Robert Khuu Presents

Pinko Commie Litmus Test

While I tend to think that I’m a left leaning moderate, apparently, the Center for American Progress’ political quiz says otherwise. According to the test, I am:

I suppose my main criticism of the test is that it doesn’t account for my willingness to compromise w/the opposition in favor of practical solutions. Maybe that takes me out of the extreme left? The questions and answers are pretty simplistic. For example, there’s a question that asks how much we agree w/the basic statement that “unions are good” (or was it bad?). My views on labor unions are far more complex than that simple dichotomy (e.g., the more skilled the labor, less of a need for a union). The test only really checks for pure ideology and not so much political realities. FiveThirtyEight has a pretty good analysis that basically says:

If conservatives and liberals had fundamental disagreementson [over] most major political questions, you’d expect to see a statistically significant inverse correlation in their responses. But you don’t see that. Conversely, if they agreed on most of these fundamental questions, with the differences being only around the periphery, you’d expect to see a statistically significant positive correlation in their responses. But you don’t really see that either. Source: FiveThirtyEight.

So that whole bit about the “culture wars” and the “disconnect” that liberals (or conservatives) have from the “true” America? Garbage.

Boardgame: Settlers of Catan

After some trying and doing, I finally got the chance to play Settlers of Catan. I know, I know. It’s an old game and everybody and their brother has been playing it for years. I just haven’t been around a circle of friends that had/played the game until recently. Hit the jump for my thoughts. More »

Don’t wanna hurt no kangaroo

I recently started listening to more Randy Newman. You know who he is, right? He co-wrote “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” for Toy Story. I was never a big fan until I heard this song:

I loves me the political satire!

Unassigned Reading

On the topic of books, I’ve recently started reading Iain M. Banks‘ much acclaimed “Culture” series of books. None of the books are related in terms of plot, but all take place in the same massive universe. The Culture is a pan-humanoid post-singularity socialist utopian intergalactic civilization. It’s sort of a serious version of Douglas Adam’s Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. As it is with most science fiction, the books provide ample social commentary about the context they’re written. For example, “Consider Phlebas” was written during the 80’s at the height of the Cold War and the story involves a long-standing war between the socialist Culture and the religion and competition driven Idarian civilization.

I’m about two books in and am thoroughly enjoying the stories. It’s a bit slower paced than, say, William Gibson’s Sprawl Trilogy, but the pacing isn’t really an issue. Most of the books are written from the viewpoint of Culture-based characters, thus, concepts that are normal for us (like rank and hierarchy) are completely foreign to them. I really like this aspect of the books. It’s social commentary of our value system done from the perspective of a completely detached 3rd party.

On top of the social commentary, Banks does a really good job on the actual writing of the book. There are some plot twists and some of them appear very obvious. The great thing about Banks is that he creates such a flexible enough universe so that the plot twists can easily go in any number of directions. He creates a very complex story in a very complex universe, but he writes in a very straightforward manner.The reader is very rarely left confused.

I just started the third book in the series. So far, so good.

Can’t I lie down and worship?

Amazon recently recommended that I buy Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” based on my past purchases. I wonder where it found the connection? The only book that might result in this suggestion is Alan Greenspan’s “The Age of Turbulence” and I bought that book a few months ago. The rest of my purchases tend to center around science fiction, video games, and the occasional liberal hippie sociology book.

I’ve actually considered reading “Atlas Shrugged,” but my main complaint is that it’s a really long read. I’m mostly satisfied with reading about Rand’s viewpoint on Wikipedia in addition to listening to true believers gush over Rand’s greatness. Needless to say, but I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp of what that viewpoint entails. I mostly reject the broader implications of the Randist philosophy, but I like what it says on the micro level. On the other hand, my view is definitely incomplete. I probably won’t have the full picture until I’ve actually read “Atlas Shrugged” in addition to the rest of her bibliography, but every time I set my mind to reading her book I always encounter the same old problem: it’s so long.

In any event, given my liberal quasi-socialist tendencies, I find it amusing that Amazon suggests I read an author that tends to run counter to my philosophical leanings. It’s a little like asking me to read and enjoy Ann Coulter.