Musings of Old Man Joe

Irish guy living in Los Angeles

science

How small should government be?

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big-governmentIn the united States we have a situation that is a bit different from other countries, in that you have two governments over you. One being the State which has it’s own rules and depending on politics is either for or against the Federal Government. This means that we have federal laws to protect citizens that can be completely ignored by the states by finding some loophole. In other countries the laws would be primarily from the Federal level and the state would be in charge of running the state services financially. So the conflict I see today with Conservative governors trying their best to undermine the healthcare law by not expanding Medicare, and not setting up healthcare exchanges seems to be just a United States thing!

I grew up in Europe with universal healthcare, AKA socialism, but the truth is when you break a leg it gets fixed, don’t even have to be in the communist party! So when people cry out socialism over the ACA AKA Obamacare, I wonder with the rest of the planet how you can be so miss-informed. When you sign up for Obamacare it’s with a health insurance company, not the government. You can compare prices and choose the plan you like, that’s called the market place and it’s definitely not socialism. As to the reports of death panels, a true government health plan is Medicare, and as of yet seniors have not heard about the death panels. Most seniors love Medicare, even the ones who don’t realize it’s government healthcare.

Then I hear people saying that government is bad and we need small government, lets take America back to some time in the past. Is this before we had safety standards for industry or building codes. Is this before we had food safety, or tried to have food safety if the FDA gets funding. How dare it try to tell us what to eat, I love contaminated beef. Or maybe that toy from China is the greatest, and the poison doesn’t worry me; I won’t be sucking on it! I know bridges are falling apart, and yes if States politicians  put infrastructure up there and not getting reelected (both parties), maybe there wouldn’t be so much unemployment.

So I come back to my question; how small should government be? I don’t like waste, and this includes my tax dollars, I don’t like to have politicians telling me what to do, vote sensible laws and I have no problem. I respect laws (well most of them anyway). I believe in religious freedom, you should have the freedom to practice your religion with out the government imposing on you. Of course people who are not of your religion have the right to follow their own religion and follow their religions rules (hence freedom). When those religious rules don’t conflict with the laws of the land. Imposing your religious teaching on someone not of your church is in fact religious persecution, and we don’t like that!

So when people say small government do they mean just the federal government, and the disaster aid, one of the most powerful militaries in the world & shear influence of the United States means nothing. They just want the State to be the body in charge, local politics only. Maybe some people just have not liked being part of the Union, and would prefer secession from the United States completely. Form a theocracy and live away from those heathens who believe women have a choice and should be paid the same as men. Have the freedom to marry who you love, and not denounce it in public; but when you are caught just go to therapy and ask god for forgiveness, and it will be ok!

So how big or small should government be?

I don’t give a rats ass, it should not waste my tax money and should be looking after my best interests. Don’t spy on me unless I have actually done something to deserve it. And allow me to pursue endeavors in the future for my families happiness and myself. I am not afraid of government, I get to vote; but I want it to function for my interests and not just for the corporation who makes donations.

What tech scares me?

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What is technology? I am sure the answer today would be very different from even ten years ago. The change has happened fast and has been global!

Today I looked at the next version of the iPhone. It’s hard to believe this innovation started only five years ago.
With the change toward a truly mobile digital society, hardware and software have improved so much that today we should really just look at what works for us, not question whether it will work!

With this innovation in tech, including data networks that allow us to interact in so many new ways, we have as a society met a contradiction.

The tech we want to work so well for us in our digital world needs to know who we are so it can serve our online needs. For this reason some have felt a considerable loss of privacy. While there will always be instances where I agree that data belonging to a individual is a precious commodity and should be protected, my geek self wants to avail of the new innovations in technology; including the mobile integration and the new ways tech will allow me to transact business & interact with friends & family.

We do as a society need to decide what info is normal to give out to function in this new world, & how our info will be used & kept from abuse. This needs to be standardized and universal, because at this stage many different aspects of our digital self are floating around without control and safeguards. Until this is sorted I feel that the general population is at risk, and in a quest for profit some businesses don’t give data handling the security it really deserves; and this lack of clarity does scare me.

The next thing that scares me about the future of technological integration is the lack of education. We are making powerful mobile computers that allow many different kinds of interaction, but as a society, we are not showing our youth how to use these things in a polite manner. Is there no etiquette when it comes to new mobile tech?

People defend the right to be careless in the name if freedom of choice; I still see people texting while driving. If we live in a society and not on an island by ourselves. Society should demand a behavior that allows individual freedom without inflicting those around us with stupidity.

I love tech & innovation. We live in a wonderful dreamland of new opportunities, but as a society can we start thinking about how our digital self represents our true self, and how much of our true self we need to divulge to create that digital self, without putting our true self at risk!

How the Internet or Web is changing our world.

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We live in a mobile world, I find it easier to get my news & write my blog on my phone. We have our social networks, too many for me to be actually social. Personally I think texting is the most social program. As I’m actually having a conversation rather than just making statements.

The social thing like other online programs will change as one loses popularity as another takes the lead. Just like trendy bars in Los Angeles. They are only the flavor for a short time.
There are other ways our world is changing.

The Arab Spring would never have occurred without social networks. Groups who wish to promote their cause now have a platform. This can be good or bad depending on the cause!
I believe in free speech, but hate & violence are not free speech. The promotion of free speech while restricting hate is the challenge of the modern web.

Pornography (the industry), is actually on the decline due to the web. With so many free online sites & people willing to put their exploits on the web for free!

I see a change in our TV viewing in the near future. The only thing holding change back is the media companies. The advent of the reality show (oxymoron), was probably the worst thing to happen to TV since its inception. I have never understood the purpose in giving fools a platform just for ratings. I know it’s cheap but there is no value in it!

The web will be our answer to this, as content & software develop more of our viewing pleasure will be web based rather than just network TV. It will of course have to be paid for. My hope is we move to a one payment system for everything. Web, tv, data, because in a digital world it’s all just data! You pay for the data you use. Very simple & no throttling thank you.

I do wonder what will happen to the TV when we get all our news and shows on our mobile devises. Will the TV just be for gaming? We are in a constant state of technology transition waiting for the next leap. Only when that’s settled & people have decided what works do we know. Until then it’s just opinion, this was mine!
Thank you!!

Digital Privacy in a Mobile World.

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There are changes going on in our society. In the news we are focused on the religious political battle. But there are other changes going on, just a bit more subtle.
The tech revolution started more than a decade ago. It moves in slow steady increments for a few years, then something happens & we have a leap forward.
Windows 95 was a leap, as was windows NT for the tech administrator. Mac OS X was a leap, as was the iMac.
In recent years the leap was created by the iPhone.
In 2007 the phone industry in the US was given CPR and we moved forward about four years. Up until then I would look in awe at Japan and the wonderful phones that we would never see in north America.
So here came the iPhone. Whether you are Apple, Android, the iPhone was the start of the biggest change in how we use tech in the last fifteen years.
Now tech is much more mobile, the network providers have been led by necessity, kicking & screaming to spend vast sums of money improving their networks.
With improved web access we have Facebook, Google + and other social networks at our fingertips. These social networks have in the past, been questioned & accused of not looking after our personal information properly. Over years systems have been developed to protect our data.
The weird thing is although I see people worry about their personal data, very personal things are uploaded to these social networks. It makes me wonder what a person who grew up with these networks considers personal data. Is it just account settings.
Personally I have always felt that anything posted on the web should be considered public. Because if you feel that strongly you should probably not post it in the first place.
As more of our info becomes fodder for advertising & targeted selling. Where is the line now? I know it’s moved recently. Every time I accept a new user agreement I’m sure it’s to facilitate the control & use of my data. As a modern connected people, are many even aware of the lack of privacy. Or even the fact that to enjoy the new social technological world, it is necessary to give up so much privacy. Don’t get me wrong, I love tech & I hope the social networks continue to keep us connected to friends & family. But we need to be more responsible for our web presence. It can’t just be left to the networks.
The latest trend is cloud computing. Which does seem to be a natural next step in mobile computing. There are many advantages. Smaller networked devices that don’t need large storage capabilities with access to large amounts of data.
But as we have seen, what happens when the network has a problem. I am a big believer in backing up. Learned the hard way many years ago. And today with reasonably priced external drives it’s very easy. Technology is always in a state of transition. Only when something becomes so normal that we no longer think about it is the transformation complete.
Have a nice day!

The Quest for Moderation

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Recently I have a couple of chats with people on the different end of the political spectrum than myself. One was regarding the healthcare debate and the other was regarding women’s issues, (which is really a religious theocracy issue).

The first was with a nice guy from a southern state, he gave me his idea of the health care debate, some of the usual republican talking points. And scary tactics calling anything to do with healthcare socialism or communism or some other ism!  I explained that in the healthcare debate we are not inventing universal healthcare. This has been in action in the western world for a few generations. And many countries can state it’s been quite successful. People like to not worry about what will happen in the event of an accident. Now of course different countries have different resources and some are going to be better than others. Japan has universal medicine that is heavily privately managed, so there are opportunities for business ventures in a universal healthcare system. Healthcare makes money, but when the money is only going to investors, and the patients have no say; it’s not healthcare and you are just a pawn? Anyone who grew up with universal healthcare thinks this is a no brain er. But it’s an experiment in the US and the status-quo don’t want to give away their profits or control. The southern gentleman agreed that maybe a look away from FOX News and political pundits may be needed to have a informed opinion. And this I agree with, get the true information and if you maintain your opinion on the subject at least it can be an interesting discussion.

My second conversation was a very opinionated Republican female who just decided to Obama bash. Her facts were taken from lies on right wing web sites, and if that is the only place she gets her info I’m not surprised her facts are wrong! I tried to explain that posting and quoting lies from right wing sites doesn’t make it true. There are legitimate sources to gather information and form an opinion. I countered her argument with links to different news sources disputing her lies. I didn’t think this would work, because she was never interested in the truth. Her truth already exists in her head, and the only thing she wants to hear or see will be anything to agree with her truth. The lasting argument between science (a process) and religion (a belief system), can never be won. Science looks at the world we live in and tries to explain what we see, but in order for it to be right you must prove it! Religion requires no proof, no evidence, no explanations, and no curiosity; just believe what you are told. For the curious mind this is unacceptable, science can make mistakes and then has to correct itself. Religion has no corrections and will take no critique. So my suggestion is to have freedom of religion as the founding fathers suggested, this means you are free to practice your religion, and not impose your beliefs onto anybody who doesn’t share them.

That’s why it’s called freedom.