Filler Filler Filler

I'm still settling in after recent life events. It is all good. There is a post I want to do, but I'm not prepared to put it together yet, so I've been not posting anything. Here are some bits and pieces of stuff I've pulled from Facebook conversations with Muffin Man, he said some of this and I said some of it. Enjoy!

-Penguins, those guys will never fly, but the silver lining is that they can do cool belly slides on the snow, ice, or any other slick surface. It's much cooler to evade blood thirsty polar bears via belly slides, than to just fly away like a coward. The more I think about this, the less majestic eagles become.

-What it all comes down to is that your support makes me feel better than a monkey in a banana tree. You are the Mickey to my Rocky in Rocky I and II and part of III, and then you are the Apollo Creed to my Rocky in the rest of III and Rocky IV. I’ve only seen Rocky V once so I don't know who you are in that one in relation to my being Rocky. I’m also not very familiar with Rocky Balboa, but I suppose in that one you are Rocky and I am the light bulb he replaces outside of the apartment of his lady friend. I realize that in each of these comparisons you are being compared to an old, washed-up boxer, and I am compared to the in-his-prime-boxer/light bulb, but it is of no disrespect to you, I simply mean that it is your encouragement and support and suggestions that give me even the least hope of being the champ.
I wonder why my attempts at compliments always end up slighting the person I intended to praise, and then make me look good. My id (not ID) must have tied up my ego and then beat my super ego over the head with the tied up ego. Even though the comparison could be interpreted to make you sound like a skinny old man and a buff, but out of prime man, and then an almost past prime, but still unrealistically buff and coherent man, even though that could be the interpretation, you are the bounce in my step and song in my head, all in a non-Brokeback way.

-I think my eyes are sunburned. My neck, face and arms are. My eyes were out as long as the rest of them, so why not? Plus they hurt a bit.

-All of my socks are the same, black Hanes. Only, I bought two packages at different times, so some of them are less black than the others. They are more of a “blue steel.” It makes it slightly difficult to pair them off. I have to get in the right light. It’s even more difficult when my eyes are sunburned.

-If I could perfectly imitate anyone's way of speaking it would be an old Jewish man from New York, like Uncle Leo, or Kramer's polar bear club friend, "what, you don't want to be a polar bear anymore? It's too cold for you?"

-I didn't get the smoker (Ed: backyard BBQ structure for smoking meat) built today, I don't know how I’m actually going to do that, but I did prep some apple wood so if I get the smoker built and functional, I’ll apple smoke some bacon, and then go to Wendy’s and say "what's up now, Wendy’s?"

-Here’s some fun reading for you, my homework assignment for ethics. We read a chapter about cultural and subjective relativism. It’s a blog type submission, so I read the three posts that were done before mine; they all disagreed with the two things, so I decided to agree with them. But I do feel the way I said, so I wasn't just playing the dickens (Ed: dickens used to be a euphamism for the Devil, I think i mentioned it in a blog post before, must have been around the time of this conversation between Muffin Man and me) advocate.

The question: What are some reasons that you agree or disagree with cultural relativism and subjective relativism? (Ed: the following is directly copied from the student responses, I have not edited spelling or grammar)

student response 1: I disagree with cultural relativism and subjective relativism because no matter whether people believe them or not, moral claims are still objectively true for everyone. It doesn't matter what anyone thinks of them or even what I think of them, there are moral truths that are objectively true no matter where you go. If morality was relative depending on the culture you were from, or if it was subjective, then it would cease to exist if our species ever becomes extinct, this is not the case. Morality will always exist.

2: I do not agree with either theory, mainly because I believe morals to be objective. Two disagring persons cannot both be right just because they are entitled to their own separate sets of morals. There needs to be some underlying principle to go by that is not subjective.

3: I disagree with both because it forces us to say that if a person or a culture says that it is right we cannot say a single thing about it. People or cultures can do whatever they like and that is morally right. It seems to me like a cop out. "Do whatever you want and that is morally right" doesnt fly with me.

And from your humble servant, namely Ajax: Personally, I believe in objective morality, but it can't be proven. My perception of reality is all I have. The people I meet are nothing but what I belive them to be. The same goes for everything I am aware of. Likewise, I am to others only what they think I am. All any of us have is perception. If we experience similar events then we might have similar perception, but it still won't be identical. All we know is subjective; therefore we can't proclaim objective laws. Cultural and subjective relativism have to be the way it is. I can't prove that murder is always wrong, but I can prove that certain cultures and individuals believe that way. I prefer cultural relativism over the author's definition of subjective relativism because it represents a group's opinion. That itself isn't always safe, but I'd rather go along with laws prepared by a group of people trying rather than be subject to one person's folly. If we go down it might as well be together, just like if we rise it is nice if we rise together.