Humor

 

I Started A Joke

I started a joke
Which started the whole world crying
But I didn't see
That the joke was on me, oh no

Tain’t funny, McGee

So what is funny? Humor is an incongruity, e.g. between a statement and an action, which is unintentional, or not intended as harm. A stuffy individual walking with dignity and slipping on a banana peel is funny. An insult that is not meant as an insult is funny, or at least that is what Don Rickles always said. An insult that was meant as an insult using the catch phrase from the Fibber McGee and Molly radio show, Tain’t funny. It is an insult.

Saying that an insult was not meant an insult but as a joke, does not make it less of an insult, It also does not mean that the insulted person can not take a joke. The ability to get a joke may be a way to discern whether someone is lying or telling the truth.

When Jonathan Swift wrote his book A Modest Proposal, he was intending humor, not writing a cookbook for the elimination of Irish children. Those who viewed it as a cookbook had to be reminded that it was humor. Unfortunately, this recently had to include Donald Trump’s lawyer in the E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit, where the judge felt compelled to remind Donald Trump’s lawyer that when E Jean Carroll called her book What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal she was obviously writing humorously, not stating a personal opinion. When Marjorie Taylor Greene banged the gavel calling for order in the House chamber, the laughter that resulted was the incongruity of someone who flaunted House decorum, now calling for order. Saying that something is a joke does not make it a joke. Saying that a joke is a fact does not make it a fact. Being contrary to the facts is a lie, so reacting with laughter instead of anger, is being more than kind.

Changes

 

Crown of Creation

Life is change
How it differs from the rocks
I've seen their ways too often for my liking
New worlds to gain
My life is to survive
And be alive for you
No Man is an island. He’s a peninsula!

If you are pro-life, then you must also be pro-change!

Saying that life is change and that no man is an island means that mankind must be in favor of change and is a group animal not an individual animal. And as Shakespeare would say, “Therein lies the rub.”  Acting to oppose change, and acting as individuals, is easier. I personally do not like any change. I have been having the same breakfast at home almost every day for the last 20 years. I also like to pretend I am an individual and don’t like joining any groups. I don’t want to be a member of any group that would have me as a member. But acting to oppose change and like there are no groups of which you are not a part might be why we have problems today.

The current 435 members of the US House, and thus the current electoral college, might have been an acceptable compromise in 1911. Making it automatic might have been acceptable in 1941. However the world has changed in 2023 from what it was in either 1911, or 1941. Maybe the current method of reapportionment is no longer appropriate.

The world looks flat to an individual. But the world only appears locally flat but is actually round.

A current individual might not be able to construct the Great Pyramid. But that does not mean that it was built by aliens instead of a group of individuals.

Climate change happens over a very long time, probably longer than any individual’s lifetime, but that does not mean that it is not real for a group of individuals.  Just ask the ancient Mayans or the modern Pacific Islanders whether climate change is real.

I can’t make my own clothes, or even the cloth from which many clothes are made, but that does not mean that my ancestors were all unclothed. But that also does not mean that to survive as an individual, I must master all of those skills. Survivalists take note that the uncontacted “stone age tribes “ in the Amazon jungle may in fact be the descendants of survivalists from the Inca civilization.

Diseases can wipe out or change cultures in addition to killing individuals. Never mind COVID. Ask the indigenous Americans about smallpox or the Europeans about the Black Death.

Humans can influence climate change. The Mongol invasions in the 1200s probably brought about the Little Ice Age. https://umaine.edu/news/blog/2016/02/05/climate-change-and-the-rise-of-the-mongol-empire/

So opposing change and acting like only individuals matter is contributing to the problem, not a solution.

Bastille Day

 

La Marseillaise.

Aux armes, citoyens
Formez vos bataillons
Marchons, marchons!
Qu’un sang impur
Abreuve nos sillons!

Viva La France!

On this French National Day, the French National Anthem is sure to be played.  As you listen, remember that it is about the love of any country.  In the film Casablanca, its playing is led by a Czechoslovakian resistance leader in an American Club in French Morocco while the resistance leader’s Norwegian wife looks on and a Spanish guitarist lustily joins in.  The song is sung to drown out the singing by the Nazi soldiers.  But it is because of a love of country.  The song inspires the phrase “Long Live France”, not “Death to Germany”.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeFhSzoTuc

On the US's Independence Day, the Boston Pops plays the 1812 Overture which also features the melody of the French National Anthem.  But in this case it is first played triumphantly and then as a fading melody to symbolize the retreat of Napoleon’s invading Army.   This same Anthemn can symbolize love of country in the face of domination, or the failed domination by an invader.  Sing this stirring Anthem with love, and oppose domination.

Choice V

 

Freedom of Choice

A victim of collision on the open sea

Nobody ever said that life was free

Sink, swim, go down with the ship

But use your freedom of choice

But it is your choice, not my choice.

Variance, σ², is the number that expresses the range of choices.  If there are two choices, e.g. a two‑sided coin, then the two choices are 1, heads and 2, tails, and the square root of the variance, σ²,  is 1/6 because the mean choice, µ, is 1.5, and 1.5 plus 3σ, where σ is the square root of the variance, includes those two choices.  For a six-sided die, with outcomes of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6, the mean choice is 3.5, the square root of the variance is 2.5/3=.83333, and the variance is 0.69444 .  For a one-sided die, a mobius strip, where the choice is only 1, the mean choice is 0.5, which is also the odds, and the variance is 1/36.  If there is no choice, then the variance is NOT zero. It is undefined.  Acting as if there is no choice, which is virtually identical to saying that everyone should be making my choice, may be why we are in the current dilemma. 

Saying that Lies are equal to Truth means that there were two choices.  Saying that you have chosen Truth and everyone else should choose Truth does not change the fact that there were originally two choices, not one choice.  Saying that there is Truth and No Truth, but Truth is greater than No Truth means that there is only one choice,  i.e. is pro-choice, not no choice.  

The following graphs are intended to visualize the problem.  The exponential distribution is one attempt to show how outcomes are distributed given an input.  Its Probability Density Function, PDF, is λe^-λx and its Cumulative Distribution Function, CDF, is 1-e^-λx for x>0.  This can be coordinate transformed to a new location from a location of 0 to a location of μ, as PDF =λe^-λ(x­-μ) and CDF  Cumulative Distribution Function as 1-e^-λ(x-μ) , both for x>µ. However all inputs, not just x>µ , should be considered and the exponential distribution can only consider a limited number of inputs.  It might be mirrored to consider all inputs.  

A random normal distribution is the logistics distribution whose PDF is ½*(1/2s)*sech²((x-μ)/2s) and whose CDF is ½*(tanh((x-μ)/2s)+1).  S is a range variable that is related to the variance by σ²=s²π²/3.  If the variance is equal to the odds for one choice, Random Normal 2 , then its PDF looks like the exponential distribution and its mirror PDF.  However if s, not the variance, is equal to the odds for one choice, Random Normal 1, then its  PDF no longer looks like that of the PDF for the exponential distribution and its mirror.  The exponential distribution and its mirror also appears more similar to two choices rather than one choice when its CDF is considered.  And the CDF is absolutely not like no choice which would be a flat line.

Calling the variance, the odds for choice, because you don’t like the choice is no different than calling yourself Indiana because you don’t like the name Junior.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYtWWLqeSKA  It does not change the fact that your name is Henry Junior, and the dog’s name was Indiana. 

Storytelling II

 

As Time Goes By

It's still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or die
The world will always welcome lovers
As time goes by

And we will ALWAYS need stories.

Star of stage, screen, and television? No matter what, it is all about storytelling. 

Performances/storytelling on stage are unique to a time AND place. It is a  performer's medium who decides when it is pencils down. (e.g. Taylor Swift, Hugh Jackman, Lauren Bacall, Zero Mostel, etc.)

The screen is also about storytelling, but the performance can be shown at multiple places at the same time, but only at the times dictated by those who own the screens. The screen is a director’s medium who decides when it is pencils down. (e.g. Michael Curtiz, John Ford, Steven Spielberg, Frank Capra, etc.)

Television is also storytelling but the producers decide when it is pencils down and who freeze the medium (e.g. Shonda Rimes, Quinn Martin, Norman Lear, Mark Burnett, etc.) .  The story can be told in multiple places at many times AND can be shown in the home.

Thus it is always a story, art, but who owns and sells that story, art, gets complicated.

IMHO, the art can NEVER be owned by a corporation or AI, and must be always be a human. https://dbeagan.blogspot.com/2023/06/intellectual-property.html .  IMHO, AI, is Artificial Inference,  and those inferences can NOT be made from copyrighted material, or else it is a copyright infringement. The copyright is issued by a nation, and the people of that nation own the art after the copyright has expired, and have agreed that the artist has a right to license that art for a certain period of time.

IMHO, the people also have a right to say how a copyright holder can license the art while it is copyrighted/protected. It was true when the constitution was written and it still is true. Those who create the story should be compensated for that story, or there is no incentive to create new stories.

Atheism

 

God Only Knows

God only knows what I'd be without you
God only knows what I'd be without you
If you should ever leave me
Well life would still go on believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would living do me

Unless you are God, then you don’t know.

A common assumption is that all scientist are atheists.  I would suggest that nothing could be further from the truth. Scientists instead try to uncover natural laws which explain how the mind of God works.  This instead leads to a possible lack of humility that if humans can just find all of the natural laws, then humans will be equal to God and THIS can be confused with atheism.  But if the natural laws include random results, choice, and scientists are not able to predict the results of random events, then scientists have discovered how the mind of God operates, but scientists can never be equal to God.

The hubris is thus that scientists can uncover all natural laws AND that there are no random events, which is the basis for Determinism.  One of the most famous proponents of Determinism was perhaps Albert Einstein who, when confronted with the randomness of quantum mechanics, objected by supposedly saying "God does not play dice with the Universe".  In Determinism, where everything happens for a reason, if you can just discover that reason, then eliminating those reasons that cause outcomes you don’t desire will lead to only outcomes that you do desire.  If you are a believer in Determinism, then eliminating certain actions ( e.g. not stepping on cracks) or blaming actions on scapegoats, makes sense.  However if stuff just happens, then you are NOT a believer in Determinism, and superstition or scapegoating makes no sense.  Saying that God only knows and I can not ever be God is consistent with the latter position.  Saying God knows AND you can be like God is consistent with the former position.

So the question is NOT “Are scientists atheists?”.  The question is “Do Determinists believe in God, tolerance, and free will?”.

Supreme Court V

 

Opps, I Did It Again

Oops, I did it again
I played with your heart, got lost in the game
Oh baby, baby
Oops, you think I'm in love
That I'm sent from above
I'm not that innocent

Has SCOTUS did it again?

SCOTUS, especially the Robert’s court, has made some decisions with which I do not agree.  Some major recent decisions have been:

Citizens United v. FEC.  Corporations are NOT the People. The plaintiffs had no standing, and the Corporations also had no right of free speech.

Shelby County v. Holder.  Pre-clearance was being applied to a group, not to an individual.  While 50 years is indeed a long time for an individual, that time is irrelevant for a group.

Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health. et al. A non-viable fetus has no standing.  The taking of a woman’s womb by the state to protect a non-viable fetus for no compensation is a constitutionally prohibited taking, in this case, and in Roe v. Wade.

303 Creative LLC v. Elenis In addition to accepting lies on the part of the plaintiff, the decision also confuses the artist with the art.  In every transaction there are three components, the buyer, the seller, AND the goods and/or services being exchanged. The seller, the artist, has free speech.  The buyer, the customer, has free speech.  But the goods and services have NO such right.  I can agree that Kevin Spacey is a morally repressible human being and that Kevin Spacey deserved an Oscar for his performance in American Beauty. The two statements are not inconsistent because the artist is not his art. I can also agree that 303 Creative has free speech, and that 303 Creative can not discriminate in providing its services.

Biden v. Nebraska.  The government has a responsibility to regulate common goods.  An educated workforce is a common good.  Expenditures for an educated workforce that is directly to educational institutions, or the expenditures on the students of those institutions should be treated identically.  The forgiveness of loans after the expenses have occurred, is no different than grants to students before the expenses have occurred.  Student loan forgiveness thus appears to be a legitimate government expenditure.

Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President And Fellows Of Harvard College.  The court confused the process of admitting individuals with the outcome for a group.  The actions were intended to achieve a diverse outcome for the group, and that outcome does appear to be to be of interest to the court. However the court should have made no ruling on the process by which that outcome was achieved.

In these and other cases, the Court has been improperly considering standing, has confused the rights and dominance of the individual, with certainty of the group.  Remedies to address this confusion would appear to be in order.  The court should be making decisions which increase the certainty of the Nation and protects individuals, not merely protecting the dominance of certain individuals.