User:Cilantrohead

Welcome, everyone, to my RationalWiki page. I go by the name Cilantrohead. I live in California, where I share a home, and with it a computer, with several other guys. "The boys", as we call ourselves, have a real camaraderie, and, although we each have our own interests, enjoy surfing the Net together.

More about me:

I love the topic of anthroponymy, and have been collecting names for a long time. Boys' names, girls' names, surnames. . . it all tells you so much about a person and their family! A surname gives you insight into how a person's ancestors worked and lived, not to mention where/what ethnic group they came from. I've read baby name popularity lists from Social Security, and also the science of predicting popular baby names from Freakonomics. Cool stuff, man!

I like music, especially Counting Crows, Ingrid Michaelson, Limp Bizkit, Slayer, and Avicii. Music gives me relaxation in these stressful times, and music gives one little "pop shots" to think about in its lyrics. And check it out. . . college students who like Counting Crows are among the students of the smartest colleges.

I draw. I write fiction. I play hackysack. I lounge on a beanbag chair.

There are some hot topics I feel passionate about.

First and foremost, I am a firm believer -- or should I say acknowledger -- of climate change. Real scientists agree that climate change is a real phenomenon, and all the deniers have been able to do is either put out some junk science, or try to dismiss the good science out of hand, forever raising the bar. The alarmist indictment of Phil Jones by the public was a textbook example of what happens when people who do not understand the language of the trade come and try to take something out of context. And it seems to me that for many people denying AGW is part of Red Tribe in-group membership rather than something these people honestly believe.

Also, like many of my housemates and so many other Millennials, I am a supporter of youth rights. I believe that you only live once and the decisions you make when young -- as long as they do not harm others! -- should not be punished or stymied, even if they do not lead to the results you'd hoped they would. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of junk science going around about teen brains. None of the clichés commonly used to argue against youth rights, such as "You can wait!" or "You'll vote like your parents!", makes much sense.

I am a believer in "Free the music!" I don't believe in the Grand Moral Value of intellectual property. . . which is probably why I contribute to wikis, hee hee. I used to be a fan of Metallica until they started ragung against Napster, which was when I gravitated in the direction of Limp Bizkit instead.

Then there's the issue of immigration. America is a nation of immigrants (that's where we got all these cool surnames! -- at least except the ones like Yazzie and Honeyestewa). If we outlaw any more immigrants from entering, only outlaws (i.e. illegal immigrants) will enter America. And some countries, such as Somalia, may not even have passports. Restrictions on immigration in the interests of "preserving American culture" are conservatism at the purist -- an attempt to keep the status quo forever. And banning immigrants from Muslim countries is outright discrimination. (I'm also against racism -- be it Japanese-American internment in the 1940's or racial profiling and cops killing African-Americans today.)

Finally, I share with practically all of my housemates a deep loathing for George W. Bush and Donald Trump. George W. Bush is an intellectual lgihtweight and belied his theft of the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election by smirking when told Florida had been called for Al Gore. He also was shown smirking when Andrew Card informed him that the World Trade Center had just fallen down on 9/11. He tried to play GloboCop, invading a country that had not attacked the U.S., all the while believing that God was on his side. His support after 9/11 came mostly from either jingoistic conformity (Americans believing it was their "civic duty" to get behind Bush) or appreciation dor his hawkish sallying forth into war, not from any qualities that may or may not have made him a good president. As for the Trumpster, I'm not bothered by his lack of experience in politics, but I am bothered by his full-of-himself stupidity. He has the same insolent smugness of the man who was two presidents before him, George W. Bush. His Great Wall of America is a simplistic boondoggle and is probably going to hurt many endangered species that live at the border. And as someone who's suffered discrimination because of me age and disability, I certainly don't appreciate his racist, sexist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic remarks and his transphobic military policy.

So there you go! Watch for my contributions at RationalWiki.