You Cannot Escape Your Past

Today I found a disappointing case in California where a middle school science teacher lost her job due to past appearances in pornographic films. She stated that she had taken this role due to financial issues after her boyfriend left her. Students and some teachers looked her up and the school district decided such a history meant she could not function as a teacher. Additionally, she had been deceitful about her nine months in the adult film industry.

What the hell? I grant that the theory behind this is that students are supposed to see teachers as good role models but is it any better to teach them that your personal history is all that matters to your life in the present? That you cannot change from poor choices you made in the past? It might be one thing if the teacher in question had done various illegal activities in the past, but pornography is legal in the United States. It's not right that a brief choice made for financial reasons results in a teacher losing her career. The only portion that I legitimately see as a reason to fire her would be that she did not mention her pornographic appearances when taking the job at the school. However, given the reaction to when this information came to light I do not think I can blame her for concealing it.

This is disappointing because everyone has made mistakes in their past. I have alcoholism and received a disorderly conduct misdemeanor from one unfortunate event in my past, but I learned from that event to improve my behavior in the future. It is unfortunate that children are encouraged to believe that changes in behavior are irrelevant, once you have done something it marks you forever.

Congress's Petty Infighting - Destroying Government Efficacy

It's no secret that the United States Congress has not been popular lately. Unfortunately, that unpopularity has gone to some stellar lows lately. One poll shows that Congress is less popular than cockroaches, Genghis Khan, and the world famous band Nickelback.

 

Although to be fair, it's hard not to like a man who rocks dressed like this.

Why is Congress so unpopular lately? It's completely ineffectual. All that Congress does lately is delay making important decisions, such as how to address major revenue issues, taxation, and the infamous debt ceiling, in order to score political points with pundits.

After all, getting favorable comments from Fox News is guaranteed to increase your likelihood of publishing a best selling memoir after your political career is over.

One lovely example of this is introducing bills that have a part that most people agree with, such as keeping interest rates on student loans from doubling and then including an addendum that the other party cannot vote for, such as removing part of the healthcare reform law or raising taxes on businesses. After the law does not pass, the Democratic or Republican party can go on a media blitz of how the other party does not support education and wants to screw students over. This kind of behavior does not encourage members of the parties to work together to get legislation that actually passes through Congress. All it does is take up gratuitous amounts of Congress's time between recesses on bills that are guaranteed to never become laws.

Additionally, the parties frequently insult each other in the press. For instance, a forthcoming Republican strategy retreat was greeted by the Democratic Party with  a long mocking list of topics to focus on, such as how to speak to women and minorities and a need to take a course in science 101. Although political humor can be amusing, it should be saved for venues like the Daily Show with Jon Stewart. It should not be employed by Democrats or Republicans to burn any chance of a positive relationship with the other party.

 Especially since politicians are generally incapable of being as amusing as comedians.

How can this problem be fixed?

For starters, reducing the influence of the media blitz from networks like Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC would help. All of these networks produce partisan coverage that only serves to divide the public and prevent politicians from coming to any sort of compromise. Cutting back on the number of fanatical guest pundits might also help these shows actually have an informed and reasoned debate instead of a holy war between conservatives and liberals.

Another helpful addition could be to reduce or eliminate the number of bills that are produced with additional unrelated legislation attached. The majority of large bills have multiple riders that are not at all necessary to the issue the main bill is meant to address. This makes it extremely difficult for Congress to act efficiently, as every important piece of legislation is joined by little additions that benefit a tiny portion of the country or that may not be a good idea at all. However, since the larger bill is important to pass, these small additions make it into law. Alternatively, these riders may make it impossible to pass the main bill because they are destructive and unacceptable to one party's values.

A typical bill in Congress. It may be useful but it also comes covered with ferocious bees. 


However, these solutions will only cover up the main issue-that Congress does not seem able to compromise anymore. I feel that a large part of this problem is because of Gerrymandering, the drawing of election district borders. Many Congressmen are set up so they reside in a liberal or conservative stronghold. This means that the only threat to their reelection hopes is if a more liberal or more conservative challenger arrives to provoke the extremes of the voting population against the representative. Although this is convenient to reduce the likelihood of losing elections, it also makes it so representatives are beholden to the extreme views of their party. Compromise is not viewed as acceptable by some conservative or liberal zealots, hence the inability of House Speaker John Boehner to get his party to fall in line with the national party's position on the recent fiscal cliff legislation.

What's needed is for someone to slay the Gerrymander. I don't feel that this is likely though, instead the United States will be stuck in muck and mire for generations to come.

Will a hero arise who can defeat the fearsome Gerrymander? Only time will tell.

Crafting in RPGs

One common feature in roleplaying games is the addition of a crafting system. This allows players to make useful items such as healing potions, weapons, and item enhancements. I personally do not like the way the system is usually implemented-where you must buy materials from vendors combined with materials you find questing and then piece them together. For example, here is a typical crafted item in Dragon Age:

To create a paragon frost rune, which adds frost damage to a weapon, a player needs to make 32 novice frost runes and upgrade each of them to the highest level as well as purchase 63 blank runestones and 56 etching agents from a vendor in the game. That's a hell of a lot to keep track of. And that's for just one rune-many weapons and pieces of armor can have several runes placed on them. The crafting portion of Dragon Age takes the player from enjoying a videogame to playing Microsoft Excel. Dragon Age 2 made a welcome change to this tired formula. Instead of relying exclusively on items purchased from vendors, the game's resources for crafting exist in the actual world. There are several different varieties of resources for each of the types of items you can craft in the game.

Here the common herb elfroot, useful for healing potions, is discovered.

I enjoy this method because it encourages full exploration of the world since crafting resources are found all over the place. Some are only located after defeating optional bosses, providing a benefit to undertaking difficult battles. These features make crafting a natural part of the game, instead of a task where the player has to open up a bunch of menus and do math to figure out what they can create. Additionally, the actual crafting screen in Dragon Age II is simple and elegant.

In the lower left it shows which resources you have located and the right side mentions what is required to create the individual item along with the information on what the item does. All you do is pay the gold cost required to make the item and it appears in your inventory, ready for use. Recipes for items are also integrated into exploration. Some are available from vendors, others from certain quests, and finally some are located in chests or other treasure areas. Throughout the game I always searched every area thoroughly to ensure that I didn't miss any precious recipes or crafting items.

Especially in the remains of this fellow after I slew him. Never know where some deathroot might be hiding!

 All that being said, there are some improvements that I feel could be made to the system. Some of the items like elfroot and deathroot are under-utilized because you only need three to four of them to make every item in the game, but there are a total of nine to find in the game. There also are not that many recipes. Perhaps adding some recipes that required more of the common items in the game would fix both problems.