I DO NOT HAVE THE ANSWERS TO ALL LIFE'S QUESTIONS AND PROBLEMS!

Updated: Aug 23 09, more philosophical mumbo jumbo for same low low price!

Being in a situation like mine, people are often trying to get my opinions on stuff and/or convert me into their thinking, be it some religion, political group, economic ideology, or otherwise. It's rather annoying. I understand Oprah and Abby make good money pretending to be advisor to us all, but I think it's a ridiculous notion that one person could possibly know it all.

Meanwhile, I'll summarize my positions are certain issues just to satiate curiousities that be.

1) PRAGMATICS ABOVE ALL ELSE

A lot of people are full of untested ideologies about life, religion, relationships, civil rights, guns, and all that stuff that sound great over herbal concoctions or beers but really don't work out so well in real life. I've heard plenty of them and grow rather weary of them. A "What's Worked And What Hasn't" scientific study, preferably carried out by trained and educated professionals in a field, is what I prefer.

2) RELIGION

I was born Jewish, but my family wasn't very observant and usually only did the fun stuff. My attitude is basically "Whatever makes you happy, just leave me out of it". I'm really an agnostic at heart, and have no strong opinions about religious or non-religious people so long as they aren't using religion as a tool of war or reason for harrassment or something otherwise unpleasant.

Just because of the "who I am" game, some religious groups try to convert me in all the time, so they can play that "Oh, we've got DAN LYONS" publicity crap. They're really annoying, and I hope there exists a hell just so they can rot there.

3) THE ECONOMIES

From what I know, my great-great-grandfather Shlomo Lazebnikov took a boat across the Pacific from Russia to evade communism, because it was like slavery to intellectuals or hard workers. I don't think he would have bothered with such a boat trip were he not adament about the truthfulness to this stance. Thus I am not a socialist, communist, or marxist.

Nonetheless, people try to "convert" me often. They're rather annoying, stating things like "Oh, you sound just like Trotsky" or something (just to try and get me to read Trotsky), and I'm well aware that it's just some piece of crap attempt at conversion and that I really am nothing like Tropsky, Mayo, or Charles Marx at all.

My opinions on economics are:
A) I like a Free Market system
B) Monopolies need more restrictions in the US
C) I'm not always fond of publicly owned companies, for working extra hard to make money for some investor is not a rewarding concept to me, personally.
D) I generally support labor unions and the concept of a "minimal standard of living" (I know that's vague).
E) I'm really not an economist, and while I've doubted many an economists words, I have some faith that some economists out there surely understand the situation better than I do, so it's somewhat pointless for me to try to attempt solutions to complicated economic processes.
F) I think an unregulated capitalistic system has led to some monopolistic "draining" of wages in some regions, and, also, sometimes the bumps and grinds of switching professions due to market forces could perhaps be a bit smoother than an "unregulated market". More or less, when problems of these types are observed, they should be corrected.
G) You need enough money to make you happy, and a bit extra. That's the game.

4) POLITICS

I switch around between being independent, progressive, and democrat. I'm annoyed with the two party system, and wish there were more choices. I'm annoyed with lobbyists, particalarly corporate lobbyists. I'm annoyed with the condescending tone of many politicians. Overall, politics is really annoying in general.

Politics these days seems to always be led by extremists of one form of another. Often because extremists get the most attention from the media and people, as what is shocking is what will sell. I find that annoying.

5) Racism and civil rights

a) I think racism and segregation are unnatural, mostly brought about by a few bad apples. It COULD be that blacks were forced to sit in the back of the bus due to their levels of lactose intolerance, though.
b) Civil rights activists are often too concerned with ideologies and not pragmatics.
c) Black separatism, while successful in the deep south in the late 1800s, particularly by Booker T. Washington and friends, does not work anymore and is doing more harm than good.
d) The "Walking On Eggshells" issue:
Being restricted from saying certain words around people due to their skin color, like "boy" or "thug", makes for an uncomfortable social environment. People should show a little more tolerance towards speech patterns.
e) Hispanic/latino/chicano/spanish speaker's politics are really rather complicated, and I'm not going to bother with writing about them as I'm sure other people are much better.
f) African societies and perhaps other places are not as "advanced" as others due to The Environments, I think. Europe may well just be a very nice place for societies to advance, because it's nice and cool and there aren't a whole ton of pyranha, lions, and so forth to lunch and munch on you. That in response to the genetic arguments for racism.
g) Civil rights people have a very large focus on eloquence and vocublary that becomes burdensome and even contrary to cause. While ostensibly an aesthetic and voluminous erudition of the english language may galvanize an esoteric audience or dexterously convince people that the orator or scribe really isn't inane, uneducated, or otherwise, in an attempt to instantly dispell some pervasive stereotypes supposedly run amock in US culture, it's rather well-known that one who tergiversates more oft confuses and befuddles most over conveying some message.

Overall, though, I'd recommend against people looking to me or any one person for all the answers.... different people have answers for different questions.

6) Gangs and ex-gangsters

While my idea to unite the Crips and Bloods to form businesses was rather popular, and lots of former gangsters and ex-convicts are ready to run out and form a million businesses at the drop of a dime, I'd like to point out that half of new businesses fails their first year (or so I've heard).
More or less, to the best of the statistics I've seen, gangsters would make more money in the long run by pursuing education, really.

7) Extremists

Extremists seem to be really loud these days... extremist femmistists, extremist vegetarianists, extremist hubcap afficianados, and so forth. They seem to do their causes more harm than good, really.

8) Cellphones and traffic

Hate'um both. Well, actually, I like it when my friend has a cell phone, but not me myself.

9) Patriotism

Having worked in the restaurant critique industry, it's time for honesty. American food is some of the best stuff around. You know, Americanized pizza, Americanized hamburgers, Americanized chinese food, Cajun cooking, Tex-mex... Italian food is the only competition for taste. American food just isn't costly unlike foreign foods.
Same with clothes. T-shirt, jeans, and some sneakers is a way to approach all things in life in comfort and cost efficiency. Other people are just being wankers about it.

10) DRUG LEGALIZATION!!!

Oh, the drama. The excitement. What are Dan's opinions of drug legalization and junk?
DAN WONDERS, "Well, if we them taxpayers gotta pay for all this incarceration for drug users... I would like to see some results or something... I'm not too thrilled at what I see coming out of the prisons and jails that we're paying for".
Furthermore, lots of dangerous things to one self are quite legal... be it swimming in ice water in alaska or driving on the 405 or listening to loud music on headphones or being obese.
That said, I've had some decent friends with some big problems with certain particular substances... and I'd prefer to be paying my tax moneys for some kind of rehabilitation or something than imprisonment. Perhaps some useful rehabilitation. I'd to see numbers on how many people the rehab courses I'm paying for actually helps.

12) The Stock Market

That a company is worth what people are willing to pay for it's stock time the quantity of stock is bound to be somewhat farcical.

13) Ankle-biters: small and overly loud dogs

Deep down inside, I wish all small but overly loud dogs were sent to korea, cooked, and eaten.