People go to Church and think that they have to save their souls - for a rainy day, perhaps - and that they need to protect their souls (from those that would collect them), but I offer that it is an equal 'sin' to lock up a soul and keep it in safety... because souls die in safety. Souls do not do well in cages.

(scavenged from Ye Olde KnowProSE.com)

As you can tell by the title, I'm tossing political correctness out of the window and opening a vein in this entry. Love it or leave it.

I'm not against people being naked under their clothing. I'm not even against people running around naked. But imagine a world where people not only run around naked but some people, because of their beliefs, thrust their genitalia upon you.

This is the world I live in. It may even be the world you live in, whether you shove your genitalia in other people's faces or you are on the receiving end. Granted, some people like having other people's genitalia in their faces - maybe with some women I may encourage them to do so - but having random people try to hump my head is not something I'm into. There is a fine line between tolerance and being trod upon.

Today, without realizing what would happen, I posted this quote on my Facebook status:

"There's no one so self-righteous as someone policing someone else's morality."
- Laurell K. Hamilton

And in speaking to a realtor today who has done quite well at making unprompted excuses, we finished talking about business. I was about to leave when the realtor decided that I needed to be saved. Quaint. So I diplomatically tried to extricate myself, telling the man that I respect that he has beliefs but I do not share them and would ask that he respect that. That he has a right to believe as he does and that I have the right to disagree.

March on Christian soldier, as they say. Or whatever it is that they say. { Read more }

We see Boolean Logic every day, though those unfamiliar with it may not realize it is Boolean Logic. Most light switches have the settings of off and on. The computer in front of you is built on Boolean logic. Maybe even the way one looks at the world is influenced by Boolean Logic - and maybe that view has become dominant. And maybe that's not good. Or bad¹.

Being the son of an engineer and raised by² that engineer, Boolean logic was a fact of life. Being the nephew of a computer analyst who then liked to womanize and drink more than write code³, the Boolean logic was reinforced by writing code while he was attending his likes. It gives the world a solid state of being. No pun intended.

But the world is bigger than that. It's bigger than '1' and '0' and all the permutations in between. Some light switches are dimmers now. Ask two people what warm is and you'll likely end up with two different objective temperatures. Is something pornography or art? Grey is neither black nor white.

I was fortunate enough to delve into Fuzzy Logic almost 15 years ago. At the time I was dealing with problems that needed to deal with subjective information and make it as objective as possible to control a piece of equipment. Fuzzy logic actually ended up being a part of the solution.

With Fuzzy Logic, inexact information can be dealt with. Something can be both right and wrong to varying degrees - called truth values. What a useful tool, allowing something to be measured in degrees of truth and false. In degrees of Right and Wrong. And I wondered why it hadn't become as common-place in the West as it had in the East.

Popular western religion seems to require a Boolean approach³. If it isn't good, it's evil. This can end up in some perverted Boolean Logic. Consider: { Read more }

This is a first entry under 'scribbling'; it's where I'll start shoving incomplete (and sometimes unrelated)thoughts that I write on paper. They just haven't fleshed out into full entries yet.

Anarchy is the default state of democracy.

The only reason that we believe we are more enlightened than animals is because we have told ourselves that we are.

People don't buy art. They buy the stories that come with the art. This is why religious texts are full of stories. During periods of illiteracy, verbal stories are all that people had. And the love of these stories has resulted in bloodshed, charred flesh, eviscerations, beheadings and much more. Philosophy is so much more clean.

True democracy is socialism in disguise; if the masses are poor then the poor should have greater voice than the rich by virtue of democracy. That doesn't happen.

Chicken breasts aren't supposed to have bones in them. Those are ribs.

Code is not just Law, it is Intent.

We talk about the planet as if we're truly concerned, but it is really the survival of our species we're interested in. Maybe on the next planet we'll do better. { Read more }