Buyers and Sellers

 

The Bug

Sometimes you're the windshield
Sometimes you're the bug
Sometimes it all comes together, babe
Sometimes you're a fool in love
Sometimes you're the Louisville slugger, babe
Sometimes you're the ball
Sometimes it all comes together, babe
Sometimes you're gonna lose it all, yeah

There is a problem when one party thinks they’re the windshield and the other is the bug,
 but the other party thinks the reverse is true.

Twitter serves as a public town square. Its Tweets are free to post and read. However the Twitter infrastructure is not free. Twitter sells the information about its users to advertisers and that pays for the infrastructure. The users of Twitter have one perspective, while Twitter itself has another perspective.

A town square is a public place. But there are laws, rules, and customs governing public spaces. Speakers are  expected to not speak over each other. Speakers are supposed to state opinions, not false facts. People are not supposed to defame or harm others. Twitter's moderators and terms of service function much the same way. If there is no moderation or rules, then there will probably be no users. If there are no users, then there is no information to sell to advertisers. If there is nothing to sell, then the infrastructure is not provided, Then there is no private version of that public town square.

In economics, goods are classified by two dimensions: 1) priced and unpriced, and 2) exclusive and non-exclusive (if I sell it to you, I can not sell it to another.). From the perspective of the Twitter users, the good is unpriced and nonexclusive. From the perspective of Twitter and its advertisers, it is priced and nonexclusive. And that is the confusion. Twitter is not unpriced. Just like a broadcast “free” TV show is not free, it is paid for by its advertisers. It is “free”, but it is not unpriced.

This may also be the problem with the tickets fiasco for Taylor Swift tickets. From Taylor Swift’s, and her fans', perspective, the concert is non-exclusive. One fan’s attendance does not mean another fan can not hear the same concert. From the perspective of Ticketmaster, and the venue operators, the seats are exclusive. However those same seats without Taylor’s music are just seats. When the buyer thinks the good is non-exclusive and the seller thinks it is exclusive, there are also problems.

When both parties are the windshield, or both parties are the bug, then there is no problem. When one party is the windshield and the other is the bug, then there are problems.

Brittney Griner II

 

Free At Last

On my knees when the light pass'd by
I thank God I'm free at last
Tho't my soul would rise and fly
I thank God I'm free at last

Brittney Griner is free at last

Thank you President  Biden! The price was high, but the end is so worth it.

On the Spectrum

 

Whiter Shade of Pale

And so it was that later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale.

That it is because it is on a spectrum, not a binary.

Autism is said to exist on a spectrum. And a form of high functioning Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, is still said to be on the spectrum.  A co-worker joked that Asperger’s must be in the job description at our firm. Those with Asperger’s have to be reminded that the old CBS show “The Big Bang Theory” is a comedy, not a documentary.

The most recent podcast of Stuff You Should Know  was on Face Blindness, prosopagnosia, which is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to recognize faces. The most famous sufferer of Face Blindness is Brad Pitt. The podcast also discussed coping mechanisms for those who suffer from Face Blindness The podcast ended with a request that those who suffer from Face Blindness write to them. However, Face Blindness may not be a matter of you have it, or you don’t. It may also be on a spectrum.

I think that I may have an undiagnosed form of Face Blindness. Admittedly this may be that I have developed coping mechanisms for most cases, but not this one. I do not have the ability to recognize faces in unfamiliar settings. The most prominent example was when I was on vacation in Virginia and heard a voice say, “Hello, Dan.”  I asked the person who they were. I should mention that she was distinctive in the manner that only a freckle-faced, bi-racial woman could be. Her response was that I was her supervisor at work in Massachusetts and sat next to her for the previous five years At work, no problem, 1,000 miles from work, who are you? Oh yeah, that’s why I should know you.

One of the coping mechanisms that I may have developed is trying to treat everyone with kindness. If the old adage is true that "You should treat people nice on the way up the ladder, because you might meet them again on the way down,” then treating everyone nice because they might be a long-time friend that you don’t recognize at the moment is even more true. Those with Face Blindness, even on a spectrum, may have to treat everyone the same because they can’t recognize any differences. People who you have treated well in the past, expect the same treatment, whether you recognize them or not.

303 Creative

 

I’m A Man

I stand outside creatin'
All the groovy kinds of love
I'm a man, yes I am and I can't help but love you so
I'm a man, yes I am and I can't help but love you so

And no man is God.

Justice “Not Merrick Garland” Gorsuch during oral arguments for the 303 Creative case slammed the State of Colorado for forcing a Christian baker to undergo a “reeducation program” after he refused to create a custom cake celebrating a same-sex marriage on the grounds that it violated his religious convictions.

That Christian baker is licensed by the state of Colorado.  That baker has his premises inspected by Health Departments of governments in Colorado.  That baker receives police, fire  and other protections and services from the government.  That baker accepts payment in US currency, not in barter.  Is it too much to ask that this Christian baker abide by the laws of our governments, even if those laws and regulations violate his religious belief.  The Supreme Court is being asked to be Caesar, not God.  It should be a good Christian and remember  Christ's teaching “ Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s."  The baker’s religious convictions are God’s.  The state of Colorado and the Supreme Court are not God, they are Caesar.  Is Justice Gorsuch under the impression that he is God?

Discontinuities

 

Go to the Mirror, Boy (See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me)

I often wonder what he is feeling
Has he ever heard a word I’ve said?
Look at him in the mirror dreaming
What is happening in his head?

Maybe our universe IS inside the mirror.

The original Star Trek ( yes, I am that nerdy), had an episode Mirror, Mirror where Captain Kirk entered an evil mirror universe ( the one with Spock with a Goatee!).  Our universe appears to be hyperbolic https://dbeagan.blogspot.com/2022/07/forever.html. It may also be that evil mirror universe.

Random events appear to follow an exponential distribution.  Those random events, and that statistical distribution, are constrained to real positive values.   This may be a limitation of our universe.  If negative numbers are allowed AND the negative distribution is a mirror of the positive distribution instead of being confined to positive numbers, there is a discontinuity at the origin.  In other words, the Probability density function, PDF of the exponential distribution for all values of x, not just x>0, may be

(x≥0)*(λ*e^-λx) + (x<0)*( λ*e^λx)

Alito and Leaks

 

Up on Cripple Creek

Up on Cripple Creek, she sends me
If I spring a leak, she mends me
I don't have to speak, she defends me
A drunkard's dream if I ever did see one

The Supreme Court has a leak. Who will mend it?

I previously thought that Justice “Long Dong Silver” Thomas was the most dangerous man in America. I based that on his opinions and those of his wife. But with his leaks, Justice “Strip Search Sammy” Alito has pulled into the lead.

The draft opinion for Dobbs, which was written by Justice Alito and included the overturning of Roe v. Wade, was leaked in May. Now it has come to light that Justice Alito also leaked the draft opinion in the 2014 Hobby Lobby case, which he also wrote. I have watched enough episodes of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Perry Mason, Scooby Doo, etc., to know that the criminal is usually the one who most benefits from the crime. Before the 2020 leak, Chief Justice Roberts was lobbying the other Justices to possibly not overturn Roe v. Wade. After the leak he ceased those efforts and Justice Alito’s draft opinion became the Court’s majority opinion. Given his history and the fact that Justice Alito benefitted the most from the leak, if you do NOT think that Justice Alito was the source of the leak, I have some nice ocean front property in Kansas I would like to sell you. 😏If Chief Justice Roberts wants to maintain control of his Court, not only should he adopt the position that supermajorities, which on the present Supreme Court means 6-3 opinions, are required, I believe that prior to the Hughes Court in the 1940s, the Chief Justice always required that its opinions be by consensus, Chief Justice Roberts should also never, ever, let Justice Alito write an opinion. If he doesn’t write the opinion, then maybe he won’t leak it.

Respect for Marriage Act

 

Why Don’t We Do It in the Road

Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
Why don't we do it in the road?
No one will be watching us
Why don't we do it in the road?

We don't because the road is a public space, and “it” is a private action.

In the song, we all know what “it” is, and  “it” is a private action. The rules for public spaces are there, regardless of whether someone is watching you or not. And just as private actions are allowed in private spaces, and public actions are allowed in public spaces, public control should not exist in private spaces, and private control should not exist in public spaces. When a public group tries to control private actions in private spaces, or a private group tries to control public actions in public spaces, there is a problem.

The government is the public. It grants certain rights for example, to those who are married. Marriage means that health care of spouses, inheritance, etc. are protected by the government. A marriage, like all government actions in one US State, has to be acknowledged in every other US State. Just as a Driver’s license in Massachusetts is valid in Texas, Texas does not have the right to say how Massachusetts issues that driver’s license, ....or marriage license. And if a transaction happens in the public marketplace, then no one should have the right to object based on private beliefs. The public can’t change what is in a private heart. But the public can control what are acceptable public actions, subject to the rights of individuals guaranteed in the constitution. You should have to show actual harm to ban a public action. Being offended is NOT justification to ban a public action. But the public also does not get to change what is in a private individual’s, or a group of private individuals', heart. If you want the public’s protection in economic transactions, then you also do NOT get to also decide in which economic transactions you will participate. 

It is also why Justice Thomas is showing his hypocrisy in saying Obergefell, Lawrence, and Griswold were improperly decided but Loving which would affect him, was omitted from his list. Render onto Caesar, the things that are Caesar’s, and to God, the things that are God’s. There seems to be some confusion  among the Justices of the Supreme Court as to which things are which.