Random thoughts and questions

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Sometimes I have too much random crap in my head.

  1. Why is it so hard to execute people painlessly? Lethal injection was supposed to be painless, but now we find out it might be one of the worst ways to go when done wrong(which it frequently is). A death row inmate in Tennessee has chosen to take his chances with the electric chair instead. Are patients requesting euthanaisa experiencing the same problems?

  2. Are some types of crimes punished less because of the circumstances? All right, that’s an obvious one, of course, but some of those circumstances I don’t get. For example, if I screw around with a chainsaw and behead my buddy, I’m getting a much stiffer sentence than if I screw around with a vehicle and kill 3 or more people. I recall that a person in my state of Florida got drunk, got on a jetski, and collided with a boat, killing the two people aboard. He got life. If he’d been in a car and done that, he’d probably not get five years. Another example is protests. Seems like most protesters that get arrested are never charged with anything serious, but if they had done what they did just as an individual for random reasons, they’d be looking at much more serious charges. What gives here?

  3. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a high profile author do what George RR Martin is doing, basically finding time to work on everything BUT the job that his fans have paid him to do. You write a story, you finish the damned story. Don’t leave millions hanging. I recognize that an author doesn’t owe his fans a book, but when you’ve become a millionaire due to telling people a story that they can’t get enough of, I think it’s your duty to finish it.

  4. I really wish singers would learn how to use a microphone. The handle is the handle. The part you sing into is not a handle.

  5. How are intelligence and maturity related? Or are they two completely different things? For example, a 7 year old human is much smarter than a 4 year old dog, and yet the 4 year old dog is probably much less likely to get into trouble if left alone than the human. The child human is also much more likely to do something to hurt or provoke the dog than the dog is to the human. Of course, when the dog is a puppy, the puppy has the same issues a little human does. But it seems that in all animals, once they reach adulthood they are good to go as far as the maturity, even if they aren’t all that bright.

  6. There are a lot of people who consider the right to vote not only sacred, but your civic duty. And yet, political activity, which is specifically protected by the 1st amendment, is not held as nearly as sacred. Employers fire employees for political activity off the job, where they would never dare to fire an employee for voting. People are urged to vote whether they care or not, but poiltical activity is generally left to those interested enough to engage in it. Isn’t that ass backwards?

  7. What’s with streaming services and cable TV shows having like 10 episodes, while network shows still have 23 or so? Seems that network shows are starting to follow suit with some shows, with The Good Place and the Orville slated for short seasons this year and last year. Personally, I prefer the 23 episode format. 10 episodes, especially of a show you love, is just too few.

  8. Pop music always seems to go through two phases: years of solid, uptempo, fun music, followed by a shorter period of experimentation, some of which is gold, most of which is stupid. And then since it’s pop music, most of the artists in the genre adopt the new style, which kinda defeats the purpose of experimentation. and of course, experimentation usually involves slow, boring music. Which is where pop music is now. Can’t wait for it to be fun again, hopefully sometime around 2021. And the pop experimentation is almost always a commercial failure relatively speaking. When pop experiments, other genres benefit: country, hip hop, R&B. The wrinkle at this point in time is that thanks to a worldwide music market, fans are just looking overseas. See: the BTS army. If Americans won’t do good pop, that’ll just be another job that foreigners will do instead.

  9. In case you hadn’t heard, an SNL comedian mocked a veteran candidate’s war wounds. He’s about to learn that there is a force in the world greater than political correctness: Patriotic Correctness, it’s right-wing equivalent. You don’t mock soldiers. The particular dismissive way he did it, “he lost his eye in battle, or whatever” is particularly galling. THat being said, I’ll say what I always say in these situations: he shouldn’t lose his job. Why the hell do we demand apologies from people but then want to get them fired anyway?

  10. EVen though most voters vote along partisan lines, a rather large minority do split their ticket, and yet political commentators seem at a loss as to why this would happen. As an Andrew Gillum/Rick Scott voter in Florida on Tuesday, I’m available for interviews. The answer is actually really simple: legislative elections are partisan, executive should be less partisan. I’m voting for Gillum because he’s got the better resume and the better attitude. I’m voting for Scott because I’m a conservative.

2

Didn’t your conservative president mock a war hero for his time as a POW? And still got elected to the White House! Where was the Patriotically Correct then? (Then went on to mock a disabled man, a menstruating woman, an Indian heritage Senator?)

You have seen singers confused about the handle and the live part of a microphone? Really? I’ve NEVER seen a performer do so. Is it possible they’re not doing it as YOU would/think they should?

3

Politicians, much like protesters, are treated differently for their offensive statements. Instead of being forced to resign, they usually take a hit in the polls. Maybe that’s what we should do with celebrities, maybe they should have approval polls taken monthly or something.

4

Letting them live is the least painful way. Except for nitrogen asphyxiation, I’ve heard that to be completely humane.

Yes, motorists can basically kill with impunity. And protestors are only occasionally given harsh sentences, and then normally for political reasons. You can also get a lighter sentence by committing your crimes against a black man or while being a white woman.

They paid for the past books that they got. I’m sure they wouldn’t want him to just rush out some piece of shit to meet a deadline.

I’ve never seen this. I like to listen to music, not watch the singers hand. I find music videos annoying, unless they feature surrealistic imagery rather than the singer.

He’s a hero because he lost his eye. I like the ones who don’t lose their eyes.

5

Why do drivers pull into the cross walk? The cross walk is for pedestrians to walk across, not for you to put your car into so you can get to where you’re going 2 seconds earlier.

The other day I was almost hit in the cross walk in front of the library.

6

Nah, I’d prefer the reverse. Force politicians who make offensive statements to resign. Then a minimum requirement for politicians would be the ability to monitor and control what comes out of their own mouth. At least then we wouldn’t be in this mess.

7

I’m pretty sure that the politician who mocked a POW didn’t take a hit in the polls, and the right wing equivalent of PC didn’t rise up and do a thing about it. Truly, the only thing the right wing of this country is interested in, is attacking the left wing. If a left winger had treated that Republican POW as shabbily as Trump did, the attacks from the right would have been legendary.
I’m with you on George RR Martin. I didn’t get sucked into this series, but, in a 7 book series, waiting 6 years to publish #5, at least 7 years to publish #6, and you’re now pushing 70 years old? That’s not cool. Granted, let’s not push a bad product out there to meet an arbitrary deadline, but we’re now talking an actual deadline, and a realistic expectation of declining vigor and health while needing to tackle perhaps the trickiest part of a long series, the conclusion.

Your fans have made you fabulously famous and wealthy, as a measure of respect for them, get them the conclusion the series deserves.

8

Quality. It is really, really hard to make 20+ shows in well under a year. Compare the quality of many top British series with the quality of many top US broadcast series. Entirely different world.

There are a lot of negative side effects with long seasons in the US productions. In a 10 episode season you can have one person write all episodes. One person can direct all episodes. Sometimes it’s the same person. This leads to uniform quality.

A lot of US broadcast shows rotate writers and directors. So storylines get bashed around all over the place. Things can get very inconsistent.

The really big downside is the writer’s room. Instead of one person you have a group of people. A bunch of random stuff gets thrown against the wall to see what sticks. Egos get involved. A good idea gets trashed merely because a person with higher status wants to push their idea. And the clock is ticking, ticking, ticking. So recycle an old I Love Lucy premise because the script has to go out today.

9

So you’re saying he doesn’t owe his fans a book … but on the other hand, he does owe his fans a book? Sounds logical. :dubious:

George R.R. Martin owes his fans nothing. He has no duty to them, moral or financial. Don’t confuse what you want with what other people are obliged to provide for you.

As Neil Gaiman put it, “George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.”

10

Re: The Good Place - Kristen Bell said on the Good Place podcast that it’s explicitly written into her contract that the seasons can’t be more than 13 episodes so that she can spend more time with her kids.

11
  1. I don’t understand what was wrong with the guillotine, myself.
  2. Of for Pete’s sake, of course they are. Motive is almost everything.
  3. Maybe he has writer’s block.
  4. no comment
  5. They are completely different things. And so is the ability to stay out of trouble.
  6. No, it is exactly right.
  7. Bring that up with Capitalism Central, I am sure they could give you all the information.
  8. I don’t like pop music of any era.
  9. Trump and other right wingers mock soldiers with much nastier intent, when they feel like it. So screw that argument.
  10. Splitting tickets used to be a lot more common before hyper-partisanship. Since I don’t listen to political commentators I don’t know what their alleged problem is, but I’d be happy to go back to the days when nominees were judged on their merits.
12

Wow, dude. You got some time on your hands. Do you argue with yourself? I do. I play devils advocate in my head. I guess I am trying to understand other peoples positions. Sometimes it gives me a headache.

13

Singers do this constantly. They don’t hold it upside down but they cup their hands around the top. It defeats the design of the microphone and drives the audio engineers nuts, although for some eccentric or non-traditional styles it may act as a special effect.

14

1] Firing squads are supposed to be more effective, as well. Sometimes I think the Monty Python -style 16-Ton weight would be failsafe, if rather messy. Most modern nations, though, seem to have abolished the Death Penalty as barbaric and cruel.

2] You’ve answered yourself; no need for other input, just encouragement that you continue doing so to save time and effort for others.

3] Refer again to the quote from Gaiman; feel free to try your hand at the craft if you can do better.

4] I’ve seen this on a few ridiculous YouTube videos; the singer(s) literally holding the wireless microphone upside down during a TV guest appearance. I’m always amazed that the fans either don’t notice or don’t care that the mistake shows very obviously that the singer(s) aren’t actually singing but are instead lip-synching to their soundtrack.

5] They are not. There is a weak correlation between longevity and wisdom (as distinct from Intelligence). That correlation is stronger in more stable societies but, as time passes societies are decreasingly stable – even Change changes; it is occuring at an increasing rate.

6] No comment; I’m just too politically pessimistic lately.

7] Having experience the contrast, I tend to prefer the Japanese model of Television programming: Find good stories, break them into episodes that fit the time slot, shoot the episodes and broadcast them. When the story is done, it’s done. There are no seasons like the USA model. Similarly, Babylon 5 and (I believe) Breaking Bad were written by one writer, specifically in order to maintain internal consistency. Contrast this with something like Heroes (I just binge-watched season 1) which not only suffered from clashing teams and themes of writers, but got severely hampered by the Writers’ Strike occurring in the middle.

8] More than two, but I won’t hijack this thread; take it to Cafe Society, perhaps?

9] In case you haven’t noticed, there are quality and crappy entertainers (and politicians) all the time. Life goes on.

10] Commentators, political and otherwise, are in the business of interpreting the situation(s) that they are witnessing on-our-behalf in the simplest of terms to that the broadest possible audience can comprehend the resulting little bites of information. [In other words, they perform a function of the journalism field just like newspaper reporters, TV news anchors, and morning news radio teams do. The alternative is to be present and comprehend situations and events for yourself – which is impossible since you can’t be everywhere at once.] Simplifying the world to a Conservative-versus-Liberal or Regressive-versus-Progressive framework is an artifice of convenience. Real life doesn’t work that way, but pretending it does makes explanations easier to convey.

It’s fun to respond and opine but could you split up your posts so we can discuss each musing in its own thread?

–G!
Anything
You wanna know
Just ask me
I’m the worlds
Most
Opinionated Man
…–Crosby/Stills/Nash
…Anything You wanna Know
…So Far

15

I assume he refers to those who cradle the live part in their hand; I’ve noticed it mostly with the large hexagonal heads, but some end up doing it with everything.

As for 1), self-assisted suicide is a case where accepted methods include some which begin by “put the person down”, or which consist of giving them access to as much downer as they want; executions aren’t really designed to be painless. If they were, there would be protocols which begin by “put the person down”.

16

(1) Death by opiate is quick and painless, and they keep creating ones which are orders of magnitude stronger. As previously suggested, I don’t think it’s a matter of ability. OTOH, I think the bigger oddity is that capital punishment exists at all. But I agree, it does seem strange that there is not more commonality between CP and assisted suicide methods.

17

My understanding is that you need a prescription for opiates, and doctors will not write prescriptions to facilitate an execution.

18

There are numerous problems still, especially given the health and past drug use history of many of the people you want to legally murder.

Finding veins to inject the stuff? Good luck with that.

A dose that would kill a regular person really dead might only cause some gasping and such in a ex-heavy drug user.

Also, you really, really want to knock the person out before giving them the fatal dose. And drugs that will make someone absolutely pass out, without pain, and in a reasonable amount of time don’t exist.

Since you can’t test out killing a person first, you have no idea what the best range of dosage is for a particular person. The relative strength of the drug is immaterial. It’s the dosage for that drug that’s a problem.

19

He doesn’t “owe” fans a book, but it is a dick move to get so many people hooked and then just basically abandon the project. It’s even more of a dick move if he has abandoned the project but doesn’t feel like telling anyone. it would be pretty easy to have someone like Brandon Sanderson finish it for him with his input, while he’s still alive.

20

See, what was scaring me about the whole problem with executions thing is whether the same thing is actually happening with assisted suicide or putting your pets down, but for political reasons, wasn’t being reported on.