Drunken Pumpkin

As reported on CNN:

Without notifying the public, federal agents have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals.

The travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge these risk assessments. The government intends to keep the scores on file for 40 years.

Read full article here

Jeff knows that I have a degree in Philosophy (and now you do, too) and that is almost certainly why he posted the philosophers song. There are really two camps of Philosophers, those that drink coffee, and those that drink hard alcohol. Of course, there are a few that don’t really fit either camp, myself, for example, but for the most part that’s pretty much what you get. If you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Who else but an alcoholic would bother questioning their own existence, except, perhaps, someone hopped up on caffeine.

Now, in recent years, 80-90 or so (that’s recent for Philosophy, trust me) there has been a movement that thinks the only way to understand the world is to experience it. Jeff has been tinkering with this kind of thought, but his days in the basement, and weekends in the cage have been hindering any sort of practical experimentation. However, he has encouraged others to partake of this theory in his stead. And what can be more life affirming than being shot at by a ball of paint going just shy of the speed of sound?

Now, as I’ve mentioned earlier, if you’re going to do philosophy properly you need to be pickled or wired, or, perhaps, both. A downside to either of those states is a lack of good judgement, and the last thing you want when evading the sting of a paintball is clouded judgement. I think this is doubly so when running around in the woods at the same time. I think the only situation that could be worse would be if you were at Dark Armies in Indianapolis, where they seem to think that a paint slicked floor is an ideal surface to run on while being shot at, but I digress.

I can’t wait for Jeff’s report from the unfortunate tree fellow on just what he feels is the nature of the world and how we interpret the various noema that we encounter on a daily basis to form our individual epistemologies. And, yes, all of that makes some kind of sense to me, I often wish it didn’t.

Tune in tomorrow as Jeff explores more of the mysteries of the world and their relation to slapstick.