oldschool CxC

Monday, February 12, 2007

Please everyone EDIT THIS POST and put in some of your info...!

After reading Sony's post, I realize I am not up to speed on wassup w/many of the folks here. Maybe you feel similarly? Don't type up your whole life story or anything, but maybe a 3-6 sentence highlight of where you're at, what's going on, what you do, single/married/kids/divorced (etc), and maybe info that we don't know about you?
This will likely be a big post, but it'd be cool to do annually & see what's new w/everyone...


Ari - I moved into a shared live/work loft in Oakland (near Lake Merritt), end of '06. I'm still working at a financial software co (the little ILX Systems was acquired by Thomson Financial in 1998) as a Territory Operations Manager (which is basically a Sales Engineer). Single again. Most of you probably don't know I'm trying to change careers, want to do anything w/video or media production work, and I've been working on multiple Public Access shows for a few years, including 'betterbadnews.com', Funky Fitness, and Bro Jud's Hour of Love Energy. Probably will do my own show soon. Also I'm looking to buy a pad somewhere, not an easy task, might do a TIC in Oakland or Berkeley.


Sony I’m married (Jennifer) with 3 kids, Juansteen Cecilia (4 ¾), Payton Malone (3 ¼) and Jones Marley Cortez (~2). 3 Dogs: Pico, Venus and Fluff Ball. 2 Cats: Blount and Ezekiel. 5 Fish: Anonymous. 1 Mini Mac. 4 Motorcycles. I see Iqbal quite a bit, Javan a little less and A.D. as often as he gets up here b/c I’m too damn lazy to go down there. I IM with Erik nearly every work day. A bank owns our house in Blair Hills, where Chris Washington used to live (used to have another in the Crest, but I just sold that to the City under threat of a lawsuit caused by a landslide of largely their responsibility.) I work as a KKKorporate TaKKKs attorney in Santa Monica off the promenade—my windows open and I get Ocean breezes, which means I can happily fart all day without peeling the paint on my walls. I’m getting older, but don’t really mind. I build affordable housing in Wisconsin and if I didn’t have to pay so much in taxes I would build more.

My years at Berkeley and in San Francisco made me a liberal in the European sense.

AD -- would edit the post, but he doesn't know if he wants to sign up for a google account... you know they retain everything. Forever. He wrote more in the comments (Ari posted this b/c I got ya back, bro!)

7 Comments:

Blogger $9,000,000,000 Write Off said...

You and Erik should meet up for drinks at Lukas. You can discuss whetehr the government is there to protect our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, or just guarantee happiness.

6:18 PM  
Blogger R·E said...

Sony, 'you & Erik' -- meaning me & Erik? I'm not sure if he & I can have a friendly drink/discussion w/o getting into the politics of it all. However, I'd consider it.

I've been meaning to swing by Lukas again. I was there ~ 2 yrs ago w/the guys, they met my (now ex-) fiance. Haven't seen the old CC bros since... I do find this unfortunate, frankly.
I like the 'liberal in the Euro sense'. It's true, I see that.

And that's why I argue I'm not a liberal, but a radical in the Euro sense. But how many Americans understand things w/Euro sense? HA

AD -- bite the bullet holmes & get a Google ID. You're right, they are using it against us -- but from real CIA spooks, do you think you can ever be safe again? They can penetrate ANYTHING you got except perhaps Swiss Bank Account & maybe safety deposit boxes (or anything not online).
Take Paige to Patpong if she can handle it. It's so outrageous (1000's of naked & underfed 18yr old girls) that it's more of a mind-fuck than anything erotic (or at least it was for me). I went w/a Thai local, and w/some AA ex-pat peeps (but they knew the best spots -- HA HA).

I'll email you some book recommendations, got a few I bet you'd like (namely Max Barry "Jennifer Government", among others).

12:13 PM  
Blogger flyE said...

Ari, I'm sure we can have a friendly discussion about politics, not that we necessarily have to go there. But to do that I'd want one concession from you (I mentioned this a while back): that you recognize that I care about peace, and helping the poor, and the environment as much as you do, we just disagree on the way to go about it. I don't get the feeling you believe that yet... it's much easier to assign evil motives to those you disagree with.

8:16 AM  
Blogger $9,000,000,000 Write Off said...

Erik hits an excellent point. Most people want the same thing, peace, fairness, equity and a better world for the next generation. There are certainly sharp divisions with respect to how we achieve those ends, but we ought not impugn motives.

Except Hifumi, I don't trust that son of a bitch at all.

3:05 PM  
Blogger R·E said...

Uh, sure. Sony & Erik want peace on the earth, thru free unbridaled capitalism and open markets. Does that cover it?

Ari wants peace and empowerment of poor communities thru socialism and strict limits on capitalism -- like the 'Green Triple Bottom Line' of "People, then Planet, then Profits".

3:04 PM  
Blogger $9,000,000,000 Write Off said...

Just to pick up Ari's snarky comment: Uh, sure. Sony & Erik want peace on the earth, thru free unbridaled capitalism and open markets. Does that cover it?

We should define our terms. Capitalism and open markets permit individuals to freely trade and contract, to have millions of producers, millions of distributors millions of consumers all making hundreds of millions of decisions. Capitalism is only found in democracies, because entrenched power always destroys it. Under Socialism, a self-perpetrating government controls all economic production and distribution. Instead of millions of decision makers up and down the line, you give it to a few thousand lucky party members decide how and what to produce.

And what is our objective in testing these two systems? Your Triple Bottom Line puts people first, so I guess we have to ask, what do people want? People want health, they want food, they want a future for their kids and peace. They don't want to slave all day hunting for food, medicine, and education or be in fear from invasions. These are the basic needs and wants that afflict the majority of humans now and have for our entire history.

Next question, what system has delivered those things most consistently and with the best quality? Clearly, the western worlds capitalism and open markets. New medicines & treatments, farming techniques and modifications that mean 10 people can feed 10,000, and superior engineering derive from western style economies. People busy trading with each other don’t go to war as frequently as nations ruled by megalomaniacal governments in charge of everything and given our advanced science, we’re not too worried about invasion.

Its why migration is overwhelmingly to capitalist societies and away from socialist ones.

Socialism has not created any of this. Socialism in eastern Europe, Africa, China and South America has lead to bloody totalitarianism, it has choked off freedom and it has empowered thugs and murderers. Yet every time its supporters write it off as the wrong people controlling government, production and distribution. If only the right people controlled it. Its never happened and it never will. Too much power in too few hands is always a bad thing. It’s a total High School to say “it’ll totally work if I was in charge and made it work. Like enlightened despotism.” You can’t centralize decisions and rob people of their freedom without destroying innovation.

(The welfare states of western Europe are not socialist, despite the presence of political parties having that name. Some tax individuals more heavily than us, or offer more generous benefits, but they do not centrally control the economy. They permit individuals to keeps his earnings (no taxes exceed 60% and Sweden has Zero KKKorporate tax), people to own property and merge, acquire and sell companies. And socialist political parties have to abandon a central element of socialism: that Socialist perpetually run the country. They get voted out a lot. The most rapidly growing European countries are those that abandon the welfare states and have moved back to US style capitalist than the US: UK, Ireland, Spain.)

6:12 PM  
Blogger flyE said...

And the eastern block countries like Estonia, which have embraced a low flat tax and a huge degree of economic freedom.

Or compare Honk Kong to China... are there poor people in HK? Of course, but they have a real chance of upward mobility. Not so the rural peasants of inland China, who are prevented by travel restrictions from moving to the richer coastal areas.

Economic freedom and, yes, Globalization, have done more to help the poor of the world than any socialist (or more precisely -- involuntary collectivist) program. A lot of the inbalances come not from too much freedom, but from reactionary policies like punitive US agricultural tariffs.

Ari likes to rail against the lowest-highest paid worker gap in a company (there oughta be a law!), but the American poor are richer than all but the super rich in third-world basket-case socialist workers' paradises; or than 99% of American's in 1900. I'd say capitalism and free markets are achieving successes that collectivists can only dream about (if they have the proper dream permit).

So back to my original point: yes, I care about the world's poor, and I believe you do to. But I believe that involuntary collectivism is always wrong, and will be happy to continue to debate you on those points. Just don't impugn my motives, because that's a cop-out.

7:57 AM  

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