Danger at the driver-through...

I was spacing out at the drive though this morning while waiting for my food. The guy in the car behind me sticks his head out his window and starts yelling. It didn't take long to figure out that he was yelling at me.

What was my offense? It would seem that I was looking at him.

Yes, this man was ready to take it over to the adjacent parking lot because some space cadet at the McDonald's drive-thru was absentmindedly staring at the wall beyond his rear view mirror.

I am quite certain that he wasn't at all happy that I *did* keep my eye on him every second after that until I was able to leave with my breakfast.

I continue to long for a rational society where valid rights are recognized and no person has to live in fear of another.

rootie

Facebook quizzes, not just entertaining, but dangerous

Have you ever seen one of those quizzes that isn't just pointless, but entirely incorrect in its questions? For example: "Toppling enemy regimes to spread democracy will make the world a safer place. agree/disagree" Without a thorough understanding of the basis of individual rights, and a commitment to maintain them, democracy can easily become the tyranny of the many.

I am not against democracy, instead I *am* for a better understanding of individual rights.

You do not have a right to health care.

You do not have a right to an education.

You do not have a right to get $4500 dollars to trade in your old SUV for a new one.

You have a right to everything you would have on a deserted island. Who will provide your health care? Who will provide your education? Who will provide your retirement benefits? These are not rights, these are demands on the skills and productivity of others.

You do have a right to any shelter you can find or create on this island. You do have a right to any food you can catch, collect, grow, pick and store. You do have a right to any knowledge of flora or fauna, science, medicine or engineering you can determine from the world around you. You have a right to make your way in the world by the power of your intellect and application of your body to your own ends.

If there is only one other person on this deserted island with you, your rights do not change. You do not suddenly get to make any unearned claim on that other person's skills, on their productivity nor on their property and call it "a right". Indeed it is ludicrous to claim that it is ok to simply steal from that other person.

Just as it is inappropriate to make demands against only one person on a deserted island, it is equally inappropriate to make those demands on 10 or 100 or 1,000 people, or 300 million people on a deserted continent.

To demand that the world owes you something and mistakenly call it "a right" does not make it right. To claim that democracy is the solution and thereby to make that same demand with 6 billion of your closest friends still does not make it "a right" nor does it make it right.

rootie

The value of a lighter bike

I got a great deal on a used mountain bike, and in the process dropped about 11 pounds of weight from my previous mountain bike. I've had it long enough to go on exactly 1 ride.

wow.

What's the big deal? What sort of difference can that much weight make?

• Mountain biking is about going uphill. 11 extra pounds up 500 feet is roughly equivalent in energy output to riding an additional 25 feet uphill. (assuming 200 lbs of bike and rider) (approximately 5% advantage)
• The weight of the bicycle can act as a keel, stabilizing both bike and rider. This works both ways -- a lighter bike is substantially more maneuverable, but at the cost that the rider must be slightly more careful -- it is very easy to end up crosswise on the trail if your balance isn't quite right and you over-correct.
• A much lighter bicycle can be moved forward and backward under the rider much easier under load, including to change the center of balance before bumps or ruts, or take minor advantage of undulations in the trail surface.
• Last but not least, when you have the fitness level of a jelly belly with a desk job (who? surely not me...well ok occasionally), if you find a hill too steep to ride, it is much easier to push up the hill.

I can't say that it makes me a better rider, but it puts a little more fun in my fun.

rootie

You know you're a parent when...

You know you're a parent when... 

• the baby makes "that" sound and you automatically hold your hand out to catch the spitup before it gets on everything.
  
• you think prolonged baby vocalizations with no pitch or rhythm are the baby's way of singing.  Hey, it only occurs like that when I'm singing to her, ok?  I'm not really imaging things -- she is singing, ok?  either that or a very young music critic...
  
• you can relax your body while holding a loud crying baby, even when that crying hits the magic pitch designed by evolution to be impossible to ignore, because the baby will cry more if it senses your tension.
• runny rice cereal counts as "solid" food
• you find yourself lost in their eyes

Money, the root of all evil...?

Wow. (long silent pause)

Yes, I am *still* trying to work my way through Atlas Shrugged. I don't recall the exact date I started, but it's been a long time, even for non-book-worm me. Today I hit a passage that struck me, perhaps more than anything I've read in a long time; a passage so important and so fundamental to the heart of Objectivism that I have to recommend people to read (or re-read) it on their own.

At the wedding reception of Jim Taggart, there is a brief monologue by Francisco d'Anconia starting with "So you think that money is the root of all evil?" and making many points including "Money is a tool of exchange, which can't exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value."

...this monologue continues some pages later "Americans were the first to understand that wealth has to be created. The words 'to make money' hold the essence of human morality".

I cannot do justice to this long passage, other than to agree with it wholeheartedly and recommend that everyone should have a chance to read it and to think about it. I'm far enough into learning about Objectivism that I've lost much of my newbie status, so if this is the first time you've encountered this idea that the phrase "to make money" is more than just metaphor, I'd be interested to hear what you think.

For myself, I know that money doesn't always have to be involved -- as I was limbing a downed tree at my in-laws today, there I was out in the sunshine and fresh air doing work for no monetary benefit, and it felt very good to see the branch piles grow, to accomplish something worthwhile in the world, and to know that I was productive. (yes, there are non-monetary benefits to this activity, including clearing a sidewalk, making the yard safer for my son, getting fresh air and exercise, some small scraps of cherry wood for "play" on the wood lathe, and contributing to a family that I value)

wishing you all a productive day...

rootie

Gratuitous smiling baby picture and drool management

For those baby lovers among you who like pictures of smiling babies, even stranger's babies... (*groucho marx accent* "and there's nothing stranger than babies") here's a recent shot.

For the mess averse among my gentle readers, note that the baby's head is resting on a patterned piece of fabric that just happens to be a cloth diaper. Babies that are prone to spitting up will soak anything under their mouth, including your shoulder, your arm, the cat, the changing table, and their fancy bed linens... One solution is to keep a cloth diaper under their head, neck and shoulders -- let'em soak away!

My wife has been using small terry-cloth bibs to keep the car seat drool-free, but now that Amelia has gained a modicum of control over her hands, there's a small hole in that logic -- you see, bibs are conveniently located within hand's reach and easy to get to the mouth. Of course, once the edge is curled mouth-ward, the spitup is free to flow over that edge to the nice dry pajamas underneath.

The other thing that helps is not boiling the baby. Ok, perhaps I better explain that comment a little -- you don't actually boil the baby, but you can get them quite excited with very little effort this excitement appears to cause stomach contents to "boil over" and come dribbling, spilling, and shooting out of their mouth: "who's daddy's girl? oh what a pretty smile you have! can you hold my finger? that's a good grip you have! ... oh wow you can sure spit up a lot!" Of course, this varies by baby. My son rarely if ever spit up, but my daughter is a drool and spitup factory and she's still not 4 months yet.

We've hit that stage where she is now capable of grabbing some nearby object and steering it into her mouth, including the hand that is trying to dry her hair. ...and so, having masted the charmer smile, and started the period of initial dexterity, the first 3 months of "crying bread loaf" end and the real fun is just beginning. I can hardly wait for "peek-a-boo"!

rootie

Kidstuff: 2 month old magician (Life's little lessons #5312)

One of the foundations of magic is the graceful art of distraction. If you can get the audience looking at your right hand, your left hand is free to put a rabbit in your hat or load some cards. My 2 month old daughter has demonstrated this ability.

I was halfway into a diaper change, had the old one off and was wrapping it up, and not awake enough to have unfolded the new clean dry one. I looked at her face, our eyes met, (as a parent, baby eyes are extremely engaging, especially once you can tell there is a mind behind them, and that they see *you* not just shapes and light) and then the sweetest baby girl in the world smiled at me, then topped it off with the coup-de-grace of a delightfully vocalized "goo". I melted completely -- if she had asked "daddy buy me a Ferrari", the house would have been double mortgaged in an instant.

Moment over, back to the task at hand...hey, wait a minute...the changing table is wet...how did that happen...oh!

Some weeks ago, I had the audacity to laugh at my wife who, in a very practiced fashion, and almost a single movement, pulled the old diaper out and put the new diaper under. A lesson, that by the second child, you'd think I'd know...

rootie