Caveat: Immoral Government

A blogger named doctorzamalek who runs a blog called Object Oriented Philosophy (yes, I'm a bit of an avocational philosophy nerd) writes on the current US political scene, in a way that I feel like quoting (and leading to several layers of embedded quotes, as he cites NYT who cites Romney).

Romney may be saying this just for campaigning purposes, but it’s still worth talking about it:

“It is a moral imperative for America to stop spending more money than we take in,” Mr. Romney says in the ad, which will be running when he arrives in Iowa on Tuesday for a bus tour and an orchestrated blitz of appearances by surrogates leading up to the caucuses on Jan. 3.

No. There is nothing “immoral” about spending more than you take in. This practice has a name: investment. Did I spend more than I took in while studying for my various degrees? Of course I did. And it might actually have been “immoral” not to do that, since my entire future depended on it.

There's not much I feel I need to add to that.

Caveat: 2011

I travel to Australia to visit my mom in January for a week, and then make a week-long touristic trip to New Zealand that is mildly pleasant but erely reminds me that I don’t really enjoy travelling as much as I used to – at least not travelling alone. I let my contract at Hongnong Elementary School run out. With some sadness, I said good-bye to Yeonggwang County and returned to Ilsan.  I started to work at Karma Academy, for my former LinguaForum Academy boss (from 2008). I have a more stable housing situation (like!). I have fewer elementary students (not like!).
[This entry is part of a timeline I am making using this blog. I am writing a single entry for each year of my life, which when viewed together in order will provide a sort of timeline. This entry wasn’t written in 2011 – it was written in the future.]
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Caveat: Cafe Mocha

One of my coworkers brought take-out cafe mochas (from one of the Starbucks clones that abound in South Korea) and distributed them to all of us, today, in the staff room. I like cafe mocha, but I haven't had one in a long, long time. They are addictive and unhealthy.

The taste and smell was weirdly evocative – I thought of studying late at night at Espresso Royale in Dinkytown (Southeast Minneapolis) in the 1980's, or at the now disappeared Bucks County Coffee joint on Locust Street at 40th just west of the U Penn campus in the 1990's. I thought, in short, of studying.

I wondered if I would someday return to school.

Why are smells and tastes so evocative? And sounds… 

What I'm listening to right now.

Bob, "Hurricane."

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