Thinkers Anonymous

[Relocated from 6:39PM, 18 December 2005]

This explains so much

It started out innocently enough. I began to think at parties now and
then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another, and
soon I was more than just a social thinker. I began to think alone
"to relax," I told myself - but I knew it wasn't true.

Thinking became more and more important to me, and finally I was
thinking all the time. I began to think on the job. I knew that thinking
and employment don't mix, but I couldn't stop myself.

I began to avoid friends at lunchtime so I could read Thoreau and
Kafka. I would return to the office dizzied and confused, asking, "What is it
exactly we are doing here?"

Things weren't going so great at home either.
One evening I had turned off the TV and asked my wife
about the meaning of life. She spent that night at her mother's.

I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the boss called
me in. He said, "Skippy, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your
thinking has become a real problem. If you don't stop thinking on the
job, you'll have to find another job."

This gave me a lot to think about. I came home early after my
conversation with the boss. Honey," I confessed, "I've been thinking..."
"I know you've been thinking," she said, "and I want a divorce!"
"But Honey, surely it's not that serious. "It is serious," she said,
lower lip a quiver. "You think as much as college professors, and
college professors don't make any money, so if you keep on thinking
we won't have any money!" "That's a faulty syllogism," I said impatiently,
and she began to cry.

I'd had enough. "I'm going to the library," I snarled as I stomped out
the door. I headed for the library, in the mood for some Nietzsche,
with NPR on the radio. I roared into the parking lot and ran up to the big glass
doors... they didn't open. The library was closed.

To this day, I believe that a Higher Power was looking out for me
that night. As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass,
whimpering for Zarathustra, a poster caught my eye. "Friend is heavy
thinking ruining your life?" it asked. You probably recognize that line.
It comes from the standard Thinker's Anonymous poster.

Which is why I am what I am today: a recovering thinker.
I never miss a TA meeting. At each meeting we watch a
noneducational video; last week it was "Porky's." Then we share
experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I
still have my job, and things are a lot better at home.
Life just seemed... easier, somehow, as soon as I stopped thinking.
Soon, I will be able to vote Republican.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Don't bother me now, I'm watching Survivor."\\

I Needed This About Now

[Relocated from 1:16 PM, 18 December 2005]

And so do you.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "I like you, too."\\

Seven Things Kathe Sent Me

Seven Things Kathe Sent Me:
1. A link to this amusing T-shirt: http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/gaming/713e/
2. A link to Suzette Haden Elgin's blog, where she spoke of a curtious health problem and its eventual resolution.
3. A link to Echidna of the Snakes, and the worst newspaper headline ever.
4. A link to an article about one of Kathe's favorite critters, the slime mold, with an excuse to use the phrase "fossil sex".
5. A link to Language Log, where this sentence is dissected: The depth of how much I deeply do not care about this would be impossible to overstate, though I will try.

6. A link to Making Light, for which her only comment was, "Speechless, right?"
7. A link to that "Seven Things" meme that's been going around.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You'll have to ask the Annoying Seven-Ball about that."\\

The Ministry of Reshelving

At Avant Game, they're up to silly things:

How to Serve the Ministry of Reshelving

1. Select a local bookstore to carry out your reshelving activities.

2. Download and print "This book has been relocated by the Ministry of Reshelving" bookmarks and "All copies of 1984 have been relocated" notecards to take with you to the bookstore. Or make your own. We recommend bringing a notecard and 5-10 bookmarks to each store.

3. Go to the bookstore and locate its copies of George Orwell's 1984. Unless the Ministry of Reshelving has already visited this bookstore, it is probably currently incorrectly classified as "Fiction" or "Literature."

4. Discreetly move all copies of 1984 to a more suitable section, such as "Current Events", "Politics", "History", "True Crime", or "New Non-Fiction."

5. Insert a Ministry of Reshelving bookmark into each copy of any book you have moved. Leave a notecard in the empty space the books once occupied.

6. If you spot other incorrectly classified books, feel free to relocate them.

7. Please report all reshelving efforts to the Ministry. Email your store name, location, # of 1984 copies reshelved, and any other reshelving activities conducted, to reshelving @ avantgame.com. Photos of your mission can be uploaded to Flickr, tagged as "reshelving", and submitted to the Ministry of Reshelving group.

Our goal is to relocate one thousand nine hundred and eighty-four copies, and to complete successful reshelving of 1984 in all 50 United States. Global contributions are welcome.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "What am I doing here in the egg tray?"\\

Pot Smoking Saves Lives

I know it does. As a Hospital Corpsman in the U.S. Navy, I saw the difference between the patients who were undergoing chemotherapy with only the futile government-approved anti-nausea drugs to support them, and the ones who were risking dishonorable discharges by using the safest and most effective antinausea medication available.

[Caution: Adult content follows]

The other day, the Oregon Legislature passed new legislation, increasing access to medicinal marijuana while closing loopholes that created the possibility of abuse.

The headline in the Salem Statesman-Journal read, "New laws include medical-marijuana changes"

In the Eugene Register-Guard, the headline was "New year's laws give patients more pot"

Here in little old Corvallis, the Gazette-Times said, "Pot laws change for med users"

But I prefer Kathe's own headline: "Oregon to Feds: Fuck Off!"

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Speak the truth to power".\\

485 Children Missing (Not on Aruba)

Two elementary schools' worth of kids who are Just. Plain. Missing.

And to think that Bush is going to be impeached over nothing worse than illegal domestic spying.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Don't delay -- act now".\\

Christmas Letter, 2005

Contact Light, December 2005, by John M. Burt, 960 SW Jefferson Avenue, Corvallis, Oregon 97333 USA // john_m_burt@hotmail.com // (541) 753-6094
[“Contact light”: Buzz Aldrin’s terse observation that a pressure sensor had tripped, indicating that the Eagle’s feet had touched down. Thus, the first words spoken from the Lunar surface.]
Life goes on
It’s been a year since the last Contact Light. Some years, I’ve sent out two or three issues, but I’ve been busy this year, especially the last few months. After two years of taking prerequisite courses and submitting applications, I was accepted to nursing school, and I’ve just finished the first term. Barely.
Blessed be
Everyone warned me that it would be difficult to work full-time and also go to nursing school, but we really couldn’t afford for me not to. Working night shifts at one job and mornings at another, with classes in the afternoon and “clinical instruction” shifts at Lebanon Community Hospital in the evenings, and massage clients whenever I could schedule them, I often got only two or four hours’ sleep in every 24. I don’t think a single day passed in which I didn’t have work, school or both. I joked that I was embracing a clock-free cyberpunk lifestyle, but as the term progressed I was runing down badly and was too stressed out to even notice how bad the situation was.
Keep on truckin’
School was closed for a four-day Thanksgiving weekend, and so was the day job. I had arranged to have time off the night job during those days, too, so I had the eerie experience of a couple of days in which I could not only do what I wanted during the day, but actually sleep at night. I went back to school in good enough shape to be actually aware of how close I had come to utter collapse, and resolved to do things differently from then on. The first application of this determination was that I begged off a night shift before an 8AM final. Now, that may seem to you like an obvious thing to do, but at the beginning of the term I would have shrugged and said, “No problem.” [By the way: I passed.]
Take care
Things are going to be different Winter term. For one thing, I’m going to insist on at least one actual day off every week. A small concession to mortality, but it’s a major commitment for me, and it’s not going to be easy to fit it into the appalling schedule of a student nurse working 40+ hours a week..
Live strong
After years of hard work sustaining the Willamette Valley Community School, Kathe finally resigned from the board. Now she has time and energy for other projects, like restoration work on the house and sewing. She has a talent for fiber art which she doesn’t fully appreciate, and I’m hoping she will continue to create things like the projects she’s already done this fall. Kathe’s health remains a concern, but she’s had no new crises this year (touch wood).
Don’t take any Wood & Ickels’
Michu (aka Mestowet) was living in Dallas, Texas, but is now in Las Vegas, working hard and putting away money. We’d worry more about her being so far away, except that she’s with one of her Ethiopian relatives and embedded in the local Ethiopian expatriate community, and our experience is that they’re good people. Biftu (aka Asnakech) is still in Portland. Tesfaye was living with her for awhile but is currently back with us and looking for work in Corvallis. Waldy went on an extended road trip with friends this summer and came back in one piece. He’s looking at going back to school.
Take it easy but take it
The face of Corvallis is changing rapidly just now. Most noticable to us is the remaking of the block next to ours, an entire block of aging apartment houses being replaced by new buildings where the housing density (and the rents) will be dramatically higher. 1) It was sad to see the old houses go, 2) it was amusing to have an unobstructed view to the west for a couple of months, 3) it’s currently interesting to watch the construction in progress, and doubtless 4) we’ll soon be numb to the presence of the monolithic apartment blocks across the street.
Don’t let them get you down
A few blocks further from the house, next to the beautifully refurbished former train depot, a couple of buildings that had been moved there from elsewhere are finally being renovated. About time: they’d sat there up on blocks for years. The larger of the two buildings has an amusing history: at various times it had been used by the University’s agriculture department as classrooms and as a grain bin.
Walk tall
Across the tracks from the refurbished buildings, an immense new apartment block is going up. We’re still getting used to being able to see the thing from our house, and now we can look forward to getting used to seeing an even taller apartment building looming over the riverfront.
Speak the truth, as it is given to you to understand it
Also on the riverfront, the Benton County Historical Society pulled a bait and switch, proposing to use the historic Copeland Lumber building to house the long-awaited new museum, then demolishing the building and declaring that they needed to raise millions of dollars to put up a new building. Kind of reminds me of how we wound up in Iraq.
Peace

//The Magic 8-Ball remains on vacation\\

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
Just for now,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
For one night,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

In a year
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
And if not, we'll have to muddle through somehow
So have yourself a merry little Christmas now

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "See you later, I'm off to visit Cousin Snow-Globe."\\

Maybe, Just Maybe...

...Bush has finally gone too far.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You people need a different kind of ball for this subject".\\

What a Thing to Say

It's hard to be religious when certain people aren't struck by lightning

My name is Borg. James Borg. Agent 007 of 9. Licensed to assimilate.

God wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts

GOVERNMENT.SYS corrupt. Reboot Washington, DC? (y/n)

For best results, avoid doing stupid things

It's you and me against the world. We attack AFTER coffee.

The secret message in pi is in Hebrew--we'll have to start decoding from the end

How many copyeditors does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Do you mean "change a lightbulb" or "have sex in a lightbulb"? Please clarify.

ORDINARY Callifragilisticexpialidocious not good enough for you?

If atheism is a religion, baldness is a hair color

Whenever there are sacrifices, there is someone collecting sacrifices

Touched by His Noodly Appendage

I am Letterman of Borg. Top ten reasons why resistance is futile....

I find your lack of CLUE disturbing

I want a "do it for me" button that pushes itself

If your coalition isn't driving you crazy, it isn't broad enough

I'm not sure what a sentient Google would be like, but I wouldn't try a denial of service attack on it

The market can stay irrational longer than you can stay solvent

Once again, a harmless gasoline fight ends in pointless tragedy

Real swordplay is about ending fights for survival. Film swordplay is about prolonging fights for entertainment.*

*Insert here your own observation regarding how a bill becomes law.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Nice button. Might I ask where you got it?"\\

There Goes the Judge

FISA judges have never been stingy with warrants, but apparently that quaint due process stuff was too much for Bush to bother with.

Now U.S. District Judge James Robertson finds Bush's dirty little war too much for him, and he's resigning.

Thank you, Judge Robertson, for one more good decision.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Outlook good for a career move."\\

Diaries of an Object

The Diaries of an Object Moving at a Constant Speed across a Frictionless Surface

t = 0 Days
Started moving across the frictionless surface at a constant velocity v.
Don't actually know how I got to this speed, considering one second I was at rest and the next thing I know I was moving at a constant positive speed. Maybe I'm thinking too much. Whatever.

t = 1 Days
Moving at a constant velocity v. Everything's a go.

t = 2 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Getting bored.

t = 5 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Wish I had bought some reading materials at that newstand I saw at t = 3.5632. But then again, it's not as if I could stop.

t = 8 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Lucky thing I'm an abstract geometric object whose center of mass is located at a spot that is easy to pinpoint so I could be studied easily by people who don't know calculus. If I was, say, a penguin, then I would've starved to death already.

t = 20 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Wishing now that I'm a penguin and have already starved to death.

t = 53 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Saw a cute parellelopipped going in the opposite direction at constant velocity -v. Should've asked her for her number.

t = 54 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Am wishing that I'm a penguin. If I was, I'd be able to do something about the fact that I am horny thinking about the parallelopipped seeing how I'd have arms and genitals. I could, in fact, alter my trajectory my masturbating. But wait, if I was a penguin I wouldn't think that parellelopippeds are hot, unless I had a geometry fetish. And I'd also be dead and possibly less bored.

t = 153 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Maybe at one point I was a penguin sliding down frictionless surfaces, but I had a geometry fetish and God sent me to this hell after I died during an inelastic collusion with another Penguin.

t = 639 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Am going insane and seeing fractals. I should not have watched that movie with the Mandelbrot set sticking its infinitely many tentacles into a Merger's Sponge dressed as a Catholic schoolgirl the night before taking this trip.

t = 2784 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Am contemplating the nature of the universe. Am I on a sphere? A cylinder? A torus? Or maybe I'm on an infinite plane.

t = 6493 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. Wishing for the sweet embrace of a warm electromagnetic field. Crying doesn't help.

t = 85373929 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity v. I think I've figured it out. Given the velocity of the cute parallelopipped, the speed of light, mating habits of penguins, a probabilistic model involing a mathematician, a physicist, an engineer and a bar, and the eight branches of mathematics I developed in the last 80 million days I have figured out the exact nature of existence--

t = t_1 Days
Collided with an abstract geometric object moving at a constant velocity –v. Am now moving at a constant velocity -v. What was I thinking about before the collision? Oh, well. Who am I? What day is today?

t = t_1 + 213 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity -v. Very very bored. Images of fractals having sex with each other as well as equations and symbols I have never seen before keep haunting me. Wish I had hands and a knife so I could commit suicide.

t = t_1 + 85373876 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity -v. Was reaching the zenith of my insanity when I finally saw that cute parallelopippen again. I think I remember almost everything now. At this rate, I could reconstruct all my results in about two months

t = t_1 + 85373929 Days
Still moving at a constant velocity -v. Was almost complete with calculations when I saw incoming object moving at a constant velocity v. Am now bracing for impact.

t = t_2 Days
Started moving across the frictionless surface at a constant velocity v. Don't actually know how I got to this speed, considering that one second I was at rest and the next thing I know I was moving at a constant positive speed. Maybe I'm thinking too much. Whatever.

From KingCranky II:

U.S. forces guarded Cheney with weapons at the ready while Iraqi soldiers, who had no weapons, held their arms out as if they were carrying imaginary guns.

"The Syrian border is back under Iraq control now," U.S. Lt. Gen. Marty Dempsey told the vice president, pointing to a map of Iraqi troop locations. "When people say, 'When will Iraq take control of its own security?' the answer truly is it already has."

Yep, that imaginary weapons strategy we're helping the Iraqis out with is sure paying off in a treasure trove of nonviolence & success now

Well, those imaginary nuclear bombs didn't work out so well, but they're hoping they can at least manage imaginary rifles.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Maybe."\\

Two Bush Jokes and One Bush Non-Joke

A Bush joke:

How many members of the Bush Administration are needed to replace a
lightbulb?

The Answer is SEVEN:

1. one to deny that a lightbulb needs to be replaced

2. one to attack and question the patriotism of anyone who has questions about the lightbulb,

3. one to blame the previous administration for the need of a new lightbulb,

4. one to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of lightbulbs,

5. one to get together with Vice President Cheney and figure out how to pay Halliburton Industries one million dollars for a lightbulb,

6. one to arrange a photo-op session showing Bush changing the lightbulb while dressed in a flight suit and wrapped in an American flag,

7. and finally one to explain to Bush the difference between screwing a lightbulb and screwing the country.

Another Bush joke:

The Center for Disease Control has issued a warning about a new virulent
strain of Sexually Transmitted Disease. The disease is contracted through
dangerous and high-risk behavior. The disease is called
Gonorrhea Lectim and pronounced "gonna re-elect him."

Many victims contracted it in 2004, after having been screwed for the past
four years. Cognitive characteristics of individuals infected include:
anti-social personality disorders, delusions of grandeur with messianic
overtones, extreme cognitive dissonance, inability to incorporate new
information, pronounced xenophobia and paranoia, inability to accept
responsibility for own actions, cowardice masked by misplaced bravado,
uncontrolled facial smirking, ignorance of geography and history,
tendencies
towards evangelical theocracy, categorical all-or-nothing behavior.
Naturalists and epidemiologists are amazed at how this destructive disease
originated only a few years ago from a bush found in Texas.

Not a joke:

"Today, for two separate reasons, has been an incredible day in America. First, the United States has legitimized torture and secondly, the President has admitted to an impeachable offense."

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "The laugh is on all of you."\\

Tool Rools

Sent to me by Sarah the calibration technician:

>[pasted from a model engineering list!]
>
>1. If you can't find a screwdriver, use a knife.
> If you break off the tip, it's an improved screwdriver.
>
>2. Try to work alone. An audience is rarely any help.
>
>3. Despite what you may have been told by your mother, praying
>and cursing are both helpful in home repair ... but only if you
>are working alone.
>
>4. Work in the kitchen whenever you can ... many fine tools are
>there, it's warm and dry, and you are close to the refrigerator.
>
>5. If it's electronic, get a new one ... or consult a
>twelve-year-old.
>
>6. Stay simple minded: Get a new battery; replace the bulb or
>fuse; see if the tank is empty; try turning it to the "on"
>switch; or just paint over it.
>
>7. Always take credit for miracles. If you dropped the alarm
>clock while taking it apart and it suddenly starts working,
>you have healed it.
>
>8. Regardless of what people say, kicking, pounding, and
>throwing sometimes DOES help.
>
>9. If something looks level, it is level.
>
>10. If at first you don't succeed, redefine success.
>
>11. Above all, if what you've done is stupid, but it works,
>then it isn't stupid.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Many a truth were first spoken in jest."\\

Error Message

You've already seen this, but what the hell....

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Hell indeed."\\

Pro-Life

Which international organization

* provides mobile health-care units in Bolivia, Colombia, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic, providing some of the world's poorest people with the only medical care they are getting?

* offers HIV testing and counseling in remote regions, overcoming ignorance and prejudice?

* provides the only safe place for many teenagers in Peru, Mexico, Brazil and Colombia to talk about their sexuality?

* uses boats to deliver medical supplies to Colombian peasants caught in the crossfire of an endless civil war?

Why, who else but those dirty rotten anti-life elitist, the International Planned Parenthood Foundation?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Examine your assumptions carefully."\\

What Do You Mean, "There is no Plan B?"

There certainly ought to be.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Hear, hear."\\

Christmas Merriment

Thanks to the good folks at Democrats.com, a merry little song about the people for whom every day is Christmas: credit card companies.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Ho. Ho. Ho."\\

Cory Maye

Same old story: black man kills white intruder, gets strung up. White man kills black intruder, gets a medal.

What the hell else is new?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Why bother asking?"\\

A Two-Fer

Captured al Qaida officer Ibn Sheikh al-Libby (apparently no relation) was the source of "intelligence" claiming that Saddam Hussein had substantial ties with al Qaida. Captured by the CIA, he underwent "extraordinary rendition" to Egypt for "interrogation". He made the claim, in great detail, so that the Egyptians would stop torturing him.

Thereby demolishing that silliness about "access to the same intelligence" and also demonstrating how much information obtained through torture is worth.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Just because something is both true and important does not mean that anyone will care".\\

Wal-Mart

What the heck, let's keep piling onto Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart: Killing Local Businesses One Main Street at a Time

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Speak the truth to power".\\

Yes, Really

The 2004 election was stolen.

This crazy whackjob moonbat conspiracy theory has been brought to you by the GAO

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Next question".\\

An Effective Anti-Evolution Argument

Kansas University professor Paul Mirecki challenged creationists to offer substantive arguments for "Intelligent Design", and they answered in the only fashion possible: by beating him bloody.

It's a very effective argument. If. Dr. Mirecki hasn't learned his lesson, they only need to apply it again, and again, until their point finally sinks in.

Works like a charm, provided you have enough tire irons to go around.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Surprise, surprise."\\

Expensive-Looking

I carried an expensive-looking red glass candy dish up to the lookout tower this morning.

Well, actually, we don't have a lookout tower on top of the house, and I just came upstairs, to the computer station across from Waldy's room.

And it isn't really a red glass candy dish, it's a broken taillight cover from some sporty late-model car.

But it is expensive-looking.

I found it the other day, lying next to the left rear corner of our 1990 Ford van. The corner was slightly creased and the small, modest taillight was unharmed. Clearly, someone had carelessly backed out of a parking space and run into the van.

I honestly don't mind that someone hit-and-ran on our van. It's already a beat-up old thing, and it will only look tougher and less like something you'll want to mess with, and the driver of the car with the fashionable taillight will clearly be paying a steep price to have his/her car restored to pristine condition.

And we do have this lovely candy dish as a remembrance of the occasion.

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Schadenfreude is bad karma, but this is a small dose".\\

What's Up With That?

I used to be able to change the date-stamp on my posts, but now suddenly I can't. Did Blogspot change its policies, or is this something that Firefox does to my link to Blogspot, or what? Anybody know?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "Reply hazy, ask again later."\
UPDATE: I finally found it, now under "Post and Comment Options", and celebrated by moving this post from its original location, 9:42AM on 6 December 2005.

*SIGH*

[Displaced from 4:44PM, 3 December 2005]

Blaming the victim? Passe. The cool thing these days is to prosecute her.
*SIGH*
http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2005/12/dont-just-blame-victim-prosecute-her.html
//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You make me glad I'm in here and not out there with you freaks."\\

Cheaters, Prospering

Okay, I know, it's routine for video games to have "cheat codes" written into them, and for the game companies to actually advertise them.

Yes, okay, routine for most video games.

But for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe . . . ?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "What's your point?"\\

Pibgorn

[Recycled from "12:01PM", 21 January 2005]

Kathe and I were looking up web sites where we could read comic strips, because the Oregonian is dropping some that we like. We did find Safe Havens and Judge Parker, but we also found some really remarkable strips, of which the strangest is surely Pibgorn.

A fairy on Earth, getting into all sorts of trouble. Friendly humans, hostile humans, a kindly succubus, a hypnotically-generated broom closet. Wow.

Check it out. Feel free to come back here and scold me if you don't like it.

Right vs. Wrong

[Recycled from 10:40PM, 15 Febryary 2005]

In class, the concept of developing a moral sense came up. According to one Kohlberg, people start out operating at a "pre-conventional" level of punishments and authority, then move the a "conventional" level of law and tradition, and some people (though this is supposed to be reserved for the truly thoughtful) move on to a "post-conventional" morality of the social contract, or perhaps even to the saintly level of the universally ethical.
My impression, though, is that people always perceive themselves as looking upon the world from atop the One True Universal Ethic, and meddle in punishments, authority and law only when they need to explain themselves to someone else. That's how it feels to me, anyway.
Anyone have any thoughts on this?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "You know what's right".\\