http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NC0vVLlHxk8
My performance starts at around 2:08 in this video.
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Published Again - September 16, 2010
Express-Times Newspaper - Letters to the Editor- September 16, 2010
I know this is not my best letter. It has got a lot of abstract concepts in it, like "pretext" and "tragedy" and "contradiction" and "principles". But I am grateful for the opportunity to be heard. I made my point about Nancy Baumgarten's tragically twisted letter of September 6. I just wish the editor who chose the title of the Letters page online could understand that the one who is offbase is Nancy Baumgarten, the one who criticized the Tea Party critics, but I guess I fell into the same conundrum that the movie Inception (or the play Marat/Sade) did.
That's what living with Asperger's is like. you say something, and it makes sense. It objectively makes perfect sense. But expecting other people to understand what I have just said is a whole other thing.
It's like a game of telephone. Just look at my words, not the editors words. Think about it. You are free to think what you want. They will be the same words today, tomorrow and they will still be there, at the Warren County library 50 years from now, assuming another fire doesn't destroy those records too.
If I had to write it over again, I would say: Nancy Baumgartner wants to be Desdemona or Ophelia, but she doesn't understand that tragedy does not mean loss. The fact that tea parties are a bunch of losers who will never get anywhere is not tragic. The fact that Tea Party cricis like me will never go away. Tragedy means a contradiction of principles. She does not belong in one of Shakespeare's tragedies. She belongs in his comedies. Nancy Baumbartner is Katherine.
Warm Regards,
Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
* * *
"A tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny." is from:
The Wolf and the Lamb
by Aesop
Cut through the pretext to uncover real message
A tyrant will always find a pretext for his (or her) tyranny.
A recent letter writer’s is that people find fault with the Taxed Enough Already party’s activities. The TEA critics’ very presence here “indicates that there are now Americans who prefer to become subjects rather than citizens” — so watch your back, people! She believes that people, such as me, audacious enough to criticize her party, are voluntarily making ourselves slaves to the federal government and this is all very “tragic.”
But Nancy Baumgartner is wrong. She does not think Tea Party critics are tragic. She thinks we are stupid: “It is not surprising that a significant number of vocal Tea Party critics know what the acronym even stands for,” she writes. That sentence is the real object of her letter.
What is unsurprising to me is that a militant Tea Party supporter does not know the definition of the word “tragic.” A real tragedy is a contradiction of principles.
ERIK B. ANDERSON
Independence Township
I know this is not my best letter. It has got a lot of abstract concepts in it, like "pretext" and "tragedy" and "contradiction" and "principles". But I am grateful for the opportunity to be heard. I made my point about Nancy Baumgarten's tragically twisted letter of September 6. I just wish the editor who chose the title of the Letters page online could understand that the one who is offbase is Nancy Baumgarten, the one who criticized the Tea Party critics, but I guess I fell into the same conundrum that the movie Inception (or the play Marat/Sade) did.
That's what living with Asperger's is like. you say something, and it makes sense. It objectively makes perfect sense. But expecting other people to understand what I have just said is a whole other thing.
It's like a game of telephone. Just look at my words, not the editors words. Think about it. You are free to think what you want. They will be the same words today, tomorrow and they will still be there, at the Warren County library 50 years from now, assuming another fire doesn't destroy those records too.
If I had to write it over again, I would say: Nancy Baumgartner wants to be Desdemona or Ophelia, but she doesn't understand that tragedy does not mean loss. The fact that tea parties are a bunch of losers who will never get anywhere is not tragic. The fact that Tea Party cricis like me will never go away. Tragedy means a contradiction of principles. She does not belong in one of Shakespeare's tragedies. She belongs in his comedies. Nancy Baumbartner is Katherine.
Warm Regards,
Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township, New Jersey
* * *
"A tyrant will always find a pretext for his tyranny." is from:
The Wolf and the Lamb
by Aesop
Fallacy of the Day - Argumentum ad numerum
Argumentum ad numerum (argument or appeal to numbers). This fallacy is the attempt to prove something by showing how many people think that it's true. But no matter how many people believe something, that doesn't necessarily make it true or right.
Example: "Why do you want to ban...or, I'm sorry....because in reality you're not banning...you're book burning...but why do do you want to take away from 600,000 people, a magazine they enjoy reading?" *
*Bob Beierle, Creative Insight. Our Town Magazine Warren County Edition - Issue #19, September 8, 2010. Copyright (c) 2010 **
**The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.” More...
Example: "Why do you want to ban...or, I'm sorry....because in reality you're not banning...you're book burning...but why do do you want to take away from 600,000 people, a magazine they enjoy reading?" *
*Bob Beierle, Creative Insight. Our Town Magazine Warren County Edition - Issue #19, September 8, 2010. Copyright (c) 2010 **
**The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.” More...
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Read the Express-Times Tomorrow! 9/16/10
I wrote a letter to the editor. A response to Nancy Baumgartner's September 9th letter below. I got confirmation that they are going to print it. Check the news stand or http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/.
UPDATE: Here's my letter:
Tea Party: Limit feds to constitutional powers
Its not surprising that a significant number of vocal TEA Party critics do not even know what the acronym, “TEA” stands for and what the purpose of the movement is. TEA stands for “Taxed Enough Already.” With the average small business already paying more than 40 percent in earnings to state and federal taxes and fees, this is obviously true.
Moreover, TEA participants are here to remind our now-hostile federal government that expanding its power past those enumerated in the U.S. Constitution will not go unchallenged. Our government is to govern, and it has veered into ruling.
Finding a problem with TEA activities indicates that there are now Americans who prefer to become subjects rather than citizens. Tragic.
NANCY BAUMGARTNER
Oxford
UPDATE: Here's my letter:
Fight, don't join, the terrorists
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The tea partiers are consciously trying to induce a public nervous breakdown.
Whether they are sending death threats to a congressman's 5-year-old son in Florida, violently throwing money at a man with Parkinson's disease on an Ohio sidewalk or maliciously shouting the "N" word at African-American representatives at an event in Washington, D.C., the effect is utterly terrifying.
The mass hysteria that is today's Tea Party shows that the majority of us have forgotten we are supposed to be fighting terrorists, not becoming them. Do they really think the end justify the means?
When are we the people going to realize that we are not crazy after all? When will we stand up to all of this bullying? We are not safe in public. We are not safe in our homes. What will the future of our country be like if no one risks stepping out and fighting back?
Erik B. Anderson
Independence Township
Talking to the Walls and Calling It Poetry - 1
The Given Word
by Erik B. Anderson
What do I have to "give
you my word" for?
You're the one that has to
decide if you believe me
or not.
Giving my word isn't going
to magically make you
do that.
by Erik B. Anderson
What do I have to "give
you my word" for?
You're the one that has to
decide if you believe me
or not.
Giving my word isn't going
to magically make you
do that.
Monday, September 13, 2010
TheMainMeal on Miserable Men Show - 9/12/2010
I saw this hilarious video yesterday. It was so good that I posted it on a few of my friends' facebook pages.
One of those friends is Sirius/XM Radio Personality Shuli Egar. I had a feeling he would like it, so I decided to listen to the Miserable Men Show on Howard 101, hoping there might be a chance to hear it. And they did.
I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. My neck was hurting.
One of those friends is Sirius/XM Radio Personality Shuli Egar. I had a feeling he would like it, so I decided to listen to the Miserable Men Show on Howard 101, hoping there might be a chance to hear it. And they did.
I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time. My neck was hurting.
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