Y’know, I bet the Mormons don’t hand out this packet when they go door to door. But the tips in there are so useful! For instance, number 17: “Avoid people, situations, pictures or reading materials that might create sexual excitement.” I’ll keep that one in mind, heh. When I think about it, though, that’s a bit of an irony; no one is Singing John Denver is the company of the aformentioned peoples, and the only way to avoid those situations is to stay in your house alone all day, which would no doubt lead to the conclusion the Mormons tried to avoid. I should go and flog the damn puritans for their logical fallacies.Interesting thing I saw the other day. I was walking around with some ‘migos down by the University campus, because I’d been doing some research for a big paper. The books were sorta interesting, but since they were pretty rare (I had to look at them at the University Arts & Architecture library, cuz they’re not anywhere else, at least not anywhere near here), I couldn’t take them out and had to rush through them. Bleh to that. Anyway, we passed a booth set up on the sidewalk for the JSO, which I assume was the Japanese Student Organization, since everyone there was Japanese. To try and lure people in to sign up or whatever, though, they had a makeshift Japanese Rock Band playing a song whose lyrics consisted entirely of “Buuuuyy Some Coookies! Buuuuy some Coookies!” in a Japanese accent. Can’t say I’ve seen many things wierder than that.

When I become president, I’m not going to put up with this heckling from France. Doesn’t this French nancyboy know that no one cares about them? The only things I can think of that France makes are cheap wine, snails and really inexpensive cars. Even if his points are valid, he’s still a French poindexter. And speaking about poindexters, check out that Greenpeace setup of Dubya on the above page, it’s hilarious.

I lost a wicked close tennis match yesterday, which sucked. It was probably the longest match of my life, almost 3 hours, and I dropped it 7-6, 5-7, 6-4, even though I had a 3-0 lead in the final set. Ah well.

Dude, what is up with Dance Dance Revolution being delayed. I mean, the game came out, but the version with the Dance pad doesn’t come out until 5 May. That’s like trying to sell a car but saying you can’t get the car with tires until May. The hell is that about, I dunno. Speaking about dope videogames, though, Civ3 is still the coolest game not out. This game should come with a Surgeon General’s Warning. I can see old men sitting in group meetings talking about their Civ addictions. There will probably be prostitutes who’ll offer you free sex if you give them a copy of the game. And if you think I’m exaggerating, you haven’t played Civilization 2.

I just caught Boyz N The Hood, which I needed to watch for a Lit project. The movie was decent, though occasionally it didn’t quite progress fast enough, and the characters acted a bit differently that their past would suggest. However, what bothered me was that Laurence Fishburne’s character (Tre’s dad) was so damn racist. I hate that in general. When people are like “We have to make sure all the businesses in whatever are owned by black/Italian/Hispanic/you name it, or we’ll always be put down”. That’s a joke. Integrated neighborhoods are the *only* way for ethnic tensions to lessen, and that’s all there is to it.

Has anyone noticed how I don’t have the ability to discuss a subject for more than one paragraph? On an unrelated note, Dennis Miller is on, and, while he’s funny, he has the annoying habit of laughing at his own jokes. Why do people do that (although I’ve probably been guilty myself, Miller’s job is to be funny, not mine)?

Hey, MIT is now free! Not exactly, but they are making a push to put all of their lectures, study notes, videos and everything on the internet for anyone to learn from at no cost. And, frankly, since every non-profit University’s primary interest in education, they should all be doing this, which makes a nice segue (is this how you spell it? I’ll never know) into what I was thinking about recently.

Basically, the best point of communism is that, since everyone is equal, you can get rid of the conflicts typically associated with jealousy of a neighbor. However, there are some major problems; first, corruption could lead to the same jealousy. Second, some people would still be jealous of things others have saved for. Third, by restricting what people can have, and by telling them what job they have to do, you restrict happiness. And fourth, the corruption inherent in the system means that only violations of individual rights can keep the system in place. For capitalism, my main concerns are inequality and the amount of work that people have to do, especially in areas they don’t want to do that work. So here’s my brilliant thought:

Let everyone have as much stuff as they want, with basically no restrictions.

All work would be voluntary. You could volunteer to work fixing the streets, or you could volunteer as a computer programmer. You could work as much or as little as you wanted. The peer pressure would be to decrease waste and to enjoy your life. Now you may be thinking, Kevin, there’s “infinite demand and finite supply”. That’s where I say you’re wrong. I am positive much of the current spending goes to things that wouldn’t be bought under my system. For instance, jewelry. What is the point in owning jewelry to show off when anyone who wants it can get whatever jewelry they want, since everything is without cost? Also, since having a bookshelf filled with books or a closet with stuff you don’t need would be frowned upon, I don’t think anyone would obtain the stuff in the first place.

A few extra money-savers for the “community” that I thought of were prebuilding houses (although people can modify their property once built as much as they want), getting rid of cars (since the expense is far greater than the cost in my urban design) and creating “media” libraries. For the media libraries, there’d basically be a Barnes & Noble meets a Blockbuster meets and EB in each town. If you wanted X DVD or X book, you could call up the library and have them bring it over to you. There’s no reason for everyone to own a copy of a movie that they’ll watch only 2ce a year. Another idea is to get rid of intellectual property. Anything that can be duplicated for free (i.e., music through Napster) should be duplicated for free. End story. Oh, and the only restriction on civil rights would be that mind-altering drugs and alcohol would be banned. Substances which cause rational people to act irrational will also cause rational society to act irrational.

As for the urban design, the great majority of the people would live in cities of varying sizes, although all would be broken down into subgroups of a couple hundred, with a heirarchy back to the city government. The houses of each subgroup would be facing inward, through a town square style building, so as to foster community in the area. Trams would connect the regions. Email me and tell me what you think of this; I think I’ll draw up some things so it’s clearer what I mean.

In this system, there’s no point in corruption through embezzlement, since anyone can have whatever they want at any time. I want a Coke, I go and grab one. I want a big screen TV, it’s mine. I believe that people will volunteer for a career because no one wants to sit around all day and do nothing productive (other than 17 year old guys, heh). The money made by “salaries” which companies outside of the nation pay our workers (for instance, for providing international consulting, etc.) would go to the nation, which would use it to provide the goods which people request, without fail.

I’m thinking I’m going to change some stuff on the website for next update. First, I’m going to axe the Top 5 Words, since they rarely change anymore, and replace it with a generic Top 5 whatevers. I’m thinking I’m going to add a comment thing too, so people can …err…comment, as the case may be.

MP3 Prime Cut: Last Train to Trancesylvania by Karoly
Dope trance track which takes place on a night train

MP3 Prime Cut Extra: This Train by Bob Marley and Peter Tosh
Sublime covered this one in Marvey Medley. And why are both these songs about trains? Could it have a deeper significance? Can’t you all see the symbolism in it all, and how the alliterations contained within comment on the human spirit? Oh yeah, I’m not a jackass writer, and it’s just a coincidence, heh.