More on Guns

It is pretty unusual for me to make 2 posts on the same subject. So it is a good indication about how I feel about something.

Greatbong, in his blog Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind, makes a great point in his post: The Idiot's Got a Gun!

I quote below the last 2 paras of his post. He makes his point far more eloquently than I can hope to do - I just wanna say ... yeah, that! :-)

"In USA, however that is not the case. Propped up by the billions of dollars from the powerful gun lobby and provided protection by the literalism of conservatives who consider the Second Amendment of the US constitution (A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed) sacrosanct even though the historical reasons (the prevalent lawlessness of the times) for which the founding fathers advocated such a measure has long ceased to be relevant, objective conditions continue to exist in the country for loons like Cho Seung-Hui , after being subject to minimal background checks, to get their hands on enough hardware to fight a small war.

And for this reason, I am unable to decide who to despise more: the rambling idiot holding the gun and looking into the camera, or the vested interest fat-cats who put the gun in the pervert’s hand and profited off the lives and families destroyed by this most random and senseless act of violence."

Guns and roses

In late eighties and early nineties, one of my favorite bands was Guns 'N' Roses. But I'm writing not about them this time but about the terrible tragedy at Virginia Tech. It is a tragedy too hard for me to describe in words. What I want to focus on is guns. To be clear right off the bat, I'm completely sold on the idea that weapons such as guns should be extremely hard to get. Extremely tight gun control, if you will. And pre-empting my argument by saying it is a knee-jerk reaction is not going to alter the facts.

So let's look at the facts:

1. Guns are weapons meant to kill. And the fact is that guns do kill. What is the logical justification to possess a gun? Clearly it's not to dry hair! Then why must society be so accepting of a gun? And if gun is ok, why stop there? Why not small shoulder missiles and maybe other assorted military weapons. This is incredibly stupid. Yeah, I know there's the second amendment. But I believe it was a medieval extension to our constitution when systems and law enforcement were not in place like they are today. Today, who settles an argument using guns?!

2. All societies and indeed the states in the US that have the tightest gun control laws have the lowest level gun related crimes. This is a fact.

3. More than 90% of gun related deaths happen to be either homicides, suicides or accidents. Only about 2% of gun related deaths are for genuine self defense. Again, this is a fact. If one fine day we all wake up in a gun-free society, even this 2% figure would drop dramatically since there would be so few guns around!

The pro-guns lobby and NRA often cite an argument of deterrence. Today I even heard some nut argue on NPR about situations where some guns prevented other gun crimes. The argument is so ludicrous and so fundamentally flawed that I'm really dismayed at the argumentative incompetence of these otherwise smart people! Anybody familiar with basic Game Theory knows about Nash equilibria and the fact that there is always an inferior Nash equilibrium and a superior Nash equilibrium (NE). E.g. take the case of traffic rules, if everyone decided to disobey all traffic rules, it would be mayhem and all traffic would be in an inferior NE - accident rates will be high, speeds will be extremely slow and many, if not all, intersections would be gridlocked. Just see the inferior NE at work on Indian roads! Here in the US, we are in a superior NE at least as far as traffic is concerned. If everyone had a gun, we would, as a society, definitely end up in an inferior NE. Why, oh why would we, as a society, want to be a collection of gun-toting cowboys and condemn ourselves to a sub-optimal, anarchic existence of fear and distrust?

Where did my money go?

I was listening to NPR on the radio on my way to work today as I usually do. There was a fascinating though not an earth shattering discussion on health care issues facing America. While neither the subject nor the ideas were refreshingly new, my attention was drawn to a question one caller posed. She said (and there was no disagreement from the panel experts so it must be generally true) that over the last few years (maybe decades), there have been 2 consistent trends. Costs of insurance premiums (charged to consumers) have been going up. At the same time, benefits paid out (to doctors and other health care practitioners) have been going down. So where is the money going? Somewhat of a rhetoric question if you study the health care value chain and forces in play but still makes you wonder ...

Obviously the health care practitioners have to be in the game by raising their charges - which causes the insurance premiums to go up even more and this vicious circle goes on. How do we ever get out of this mess? Any thoughts anyone?

As for me, I take refuge in Einstein's brilliant observation: "The significant problems we face in life cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them."

Until the next quantum leap in thinking, adieu.

Back again

Wikipedia says that:

Hibernation is a state of inactivity and metabolic depression in animals, characterized by lower body temperature, slower breathing, and lower metabolic rate. Hibernation conserves energy, especially during winter. Hibernation may last several days or weeks depending on species, ambient temperature, and time of year. The typical winter season for a hibernator is characterized by periods of hibernation interrupted by sporadic euthermic arousals wherein body temperature is restored to typical values. Hibernation allows animals to conserve energy during the winter when food is short. During hibernation, animals drastically lower their metabolism so as to tap energy reserves stored as body fat at a slower rate.

At a later point, it also states:

"Before entering hibernation most species eat a large amount of food and store energy in fat deposits in order to survive the winter."

Fact no. 24 of Alan Greenspan's facts, states that:

"Alan Greenspan doesn't sleep, he just hibernates while his brain backs up"

Why am I talking about hibernation? I was thinking about what could be a plausible explanation of why I've been away so long from my blog :-)

Taking into consideration all the facts described so far, I present this as reasonably conclusive evidence that my long absence from my blog was also most definitely a case of hibernation. There was also the small matter of finishing up my MBA. But anyways I feel all refreshed and I'm rearing to go. Some more pounds, sure! I promise to get rid of them this summer!

Fortunately I didn't have to go search too long for something this time - for I stumbled upon this incredibly hilarious item that I've got to share. A 30-year old man approached Mumbai High Court with an unprecedented petition, reports the Hindustan Times here.

“I am the supreme lord and the god of all religions. I am Jesus Christ, Lord Ram, Lord Krishna and even Gautam Buddha. Earlier, I was born as Alexander the great,” Dharmendra Mishra told the court.

This despite the humbling fact that this person works as an ordinary employee at a call center. Incredible, huh? Clearly there appears to be no discrimination in divinity (whew!)

The court dismissed the ‘divine’ petition, saying that such a case does not fall under the jurisdiction of the judiciary. What an anticlimactic end!

You are what you eat. Aren't you?

Did it ever occur to you how we seem to go around in circles about what is and isn't good for you? I mean food. A decade ago, I could have sworn it was all the fat that is bad. By the time I trained myself to not eat fat - there came the "good" fat and the "bad" fat. While I wrestled with that new information, I'm now told it's the carbs that are bad. Whatever happened to the fat I was monitoring? And it looks like the "bad" fat is only "somewhat bad" and the "good" fat is actually better than "good" and we need both to fight the "real" evil - the carbs. Like in a cheap Hindi movie, the "real" villain is somebody else altogether that has to be fought only by uniting 2 erstwhile enemies (who, if you're lucky, turn out to be brothers, but I digress!). Now just as I'm getting the hang of it, informed sources report that there are again the "good" carbs and the "bad" carbs. By now this must sound familiar. Just like the mindless fashion industry which, to be honest, doesn't appear to have had a new idea since cloth was invented, the health and food industry (is that a valid industry?) seems to rely solely on going round in circles and enlisting suckers at every turn. All this because none of us can get the simple message "eat everything, eat less" when it comes to food!

The Gods must be crazy

I've been away far too long from my blog. Apologies. Got tied up doing, like they say, a bunch of stuff!

I've been thinking about the sharp increase in the numbers and magnitudes of water related disasters (storms, floods, rain, killer waves and the like). Think about it:

Dec 2004 -> Tsunami disaster in Asia (Death toll 150,000+)

Arguably the biggest disaster known to mankind in recent times, I'm sure you've read hundreds of reports from all over the world. Here's the wiki in case you were cryogenically frozen for at least a year or so ....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

Jul 2005 -> Monsoon disaster in Mumbai & Western India (Death toll 1000+)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/08/01/india.flood/
http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/aug/06rain3.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Maharashtra_floods

Aug 2005 -> Hurricane Katrina in Southern US (Death toll 150+)

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/31/katrina.impact/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

Are the Gods trying to tell us something?

Evil and Good

We hear a lot of rhetoric about the Axis of Evil these days. In general, most of the public is aware that the coining of the term itself and the whole emphasis on it is nothing but a political stunt to justify pre-emptive imperialistic actions. However the subject of good and evil is itself is worth discussing.

In modern day to day life we have come to an almost conclusive theory that good and evil are 2 different entities or semantically speaking nouns that describe people. Often we hear leaders pronounce that these are the "good" people. These are the "bad" people. And why blame the leaders? - they simply voice our deep-seated notions anyway. We love to label people - especially other than ourselves!

I wonder how we got caught into this trap in our evolution. Maybe it comes from the roots of most religions - religions often talk of the "God" and the "satan". And most people simplistically assume this to mean a lifelong crusade of classifying people into the above 2 categories. My belief is that religions were created by visionary people to introduce some simple tools, guidelines and ways of living to have a productive, full life. The visionaries may (or may not) have reached a higher level of consciousness and knowledge where they saw the world and existence differently but since this could not be explained to the common people with, at best, a casual interest in anything besides their own life, the visionaries created this imagery that is easy to follow. Some of it may also be part of a marketing effort - to provide something that appeals to the people to help the concepts flourish.

But what is good and evil anyway? Aren't these the 2 coins of the same coin? Think of them as adjectives rather than nouns. The simple yet subtle reality is that the same person is "good" in one context and "evil" in another. The "evil" is inseparable from the "good". Like a shadow. We don't need to embark on a lifelong crusade to go look for "evil" outside (like some enlightened Presidents!). We simply need to look inside ourselves and weed out the "evil" that is lurking inside. That is the ultimate victory. That should be our aim.

For this reason I believe that Hinduism (and its descendant religions Jainism and Buddhism) is the most democratic, sophisticated and evolved religion in the world. There are tons of reasons why I think so but for now just focus on the greeting "Namaste" - which loosely translates to "I salute the 'good' in you". What a profound concept! It not only explains succinctly what I have been rambling about but also provides an easy way to include it in your day to day life.