Oil Tax Increase

Apparently new legislation recently went through Congress increasing taxes on petroleum, a tax paid by the oil companies. While I agree with the intended purpose of this legislation (raise money to take care of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico), I worry about the long-term effects on other things. For example, couldn't this cause a spike in gasoline prices? Oil companies will now be making less money per barrel, so it is fully possible that they will raise gas prices to make up for that loss. Unintended consequences plague all government actions, and the article I read even quotes Christopher Guith, vice president of the Chamber of Commerce's energy institute, as saying, "There hasn't been any sort of deliberation on" how this legislation would impact the economics of the country.

As I said above, I agree that money needs to be raised to clean up the oil spill, especially because BP does not seem to be doing much in that regard. However, I am concerned that there was no deliberation even on the laws most obvious, unintended consequences. Am I being paranoid or quite reasonable? Any one who has more information on this legislation, please feel free to share said information with me.

Words and Phrases We Avoid

My last post, which was mostly abour Obama, got me thinking about the Secret Service. One, that they are not that Secret, everyone knows they're there and two, that they could be referred to as the S.S. An agency that works directly for the man in charge and its title can be shortened to S.S. I find it intriguing that this is not seen as a problem, even while most people in theis country would be up in arms if someone dared call them socialist. Both the S.S. and Socialism have very bad connotations in the minds of most Americans, but only the latter appears to consistently provoke a response. I can't help but wonder why. The S.S. and Socialism both "belong" to former enemies of the U.S. Does a stronger reaction against the term 'socialism' mean the U.S. had and has a greater dislike of Russia than of Nazi Germany? Does that mean that anti-Semitism is seen as more okay than Socialism?

I really do not know the answer, but it keeps bugging me. Any help in understanding this is, of course, appreciated.

Obama losing his Jewish constituents?

Earlier this week, Obama had a meeting with the Prime Minister of Israel, Beyamin Netanyahu, which, I dare say, was a disaster (mostly for Obama). While I do not like their slant on the issue, Times Online provides a good explanation of what happened. Obama was, quite frankly, rude. He simply got up and left during a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister and later uninvited him from dinner. Such behavior to a major political leader can be seen as an insult to said leader's country, or, in this case, even said leader's entire nation (i.e. a large percentage of Jews around the world are upset).

While upsetting Israel is not that big a problem for the U.S., in and of itself, Obama has also upset a large number of his Jewish constituents. Even back in 1974, when many recently-immigrated jewish families had yet to earn large sums of money, Jewish donors gave what amounted to ~75% of donations to the Democratic party*. Even if the number has gone down, pissing off even a few of these huge donors will damage the Democratic party and its ability to fund candidates. Without this funding Democrates will have a harder time winning elections, because, whether we like it or not, money spent on advertising is closely linked to winning elections.

If Obama does not scramble to make up for his insult to Netanyahu, he may well have destroyed his chances at a second term.


*http://www.davidduke.com/general/michael-collins-piper-jews-donating-70-to-80-to-democrats-gop-not-far-behind_1983.html

Stress Overload = strange headache

This weekend I got a very bizarre headache, that has not entirely gone away (it comes and goes, with little corrolation to much of anything). The only cause I can think of that makes any sense is stress overload. Now, why is the headache 'bizarre' and why can stress be the only cause? The headache is bizarre because, for the most part, it is not painful. It is like feeling light-headed and wozy, but, instead of the room spinning, my vision going black, or lossing my hearing, is feels like different parts of my brain are on a variety of little boats on a stormy sea. Yes, it feels like my brain is beginning to feel seasick. Such an unusual headache is generally generated entirely by one's imagination and little else could be the cause, besides stress overload.

My bizarre headache prompted my to think about the mechanisms that probably over-react to cause a negative physical reaction to stress. Are they evolutionarily sound when not exaggerated? Were they once usful, and now remain only because humans have learned how to cope? Or was the negative physical reaction to stress selected itself?

I thought about all that yesterday, but today I was reminded, looking through my readings, that a similar question can be posed about autism? Was autism itself selected for? Were less eccentric versions selected for and autism is the unfortunate extreme? This, in turn, relates to society's view of autism and its 'usefulness'. There appears to be a debate now over whether or not to try to rid the world of autism, to remove the autism gene(s), if it becomes possible. The very fact that there even is a debate shows a shift in attitude towards autism. Before, it was nothing but a horrid disease; now, it could be something highly useful to keep in the gene pool.

More Focused...Finally!

At last, I have a better sense of what I am doing for my Junior Theme (I still hate refering to it as a Junior Theme, it has sucha negative connotation).

Why has society's attitude towards autism changed since the syndrome was first identified?

My research so far has already shown me that America has had a great shift in the last fifty or sixty years; from institutionalizing autistics to the creating of the School Support Program-Autism Spectrum Disorder by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Inclusive classroom).

I would like to try and research possible societal motivators to explain the drastic change over a mere few decades. Perhaps there was some anti-Instituionalization movement that I have yet to read about. Changes never come about without cause.

Junior Theme Blog?

I'm not sure how we are supposed to blog about our Junior Themes, so I guess I'll figure it out as I go.

I am, and have been for a while, very interested in Autism Spectrum Disorder; especially in how people react to it. Let me explain what I mean. I am interested both in trying to understand how an autistic's mind is different from my own, how they cope with being autistic, and how they see themselves and others and in understanding how others, nonautistics, react to those with autism and how they themselves are affected by these autistic people in their lives. Using famous autistics as a focus of my paper seems, to me, to be a good way to be able to fulfill requirements and research what I am interested in.

I have already read a long article on the "do vaccines cause autism?" controversy and the last chapter of Oliver Sacks's An Anthropologist on Mars, which focuses on Temple Grandin, a high-functioning autistic woman who is famous in her own fields. perhaps the most interesting thing I have learned through my reading so far is that it is quite likely that the majority of people with autism have far more visual thinking than a nonautistic does. As of yet, I am not entirely sure what this means for one's thought processes, but it sounds fascinating.

The Power of Words

As I looked through the comments on Doc Oc's most recent blogpost, This Just In: Texas Rewrites U.S. History, I was reminded of our class's  apparent fear of the phrase "Junior Theme". We insist on not speaking of it, or calling it by a different name and this seems quite similar to Texas's treatment of "capitalism". Both terms, "Junior Theme" and "capitalism" gain a more forceful and frightening negative connotation as we refuse to use them in ordinary speech. (Rather reminiscent of You-Know-Who, a.k.a. Voldemort, isn't it?) I find this Power by Disuse utterly fascinating because words also gain Power by Overuse. We call our country the United States of America, as if we are speaking of an entire two continents, rather than a portion of one continent. By repetition, it is often accepted without question. For a few years, the previous administration of the U.S. government had the general population convinced that Saddam Houssein had Weapons of Mass Destruction, as another example. To my final point, I am simply frightened by the sheer Power of Words. Maybe words are the reason humans are the dominant species, hmm?

What other example can you think of for the Power of Words? Any other modes words have of gaining power?