You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 8 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

Really cute idea...I wonder which ones I got wrong.

I've been browsing other people's blogs looking for people who have something interesting to say. Not that I'm claiming I actually have anything to say or anything. I just want to immerse myself with intellectuals and those who are interested in Politics or anything else random topic that I might find intriguing. I have been sorely disappointed with the results thus far.

First of all, as a matter of technicality, I am frustrated that Blogger does not have a searching or browsing function except for within individual blogs. Maybe I'm wrong and I just haven't looked hard enough, but the only way I've discovered for finding other people's bogs is by clicking on the "Next Blog" link in the right corner of the bar on the top of the page. This seems to link to a randomly chosen blog. This can be fun because you never know what you'll end up with, but it is also frustrating because some people have deactivated the bar for their journal so I have to go back to the last journal before I can continue browsing.

Other than that, there just seems to be an overabundance of crappy journals out there. Many are in another language, many are about a person's personal life, and many are companies advertising their car insurance or whatever. The few that interesting one's I've found are average at best. Here are the two that I want to return to to see if they might be anything worth keeping an eye on: Morielekafa - by a retired UCLA Professor of Anthropology and CrawfordsList - by the author of a book on the war between politicians and the media called "Attack the Messenger" (he seems to side with the media but I won't hold that against him because he's adding to the debate).

That's it for now; I just wanted to have a place where I could remember these two blogs. That's another thing about Blogger - I want a place in my profile or something where I can list recommended blogs. I suppose I could put them in the links section on the side ... but that takes a lot of work and I'm lazy.

I got an e-mail today about the Do Not Call list. It was from a close friend and it warned me that I should register my cell phone because cell phone numbers are going to soon be released to telemarketers. I was immediately cautious. Call me an over optimist of our news media, but I believe that anything of that sort would have turned up on a major news website.

After looking into it, I found theFederal Trade Commission's Website which addressed the e-mail that I received. I figured I should post what it said here to try and slow down this pointless chain e-mail. And yes, it's pointless. Here is a direct quote: "You may have received an email telling you that your cell phone is about to be assaulted by telemarketing calls as a result of a new cell phone number database; however, that is not the case. Federal Communications Commission regulations prohibit telemarketers from using automated dialers to call cell phone numbers."

I also think I should give credit to the FTC for adding that if you are still worried, you can still add your number to the list. I personally decided not to add my phone because I have not had a problem yet with telemarketers (with the exception of a call from India claiming to be in Nevada and wanting me to send them money for information on getting Government grants - long story). I could always change this decision if it got to be a problem. It's not like I've been selective about who I give my number to - I don't have a house phone and so many different registrations I do require a phone. Maybe I'm being too trusting again.

I was browsing other blocs when I found this.

Hawaii has become the first state to impose price ceilings on the sale of gasoline. Their statewide average is about $0.30 cents more than the national average(Does someone know the exact figures?), and the ceiling has been set at exceptionally cheap $2.1578/gallon for regular unleaded gasoline from wholesalers.

I wasn't ever planning to discuss economics in this journal because, honestly, I don't know that much. However, I did just take an introductory economics course in which we discussed price ceilings. The example in class was rent-controlled apartments. It was sufficiently demonstrated (to me anyway) that with the imposition of price ceilings, the demand for apartments goes up and the supply goes down - I even remember all the diagrams.

Anyway, the effect of this change in the supply and demand curve was homelessness because more people need homes than there are homes for rent. However, as hard as I try I can't get the analogy to transfer to this gasoline example of price ceilings. Ok, so gas is cheaper which means that people can afford to drive more places - they buy more gas. They're on Hawaii however so it's not like there are a whole lot of places to go. "I guess we can finally afford our road trip to Mookoohakaliki Beach instead of being forced to walk 5 minutes." Doesn't it seem like demand really won't go up as much? I'm guessing that the demand curve for gasoline in Hawaii is relatively inelastic.

At the same time as the demand goes up, gas companies do not make as much money selling gas to Hawaii, but I can't imagine that means they send less gas. Would supply really go down that much? Like the demand curve, I'm thinking the supply curve is also inelastic. Unlike apartments which can run out and despite all the oil problems today, I still think that gas companies will be able to make enough of a profit to warrant sending that precious oil to Hawaii. I can't imagine that they'd strike or anything just to prove a point. The article above also does mention that the governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle "said she would suspend the price cap if either or both of the state's refineries indicated plans to close" so I guess there are some protections in there in case I'm wrong.

My opinion, and I base this on absolutely nothing except my own logic (man I wish I could do this for essays in my politics classes), is that oil companies will be far from broke after the introduction of this price ceiling. Therefore, unless any of the refineries want to bluff and claim to be closing down, the effect of this legislation will only serve to save the public some money and lessen the profits of the already wealthy oil companies.

By the way, if anyone reads this and thinks that I'm way off base, I really want to hear about it. If anything, I'm only interested in learning more about this or any topic. Comments are definitely welcome.

After I finished creating my first blog on this site dedicated to comic strips, I decided to procrastinate some more and create a new blog just in case I felt a need to talk about observations in my life not revolving around the funnies. Who knows, maybe I'll have some big revelation about politics or sports or something that I'll feel a need to share with the world. Maybe someone somewhere might actually be interested in reading what I write. And maybe the next Ben & Jerry's hit ice cream flavor will be a ketchup and hamburger concoction called Where's The Beef.

In case I say something really stupid or offensive and you are wondering: "Who the fuck does this guy think he is?" I figure I should give a little background information. I'm a senior college student at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA. I'm majoring in math, but I think that was a mistake. My real passion seems to be American politics and sociology. Technically I could fix the situation and switch majors, but I still really love math (just not the high end abstract stuff). Plus math majors are statistically better off after graduation. So while I'm living my average life for the prospect of making a couple thousand dollars a year more, I can't help but think of a Calvin and Hobbes strip in which Hobbes laments: "I don't know what's scarier, that every man has his price, or that the price is always so low." (Oh, I guess should warn you readers to get used to comic strip quotations. They'll generally be relevant but they'll be numerous.)

According to OK Cupid's politics test, I'm a Democrat, though I'm reluctant to call myself one today. Socially I feel like I'm much more liberal than most democratic politicians who are too wishy washy. In my opinion we need more politicians standing up and saying: "Look, the evidence is clear. Homosexuality is not a choice for most people and marrying them certainly isn't going to threaten anyone else's marriage." If anything of this sort arises before the Supreme Court, I'm sure this blog will be all over it.

Financially, I also lean left. For example, I believe that taxes are too low and should be raised - especially for the rich. Sure I care about the economy and want businesses to thrive and develop new products and invest and all that jazz. But we need to have priorities and a wealthy country's priority should not be to get even more wealthy but to invest that wealth in fixing America's problems. Problems like the income gap for racial minorities or even more simply decreasing the income gap for all Americans no matter your race should be a top priority. Unlike what many people today believe, there does not exist an equal opportunity for all Americans to succeed; success today is bought by one's parents at a very early age. Almost all exceptions to this rule are brought about by social programs that Democrats support and Republicans oppose.

Other topics that might appear in this blog in the coming years are the need for more than two political parties, gun-control, public smoking, drug legalization or decriminalization, and almost anything else. I'm not real big on environmental issues but I might say something about global warming if it comes up. Oh yeah, and the Iraq war if I feel like it. Mostly I'll just be posting funny stories (probably most of them not even political in nature) or the most poignant moments from my favorite TV shows, South Park and Daily Show. I don't want this place to get too serious unless there's something big enough to get serious about. Above all else, I just like to laugh at stupid stuff. Enjoy.