blue monday 1.24.05

if you did not hear, based on this formula:

JANUARY BLUES DAY FORMULA

1/8W+(D-d) 3/8xTQ MxNA. Where:

W: Weather
D: Debt
d: Money due in January pay
T: Time since Christmas
Q: Time since failed quit attempt
M: General motivational levels
NA: The need to take action

today is the most depressing day of the year. i know that personally, i am "lo-mo" as one person put it. i think i will watch a sweet romance. okay, porn. plus do some homework. it's good to see social science used to help define our shared world.

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make yourself happy-- read the comments on any of this libertarian girl's post. thanks to greg for highlighting her-- there is some, uh, curious work here.

* there is the uncaring and hard-hearted: "Lots of seniors think they are entitled to stuff because they are old. This poses great dangers to our democratic society... With their increasing numbers and their attitude that they are entitled to stuff, an easy prediction is that in the future seniors will vote for higher taxes to pay for their social security benefits."

* there is the ridiculous: the british abused prisoners too! shouldn't they be more enlightened?

* there is the edge of bigotry: and i say this because she contends that "Liberals hate the SAT because it demonstrates quantitatively that people differ in intelligence, and they also hate it because the average black score is significantly lower than the average white score" without much backup or even an oblique mention of caveats (like what is race? like what about factors such as educational input?). as a side note, my average black score was probably higher than hers.

* and there is a running current on how liberals hate america. the comments on this one are enlightening.

all of this can be traced to her love of ayn rand. liberals hate the strong? no help for the old? what kind of heartless asshole says these things? i don't hate america. i hate assholes, i hate users, i hate cronyism, and i hate people who use their power to hoard wealth and not improve conditions around them. in that, i suppose i am not a good capitalist. i think equal footing will enable the nation to fully realize its intellectual potential. i think a meritocracy that is based on merit, not on previous wealth, is a good thing. again-- bad capitalist, it's true, because i can still make money and live decently while paying those pesky taxes and working to help those who are less able to help themselves.

i hate people who don't allow for differences in a "i may not agree with it but you're not actually affecting me and mine" way. i hate people who have a solid idea about what another group thinks when they don't know people in that group, nor do they try to understand their line of thinking. i hate people who define a whole group, 56 million americans, let's say, as in lockstep with overthrow america elements.

and ayn rand? that heartless wench is made for your dress-in-black high school days, your "if you're weak you must deserve it" days. read tobias wolff's old school for a good send up of ayn rand. maybe when libertarian girl loses her job or gets into a car accident or otherwise doesn't get what she hopes to achieve, she will reconsider her love of the extreme black or white world of ayn rand.