Puceronie

Archive for July, 2009

Freedom and Freedom

Sunday, July 26th, 2009

I find that you will hear people from all over the political or economic spectrum using the word freedom (or Freedom). Not all of them seem to use it in the same manner, though.

Freedom for Freedom

On one side you have those who prone freedom for the sake of Freedom. Your laws, your opinions, your beliefs, they all can exist provided that they do not come in the way of My Freedom. For example, those who advocate against gun control in the United States will cite the US constitution. "I don't care about any other arguments, because wanting to keep me from owning a gun is against my freedom."

Freedom for Well Being

On the other side, where I find myself, are people who prone freedom as being one of the many things that promote the well being of humans. We believe we must strive for the good of people and that, in order for the world to be better, people need some freedom: the freedom to vote, assemble in public, participate in harmless religious practices, love and live with a person of the same sex, etc.

The Problem of Freedom for Freedom

The problem of believing in freedom for its own sake is that, along the way, you can find yourself harming other people. I could use the freedom argument to do horrible things, something which I will not do if I think that freedom is only one of the many aspects of a good life.

There are people in this world who are denied rights such as voting (including gender-based discrimination) or who live in horrible conditions. When I hear people say that my not wanting them to keep an unlocked, loaded gun in their house goes against their freedom, I find it rather insulting to all those people.

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Posted in General, politics | No Comments »

Good News (and Stupidity on the Radio)

Friday, July 17th, 2009

A couple of days ago, I was in the car with my mom, and the radio was playing. I can unfortunately not tell which station it was, I'd venture to say it was Espace Musique, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, they were giving a short interview to someone in regards to the possibility that the European market would open itself to transgenic food from North America, for example corn. The man said Europe is not very keen on buying transgenic food because it wants to protect its own market. I can't comment on that, I'm not in Europe. He however went on to add that "there is no scientific difference between transgenic food and non-transgenic food". If I had been eating anything that moment, it would certainly have flown out of my mouth faster than light.

Is this man completely stupid? He has just killed whatever credibility he might have had: the idea behind transgenic food is that is has been modified using science. I wonder if this should be taken into a larger context, where conservatism tends to see science as that Other thing, the thing that doesn't really concern us because it's all theories and calculations and stuff that doesn't apply to Us. What does science have to do with our food, anyway?

As for the good news, they have nothing to do with European economics. I am moving back out of my parents' home around mid-August. I will be living in a home for speshol peepel. I'm not quite sure what the correct expression would be in English, but basically it is a home under supervision by counselors. Up to 9 people can live there at any given time.

I will be paying a pension. It is more expensive than a regular renting would be for one person, but it includes food, electricity, furniture, etc. Meals are prepared by the counselors, although we are welcome to help. We must all contribute to the maintenance of the home (cleaning, doing the dishes, taking out the trash, etc.).

My goal is to increase my autonomy. For example, I haven't washed a bath in years, simply because I am unable to. I know how, obviously, but I have a complete blocking due to ewness. The kind that makes me scrub my hands until they get infected.

Oh, and the place I'll be living is in a nice area of Montreal.

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Posted in General, Personal Life | No Comments »

Paying For Free Things

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

Well, first of all, this layout will be going soon, I hope. I'm really tired of looking at it. So when you see the site is under maintenance, you'll know the reason. It seems like I should update my version of Wordpress too, so that will all be done at the same time.

Anyway, on to the main topic of this post. My brother and sister were discussing online games. More particularly, they talked about an online RPG-like game my brother plays. The game is free, but you can get more features if you buy a membership. The same goes for a game I play, DragonFable. You can register for free and play for free too, but there are items and quests that are only available to paying players.

They both agreed that they didn't see a reason to pay for something which you can get for free. There I completely disagree. Like everyone I do enjoy free things. One of the reasons I use OpenOffice and Firefox is because I don't pay for them.

I would gladly contribute money to some projects such as DragonFable (I really have to get around to buy a DragonAmulet there!). Why? Because there are people behind that project. Sure, they have advertising and probably another job. They're however devoting many hours of their time to this project. What's a small 30 something dollars contribution from me compared to all the time and effort that goes behind the creation of a video game?

I enjoy their game, using their creation, and loading their servers with one more person. I certainly don't see that "investment" as being a waste for me.

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Posted in Entertainment, Games, Personal Life | 2 Comments »