Liberal Mindset, Conservative Morality
Words are an incredibly potent and powerful thing. I don’t just mean in the sense that you can have a poem that seems to be made out of the same word over and over — shi shi or repeating buffalo and meaning an entire sentence from it. Here I refer to the power of words that might seem simple and yet have a powerful effect on those that hear them.
After he got home from a long day at work, Jerald had a nightly tradition that he carefully followed with help from his wife.
A day spent in the trenches of his cubicle rich office and being surrounded by nothing but talk of computer programming made Jerald long for something more cultural and interesting.
When I was in Southern California recently, I had the opportunity to be in the audience of the Conan O’Brien show with my brother-in-law Brandon. My wife applied to get us tickets online when they became available and were quite happy when we ended up getting them. Along with the notice that we were going to be able to see the show were instructions that we were not going to be allowed to have our mobile phones with us during the taping. Since we were being essentially dropped off at the studio a couple of hours before the taping, we would have to relinquish the phones to our loved ones who would be driving around Los Angeles.
I am always struck by the inanity of other websites and blogs that allow open commenting on their articles because that sort of anonymity invites chaos, creates confusion and encourages deception and ruins the reading experience. It is the publisher’s duty to only accept comments from verified individuals. Without some sort of verification process in place — that at least links a verified email address to the person commenting — you have no idea who is attacking you or for what reason.
It is entirely possible to be in the company of friends and yet to feel alone and isolated. It does not even necessarily have to relate to being somewhere else on an emotional or intellectual level. I was with a group of friends the other night and while I appreciated their company, there were a few lengthy moments when I felt that I could just disappear entirely without my absence being noted.
We now have scientific evidence that talking on the phone while driving is more dangerous than chatting with the person in the car with you:
Apple has set forth upon us a bad iPhone 3G — and if you dare to complain about it — or find ways to hope to deal with the matter on the official Apple forums… you will be silenced with the deletion of your discussion thread.
