Miscellaneous

A BETTER NAME FOR AI: Rapid stupidity, because it does things no intelligent human would ever do, but much faster.

Around 1980, in a book which I had checked out of a public library, which had been written by Caroline Coon and published in 1977, entitled 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock Explosion, I read, apparently from the author's personal impressions of John Lydon, that at age 20, his favorite insult of anyone over age 16 was, "You're too old," and -- from memory! and probably, therefore, inaccurate! -- that although married, he said, "Love is something that you feel for a kitten. If you feel it for another human being, it just shows that your brain isn't working properly." And I said to myself, "AAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!! I knew it! I knew Johnny Rotten was alright!  HE LOVES KITTIES!!!! squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" *thud*

 

I've already said it more than once on this blog, but it bears repeating: I'm not going along with this blanket condemnation of billionaires. Maybe most of them are poisonous reptiles, but we won't know unless we examine each of them as individuals, just the same as we do with any other group, unless we're prejudiced, because that is the definition of prejudice. Furthermore, more and more I have the impression that most of these yahoos spouting blanket condemnations of all billionaires -- are millionaires. They tend not to have the look of the vagabond, as that hair stylist in Down and Out in Beverly Hills said of the homeless. I don't see thrift-store clothes or homemade haircuts on these denouncers of billionaires, and I get a definite sense of private colleges and homes in stylish neighborhoods and $10 coffees and so forth. In short, they profess to be critical of capitalism while having themselves greatly benefited from it, but they focus on the size of a person's stack -- while possessing large stacks. ENORMOUS stacks from the perspective of the great majority of people on Earth.

It's NOT the size of your stack, it's what you're DOING with it! And if you're dissing all billionaires instead of focusing on specific acts by specific billionaires -- you're not doing much with your stack! I'm unimpressed! Also, if you succeed in stirring up enmity based on the size of a person's stack, and your own stack looks huge to most people on Earth -- that could really come back and bite you on the ass, you tedious and yet also horrible moron!

A month ago I got a shot of cortisone in my right shoulder, which had been very painful, and from that time until now, my right shoulder has been COMPLETELY pain-free! I'm 62 years old! This is the first time in years ANY of my joints has been pain-free! Steroids are amazing (cortisone is a steroid. I had one dose of it a month ago, administered by an MD. I favor the medically-responsible use of steroids, not the daily massive abuse which kills and maims for the sake of more frequent wight training)!

Correcting History

Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor, and Philip II, King of Spain, cousins in the Habsburg family, were educated together as children in Spain. Same tutors, same library. When they grew up, Rudolph II was extremely tolerant religiously. He said, "I am not a Catholic or a Lutheran, I am a Christian." But Muslims and Jews were also welcome in his court, if they had talent and/or brains. 

Philip, on the other hand, is thought of, at least in the English-speaking world, as representing the most intolerant form of Catholicism. Elizabeth and the English defeated the Spanish Armada, striking a huge  blow for freedom.

 

That's the way we hear about it in English-speaking parts of the world. 

We learn that the only time in his life Philip smiled was when heard of the St Batholomew's Day Massacre in France, when 70,000 Protestants were killed in France, and most of the rest fled the country.

Except that it was probably less than 5,000. Many Protestants had to flee France. But by no means all of them. Still very bad, but not what we learn. And the part about Philip smiling for the only time in his life when he heard about it -- I'm thinking that might be bullshit too. I'm thinking it's entirely possible that he felt very BAD about a huge massacre, even if it was a huge massacre of Protestants. 

And the part about the defeat of the Spanish Armada being a great victory for freedom -- Catholics didn't get civil rights in England for another 200 years. And they didn't get FULL civil rights until even later than that. Spain, horrible repression, vs England, glorious freedom -- that's just one example of the huge whoppers we are taught about the Tudor dynasty and the world around it.

Just the same way that George Washington never chopped down a cherry tree or threw a silver dollar across the Potomac. We know now that Parson Weems made that up, and a lot of other things which were considered true for a very long time.

History is imperfect. We keep working on improving its accuracy and insight.