a point very similar to where it began -- a perfect circle.

That's about all I can say without spoiling the story. If you need to be convinced of how compelling this book is, let me just point out one thing: in recent years it has been very hard for me to finish a good book even given a month to do so. I finished this book in three days, despite working most of the waking hours of those days. That is a compelling book.

Stop reading my blog and go buy a copy now.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Sandia Peak Tram

Today, my mom, Suzy, and I went up to the Sandia foothills to enjoy the views and take some pictures of the tram. I'll have to take Suzy on the tram sometime soon...

See and download the full gallery on posterous

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

The Beautiful Rail Runner

A picture I took yesterday, as the Rail Runner departed the Downtown Albuquerque station.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Being Nothing (inspired by @BeMeaningful)

My friend Lori (@BeMeaningful) has posted an absolutely wonderful piece on her blog, titled You Are Nothing... and That's a Good Thing. She writes about how we label ourselves, and use our labels to justify our (in)actions, failures, etc. As she says, "you limit your ability to become someone new when you carry around labels like these." It's a great post, and I highly recommend you take a few minutes to read it.

I've harped on that point a lot when writing about Buddhism, and Lori hit the nail on the head expertly and elegantly. The less you label, the less you limit.

See my (somewhat lengthy) post on how labeling can lead us astray: Fire and Ice.

(Posted via email from bits of buddhism)

Dove and Dover: Pics from Dad's House

Pictures of my dad's pet dove, "Ping."

See and download the full gallery on posterous

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Christmas in Summer: Disney Christmas Carol Train Tour

Pictures from the Disney Christmas Carol Train Tour, as it stopped over in Albuquerque.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Disney Christmas Carol Train Tour

Pictures from the Disney Christmas Carol Train Tour as it visited Albuquerque.

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)

Open Letter to People Who Don't Get Me

Dear Person Who Doesn't Get Me:

It's okay that you don't get me. Really! It doesn't bother me.

Do you know why you don't get me? Probably the biggest reason is that our human world -- regardless of culture -- inherently makes it very difficult to actually know or understand another person.

Think about it. If you've ever learned anything about sociology or linguistics, you've realized that we carry out our daily lives in the bounds of a given social system. That system operates based on norms (i.e. the things that are considered normal), social rules, expectations, reward/punishment for complying with the system (even complying with the system's desire for non-compliance), etc.

This kind of  framework gives us the tools to co-exist and to cooperate with others, but ironically takes away much of our ability to really understand others. The system we live in gives us some cushioning to protect us from the rough edges of other people's personalities, but that same cushioning also tends to act as a barrier against truly seeing, hearing, and feeling what other people are about.

So it's okay if you don't understand me. I know why, and it doesn't bother me. And if you do understand me, you're probably wrong, because it's extremely difficult to see through to who another person actually is.

I've been thinking a lot lately about labels. Look at the news and see how many labels you can pick out: right-wing, left-wing, conservative, liberal, pro-life, pro-choice, extremist, centrist, activist, pacifist, Republican, Democrat, freedom-fighter, terrorist, crackpot, intellectual, etc. These concepts can help us summarize some general ideas about people or groups, but we so easily become caught up in a web of labels. We replace experiencing and understanding with the liberal, un-aware application of lots of sticky little labels.

He's a right-wing pro-life extremist Republican." Maybe those attributes fit, but have you really understood or communicated the essence of the man?

If you want to say so, I am a Buddhist and a socially liberal (but politically conservative) American guy. But those labels aren't me. These labels are similar to what the Taoist sage Zhuang Zi said about pinning a butterfly -- you capture the husk, but the flying is lost. Labels and categories really suit the brain, but the analytical brain is ill-equipped to really appreciate life. Your ideas of me, and anybody and anything else, are nothing more than capturing wind in a bottle. You've got the air, but the essence of wind (the movement and vitality) is gone.

So, dear Person Who Doesn't Get Me, the reason you don't get me is because there's nothing to be gotten. You asked me the other day, "what are you doing with your life?" I'm doing the most honest thing I can -- living it. You ask me the question, and it is heavily loaded with cultural and social expectations for what the satisfactory answer could be. But I have no real answer that will fit the labels you want. If I answer one way, Thomas is a hippie. Another way, Thomas is a do-nothing slacker with no ambition. If I give you the answer you think you want, Thomas is a guy who knows what he's doing. All wrong, all missing the point completely. If I am anything at all, I am simply Thomas is.

You don't get me, but that's okay. I still love you!

Sincerely,

Thomas Hochmann

(Posted via email from hochmann-y goodness)