I have never been good at school, and I never will be. I don't know why, anybody who has ever met me usually comes to the conclusion that I'm the guy to ask if you don't know how to do something and want to get something done. I usually am that guy, and they're usually write. Certainly no one who has ever read my books or seen me reading Shakespeare would probably not get the impression that I'm the dumb guy. (In truth my grades aren't terrible, they're just entirely average.) No, my trouble with school seems to stem from one more or less basic problem: From my point of view school doesn't ever really seem to be about anything other than doing exactly what your told, every minute of every day.
It's not just that I hate this (Although I do) it's more that I really can't do it, any more than a fat guy could run the Boston Marathon, or a person with Hydrophobia could swim the English channel. I just have difficulty doing exactly what someone says, for no pay. (In truth, I don't think I've ever had a job where a boss wanted me to do exactly what he says in the way my digital logic teacher does, but that's another story.) It's just not who I am, and it never will be.
I'd like to be able to say that there is some sore of reason for this, that some degree of self analysis has given me some sort of insight into what makes me this way, but I think the truth of the matter is that sometimes you are simply trying to fit a square peg into a round hole, and there's nothing you can do.
Thursday, December 6, 2012
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Politics Etc
I am often surprised when I read the news at how remarkably bad people with great jobs are at predicting events. On this, the second day after an American Presidential Campaign, I've been reading an article about how, where and why, the Romney Presidential Campaign derailed and failed to stop the reelection of President Obama. The article, (which came from CNN, as close as I care to get to an unbiased source) stated a number of things that strikes me as odd.
1. The Romney people believed that the polls going into the election were wrong, that they were going to win several swing states that they were projected to lose.
2. That prior to the election, they believed that the most motivated voters were basically old angry white guys who've got religion. Nobody else was really interested.
3. That they believe a number of factors contributed to their loss- the hurricane, bad ads, lack of ground support, plus a sale on dockers and copies of the book of Mormon being held that day at Land's End. Basically everything but the obvious- that there candidate wasn't very good and they didn't stand much of a chance, even if he was.
All of this posturing runs contrary to what stikes me as the glaring obvious, the three little basic problems the Republican Party actually had, which I would sum up like so-
1. Since 1948, the United States has been governed by eight years of Democratic Presidents, followed by eight years of Republicans. The only exception to this is the year 1980, when the Republican party nominated and then elected a movie star. A movie star is a game changer. A rich white guy who looks like he could have been a movie star at one point is not.
2. Every state by state poll since something like May showed Barack Obama winning the electoral college by a statistically comfortable margin, although the popular vote was close. The part about the popular vote being close would matter if we actually did anything with the popular vote, but we don't. (If the Republicans would like to do something about this, I understand, at one point it did appear as though Romney was ahead in the popular vote, even though he wasn't. The person you need to talk to about making the change is Al Gore.)
3. The last Republican President did an appaulingly bad job. I'm not saying all Republican Presidents are appaulingly bad, but wow was that one a stinker. To make matters worse, he had a resume that looked remarkably like Govenor Romney's (rich guy, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, father had presidential ambitions, spent a lot of time in business before using a short stint as governor to catapult him to a bid for the presidency.)
I always thing that there's a moment in a Presintial campaign where one guy slips, and from that point on, he's lost and there isn't really anything you can do. Bob Dole slipped in 1996 by referring to the baseball team from Los Angeles as the "Brooklyn Dodgers." Michael Dukakis slipped by letting someone photograph him with his head sticking out of a tank. It happens. For Mitt Romney, the moment was the 47%. Mittens said that he didn't care about 47% of the people. Well, as it turns out the 47% was actually 50.8%, and we'll tell you what, Willard, if you don't care about us than we won't care about you.
1. The Romney people believed that the polls going into the election were wrong, that they were going to win several swing states that they were projected to lose.
2. That prior to the election, they believed that the most motivated voters were basically old angry white guys who've got religion. Nobody else was really interested.
3. That they believe a number of factors contributed to their loss- the hurricane, bad ads, lack of ground support, plus a sale on dockers and copies of the book of Mormon being held that day at Land's End. Basically everything but the obvious- that there candidate wasn't very good and they didn't stand much of a chance, even if he was.
All of this posturing runs contrary to what stikes me as the glaring obvious, the three little basic problems the Republican Party actually had, which I would sum up like so-
1. Since 1948, the United States has been governed by eight years of Democratic Presidents, followed by eight years of Republicans. The only exception to this is the year 1980, when the Republican party nominated and then elected a movie star. A movie star is a game changer. A rich white guy who looks like he could have been a movie star at one point is not.
2. Every state by state poll since something like May showed Barack Obama winning the electoral college by a statistically comfortable margin, although the popular vote was close. The part about the popular vote being close would matter if we actually did anything with the popular vote, but we don't. (If the Republicans would like to do something about this, I understand, at one point it did appear as though Romney was ahead in the popular vote, even though he wasn't. The person you need to talk to about making the change is Al Gore.)
3. The last Republican President did an appaulingly bad job. I'm not saying all Republican Presidents are appaulingly bad, but wow was that one a stinker. To make matters worse, he had a resume that looked remarkably like Govenor Romney's (rich guy, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, father had presidential ambitions, spent a lot of time in business before using a short stint as governor to catapult him to a bid for the presidency.)
I always thing that there's a moment in a Presintial campaign where one guy slips, and from that point on, he's lost and there isn't really anything you can do. Bob Dole slipped in 1996 by referring to the baseball team from Los Angeles as the "Brooklyn Dodgers." Michael Dukakis slipped by letting someone photograph him with his head sticking out of a tank. It happens. For Mitt Romney, the moment was the 47%. Mittens said that he didn't care about 47% of the people. Well, as it turns out the 47% was actually 50.8%, and we'll tell you what, Willard, if you don't care about us than we won't care about you.
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