SwimFinsSF

Other Points of View

Here’s an interesting question. How do you go about forming your opinions on topics (political or whatever)? Is it from the TV News? Is it from the Newspaper? Is it from information on line? Is it from talking to people? Or some combination of all of these?

Here’s why I ask. I form my opinions based on gathering as much information from as many sources as I can and then fleshing those opinions by discussing them with other folks to see if there are holes in my theories. If there are holes in my opinions I may change my opinion or I may strengthen them based gathering additional points of view. I’ve been very known to change my opinions over time based on this kind of discussion and I’ve found that its made me a little more conservative over time ( seems to happen when you mix up young idealism with practical reality! 😉 )

There are problems with this model though. First of all, we tend to surround ourselves with people with similar mind sets so I tend to spend a lot of time preaching to the choir which doesn’t always help to find flaws in the theories I come up with. Living in San Francisco I tend to have a lot of rather liberal points of view which I enjoy but it also means that Kevin, being raised Southern Baptist in North Carolina, is probably one of my few conservative sources of information ( he’s actually really liberal too but he knows the NC folks VERY WELL! 🙂 )

Another problem I run into is with my style. I’m very similar to my family when it comes to debate – you make a statement of opinion in the form of statement of fact and see if people disagree with it. This has the effect of either getting people’s dander up and sparking an interesting debate or making people walk away from the discussion. Kevin usually takes the latter for fear of getting in a sparing match with me (which I enjoy as friendly discussion but he hates because of my style and he doesn’t see much point). This I should work on.

The last part of this whole thing I find is often, by the time people have formed opinions, they’re relatively resigned to them and discussions tend to get rather heated and emotional. I’m DEFINITELY guilty of this and combined with my style of debate I frequently find myself in discussions that are more a battle of wills than they are an educational debate where both sides learn a different perspective. Taking a deep breath often helps me!

I guess I’m just thinking out loud at everyone else’s expense – but it seems to me that we could all use a little more healthy discussion with folks that don’t share our point of view and where we can put our emotions and our resignations aside in hopes of learning… Might make the world a little more friendly.

Or maybe I’m just INSANE… I probably am! 🙂

Childhood Friends

Ughh.. its like 12:20 and i’m just NOW getting ready for bed.. on a SCHOOL night… Kevin and I went out to dinner with a friend of mine from when I was like 7 years old and his Girlfriend… They came over and hung out for a bit and then we went to Blowfish Sushi for dinner and had a great dinner.. Had the best time… Talked about all sorts of stuff… Was kind of a trip since I LITERALLY hadn’t seen him since I was a rug rat…

Anyway.. Had to share.. I’m off to bed! 🙂

A Tough Question

This is TOO DAMN FUNNY! (The question says “What is George W. Bush’s First Name”):

A Tough Question

GOD I LOVE San Francisco

Ok… So I had one of those nights tonight that make me LOVE living in San Francisco… Matt, Kevin and I decided to drive up to the Marin Headlands to watch the sunset tonight. Was one of those AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL nights… Windy and chilly but beautiful…

Well – a picture is worth a thousand words – and here’s a bunch:

Sunset in the Marin Headlands

The only bad thing was that i’m PETRIFIED of heights and to get to the bunker were we took those pictures involved walking on the edge of those cliffs… SCARY…

GREAT night though…

Happy International Left-Handers Day!!

On a lighter note – my friend larry informs me that today is International Left-Handers day… Being one myself I couldn’t be happier! 😉

a few notable south-paws:

• barry bonds – left fielder, san francisco giants
• paul mccartney – bassist, songwriter, legend
• nick van exel – point guard, dallas mavericks
• steve young – retired quarterback, san francisco 49ers
• david robinson – retired center, san antonio spurs
• tony iommi – guitarist, black sabbath
• li’l kim – singer, songwriter, foul-mouthed ho
• ethan hawke – actor, director
• ray harrison – Canadian Superstar

INSANE

Ok… So this is flippin insane:

Recall ballot offers 135 choices to replace Gov. Davis

The State of California now has 135, count ’em, 135 candidates to pick from to replace Gray Davis in the recall election. If you go to the California Secretary of State site you can get a full list of the people who submitted all of the correct fees and paperwork to place themsevels on the ballot..

So 3 things and then I’ll shut up (ok.. I probably won’t.. but still):

1) This recall came about through a flawed process that allowed a bunch of payed signature collectors to impeach our governor. Why the hell do we have a system that allows this kind of overthrow mid term. This should be just as serious as impeaching a President and the reasons for doing it should be legal and not political. If you don’t LIKE the job a governor is doing that isn’t sufficient grounds – stick out the term (we had to with the last Governor). If the Governor has been proven to broken laws during his term then he should be tried and have an opportunity to defend himself.

2) This recall is simply a temper tantrum by the republicans because they’re bitter that their candidate isn’t in office. On top of that the reasons they’re giving for doing this are caused by THEIR candidate that held the office previously. Don’t get me wrong – I’m the LAST to say Gray Davis is doing a bang up job – BUT he stepped into a pile of Poo ( privatized power, crashing economy, etc) that was left there for him by his successor. I challenge any of these candidates to have stepped into the same mess he did and do a better job. These folks have one thing Grey didn’t – if the economy is actually turning around as I’ve heard speculation about then they might come out smelling like roses.. Hard to say..

3) There is NO WAY IN HELL the voters of California can possibly wade through the collection of 135 replacement candidates to find one who is even QUALIFIED to be Governor LET ALONE do a better job than the current guy. I really hope we pick a good one but, being that the only names that pop to my mind right now are Gary Coleman, Arnold Schwartzenaeger, Cruz Bustamante, and Hugh Heffner I think we may be in for a world of hurt..

If I didn’t have to live here I’d be inclined to fold my arms and chuckle and what a bunch of fools live in the sunshine state. But I don’t have that luxury so, instead, I get to hunker down and brace for impact…

Guess the Terminator will be our next Governor… Uggg