While wandering around the web the other day, I came across this post. The author, Phil Villarreal, writes:
As time continues to speed up and death draws closer, I become more and more convinced that TV sports and video games are a waste of time, and that by spending time staring at a TV in anger over an ultimately meaningless game people a thousand miles away from me are playing, or zoning out with a guitar-shaped controller in my hand, failing for the 30th time in one hour to get pass one song I’ll never have a chance of conquering, I’m squandering what little time I’ve been given. And yet as I age I’m even more drawn to piddling distractions, as if they’re safety blankets I grasp and cower under in order to shelter my senses from the inevitable.
This got me thinking about the nature of meaning. What makes something meaningful or meaningless, and how much of my time should I be spending on meaningful endeavors? Keep reading →
Categories: Philosophy
Today on Queercents, I posted about the good side of commercialism:
“My partner and I went to Gay Days at Disney World in Orlando for the first time in June of this year. You may have read stories in the press about the economic impact of this yearly event, but it’s not news to the people who work there. We took cab rides on several occasions, and I think every single cab driver mentioned how they were working all weekend because it’s their best weekend of the year. Hotels all over the area host parties and events for the occasion. An event that used to draw criticism and controversy, including boycotts by religious groups and signs at park entrances warning patrons of large numbers of gays and lesbians, has given way to businesses tripping over each other to welcome and provide products and services to those same people. This is commercialism in action.”
Read the rest here.
Categories: Economics · Philosophy
My new post on Queercents today discusses Ron Paul’s position on getting rid of the Federal Reserve:
“The Federal Reserve has been getting a lot of attention in the last few months. With the recent housing meltdown and market volatility, it’s hard to miss the articles in the financial press. Some have blamed the Fed for causing the housing bubble, and others have argued that the Fed should take action to provide some relief. Meanwhile, one of the 2008 presidential candidates, Dr. Ron Paul, has long argued for abolishing the Federal Reserve and returning to a gold standard of the kind used around the turn of the century (as opposed to the Bretton Woods system which was in place from 1946-1971). Would that really restore financial stability to the economy? Volumes have been written on this subject, but I will try to at least summarize my own views without reciting every monetary theory in existence.”
Read the rest here.
Categories: Economics · Politics
Today over on Queercents, I discuss diamonds and gay marriage:
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to how I want to propose to my partner. Do I want to do something simple and romantic? Something dramatic and public? It’s not something I ever really thought I’d need to consider, but lately I’ve been searching around on the web to see what other gay couples are doing. As more and more same-sex couples have weddings or commitment ceremonies, it is tempting to adopt much of the ritual that heterosexual couples have long used, but there is one part of that ritual that will not be making it into any of my own plans - diamonds as a symbol of love.
Read the rest here.
Categories: Personal Finance · Relationships
Today over on Queercents, I explore the differences between investing in index funds, actively managed funds, or individual stocks. Here’s an excerpt:
Any finance professional will tell you that if you want to grow your wealth, your asset allocation needs to include stocks. The reason is simple - stocks have the highest potential return. In the many articles on how to invest for your retirement, a common recommendation is to get stock market exposure through a low-cost index fund. There are good reasons for that, but buying actively managed funds or individual stocks are also valid approaches, with different benefits and drawbacks. I want to discuss some of those here. I’m not a financial advisor, but this is my take based on what I’ve read and my own investing experience.
Before we get into that, I should point out that we’re only talking about the stock portion of a portfolio here. The concept of asset allocation - how much to invest in stocks versus bonds versus anything else - is a topic for another article. Similarly, I’m ignoring targeted maturity funds, since they take care of asset allocation for you. I’m also ignoring exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which can be a good alternative to index funds.
Read the rest of the post here.
Categories: Uncategorized
Over on Queercents, Marc posted about how he feels ostracized by the gay community for his beliefs. Actually he says LGBT community, but I’m going to distill that down to ‘gay’ to simplify my argument. I commented there, but I wanted to address a particular point at greater length.
Defining the gay community
“Gay community” is just a simple way to refer to all gay people. It doesn’t tell you anything about those people except that they’re gay. It doesn’t tell you whether the individuals are flaming queens, misogynist dykes, struggling waiters, or rich businesswomen. It defines a group of people by one attribute - sexual orientation.
Now this may come as a shock to some of you, but not all gay people hold the same ideals. You can not legitimately ascribe an idea or value to “gays” or the “gay community”, because we are individuals with different ideas and values. When you attempt to do so, what you really mean to do is narrow the group based on ideological criteria. When people say “gays want so-and-so”, what they usually mean is gay liberals want so-and-so. Keep reading →
Categories: Philosophy · Politics · Relationships
September 23, 2007 · 1 Comment
As I was organizing some old photos today, I came across a picture I took of Steve Wozniak at the 1988 AppleFest (a conference for Apple II and Mac users) in San Francisco. I was fifteen years old at the time, and had an Apple IIGS, which I loved.
At first, I wasn’t entirely sure what year the picture was taken - I attended AppleFest twice in the late ’80s. I had to dig around online to try to find some context for the picture. It’s striking how little information is available about non-newsworthy events that occurred before Internet use became more widespread. I eventually came across a web site under a South African domain name that had archived some old Apple II-related publications. One of the articles complained that Woz was not in attendance at the 1989 AppleFest, so I knew this photo had to be from 1988. But on the way to this discovery, I got caught up in nostalgia for my faithful old IIGS. Keep reading →
Categories: Philosophy
MSNBC reports:
“In reality, however, the companies were merely vehicles for Hsu’s Ponzi scheme, in which money owed as returns to older investors was paid with money received from newer investors, and Hsu never invested the money in the manner he represented to his victims,” prosecutors alleged.
Sounds like Social Security. When are Congress and the President going to be charged for forcing every working American to take part in a huge national Ponzi scheme? I guess we’re a long way from that.
Categories: News · Politics
When it comes to teaching your children about money, personal finance specialists will tell you it’s important to give your child enough of an allowance to let them make mistakes they can learn from. It’s important to let them blow their whole allowance on a toy so that they are completely broke until they get their next allowance. This teaches them the importance of budgeting and saving - but only if you don’t bail them out. If you constantly give them more money after they’ve already blown their whole allowance, they learn to make bad decisions with their money and expect you to pick up the tab.
This same thing is happening right now on a national scale. The kids in this scenario are the people who took out mortgages they couldn’t afford and the lenders who made loans to people with bad credit and no documentation. Keep reading →
Categories: Economics · News · Politics
