phoenixvoice
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Problem posting…but didn’t lose the comment. Trying again, with this at the head to avoid the “duplicate post” tag. If it really is a duplicate, my apologies….(just skip over.)
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I experienced the random browser redirects both yesterday and today. They remind me of similar behavior on a website that I use occasionally when I need to download a video from YouTube.
@ oroboros — store owner scaring thieves with bong yesterday
I can’t help but like these store people…they are keeping kittens under the counter, lol. However, the wearing of pants so tightly that they slip down the hips has really got to go.Here’s the thing with climate change:
(1) Atmospheric CO2 is currently higher than it has ever been during the existence of humans on the planet.
(2) In the famous “hockey stick graph” with data from ice cores, tracking temperature and CO2 through earth’s ages, there appears to be a correlation between higher temperatures and higher CO2 levels. However, the temperature leads and CO2 follows.
(3) This means that, quite frankly, we humans don’t know what the long term affect on the planet will be from releasing all of the carbon trapped for millions of years in fossil formations into the atmosphere.We humans don’t know whether our planet’s temperatures will be significantly affected by this free-flowing carbon or not.
It is appropriate that scientists collect data, construct models, create hypotheses, test theories and that they — and the rest of us — have glorious discussions and arguments about it.
One thing is increasingly clear:
The current big pushes to address the additional carbon floating around are grounded in the desires of well-positioned people to secure their own high position in society and to reduce the sovereignty of the masses, reducing the liberty of the masses.Electric cars, as currently built, use less fossil fuel to run, but over their life cycle do not consume less fossil fuel inputs. The bulk of the burgeoning “eco” economy has similar problems, including toxic byproducts and child and slave labor to keep costs down.
Do humans need to cogently address the wastes of their lifestyle? Yes, of course. And it is not uncommon for advanced human societies to ignore their wastes, and to have this ignorance eventually contribute to civilization failure. However, the problem of our wastes is currently being wielded as a police baton to cow the populace into submission. This is not going to create a healthy civilization and will lead to civilization failure even faster than the issue of ignoring our wastes.
Jb-he
We in Western civilization believe DEEPLY in a particular kind of equality. We believe in standards. We believe that everyone can rise to meet THOSE standards – of being GOOD people. Deeply.So when someone is NOT being good, is NOT playing fair, is being deceitful, nasty, destructive, we reach out and say – you are my equal. Typically, cognitive dissonance between how they are ACTUALLY behaving and the compliment. The instinctive human reaction is then to measure up to the standards they were complimented on.
Fascinating. THIS essentially, is what locked me into a disastrous marriage for over a decade. According to my Western worldview, heavily influenced by the Mormon upbringing, it took me a very long time to come to the conclusion that my then-husband was simply a “bad” and “irredeemable” person, or, at least, that he was choosing the “bad” behavior because that was what he wanted, and that there was no “good person” hiding in there, just needing the right circumstances to come out — that I had no ability to create nor encourage the “right circumstances.”
The family court system insists that we must continually accept that a parent who has acted badly in the past is now reformed when “good behavior” is displayed. The court only ever sees a brief snapshot, and is incapable of coming to lucid conclusions, and even a thorough “family evaluation” is not going to provide more than a small album of such snapshots.
DBS
I maintain that using mechanism to perform tasks that humans can do better (like think, understand and judge) is worse than a slippery slope. It’s a laundry chute, to total individual incompetence.It is more than that. A machine can create music that is technically “perfect.” However, this can never supplant the effects on an individual from the discipline of learning to create music that approaches “perfection.” Nor can it replicate the results on human society that come from humans that have trained themselves in music.
Other disciplines work this way as well, be they carpentry, auto mechanics, drafting, writing, etc. Machines are good at relieving humans from repetitive motions that can wear down and wear out our biological hardware. Machines can substitute for situations where learning must occur in gestalt with other humans when competent others are not readily available. (Such as learning to jam to music by playing with recorded music.). They can relieve us from repetitive thought processes that we have already mastered, enabling us to move on to a next level. But when machines are used to free us from learning and experiencing physical and mental disciplines, we become lax, we never fully mature, we skip over important developmental stages and fall short of our human potential.
Basically, we have not had the highest summer temps this year — nothing over 119F yet — but it seems that there is obligation to push the climate change narrative. So, instead they comb the data for data sets that show that this year is the hottest thing yet, and craft an article around it:
The average maximum temperature this summer has been 107.9 degrees. Runners-up are 107.6 degrees in both 1989 and 1978.
The average temperature this summer has been 96 degrees. Runners-up are 95.4 degrees in 2016 and 95.3 degrees in 2006.
The average minimum temperature this summer has been 84.2 degrees, tied with the same temperature in 2006 and followed by 83.7 degrees in 2016.The article, towards the end, does have the honesty to bring up the urban heat island effect, which affects Phoenix temperatures in a major way. It doesn’t mention that we have been on an upswing from the little ice ages since the 1600s (nod to Dr D — I didn’t remember the century for this off the top of my head), nor that temperatures in Phoenix have only been recorded since 1895 (no idea when temps began to be recorded for the rest of the state), which means we have no more than 130 years data to look at. Yes, that is longer than a human lifespan, but it isn’t surprising that there would be trend lines that we would see — our records don’t stretch back far enough to give us sufficient perspective. Trend lines are interesting…but they are not shocking — the data set isn’t all that long.
White House dog bites
What turns my head is the idea that with all of that money, influence, and power that the white house inhabitants can’t seem to acquire a dog that has been sufficiently trained to occupy a home that is forever being frequented by people with whom the dog is not acquainted. This seems to be very basic to the understanding of how dogs view the world. Every time someone new comes to my home I know that I must introduce my mid-sized dog, and ensure that the dog knows that this person is accepted by me, so that he, too, accepts the individual. He isn’t prone to biting anyone (except houseflies, whom he swallows,) but the slim possibility is there when someone new walks through the door, and I’m aware of this. People who are neither going to take the time to train and get to know their own dog, nor going to pay for someone else to train the dog, should not keep dogs.I noticed a legacy media article yesterday about the “heat wave” in Phoenix. Yes, it is hot here. This heat is *normal.* The top temperature so far is only 119F. I’ve been here summers throughout the last 20 years when we got up past 123F. The heat is oppressive…but usual. The entire summer here is a “heat wave,” every year. I look forward to the brief, torrential rain from summer monsoon, as it will temporarily take the temperatures down into the 80s, even 70s sometimes.
Yikes, Raul — it sounds like the temps there are nearly up to Phoenix temps. But here, we expect it, and I know that every year my electric bill in July/August will be quadruple or more what it is in December. Is air conditioning ubiquitous in Greece? And what is the humidity like?
Nanny cam dog
That is hilarious! But I have a difficult time believing the framing…. (REALLY? The nice, shiny, upright piano is left with the keyboard cover open and the bench left pulled out, rather than tucked under, in a household where enough music is played and sung at said piano with enough regularity that the dog would voluntarily do this? I think not.)
My own dog often “sings” (howls) along when I play piano or sing…it is usually adorable, but sometimes annoying. He especially enjoys joining in on singing exercises.
Ian Plimer also has an agenda
He says that CO2 from fossil fuel burning, from human application is taken up by trees, and already is “net zero”…so the “extra” CO2 is from animal exhalations and releases from the ocean.
This is illogical.
I don’t know much about Plimer; I don’t know his agenda. However, instead of speaking truth, he is taking generalized data and framing it in a way to fit his own narrative. This is no different than what the Davis crowd is doing — he just has a different agenda.Guardian article about RFKJ…
The plea at the end of the article:
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I was hoping you would consider taking the step of supporting the Guardian’s journalism.
Not!Try that in a small town
We know that in large cities — San Francisco, in particular — many crimes, such as those listed in the song, are not being prosecuted. The song suggests that these crimes will not be tolerated by small town communities. Nothing in the lyrics posted on TAE suggests anything about the color of the skin of the person committing the crimes. So why is it that the Woke folks assumed that the song was about lynching, which was historically pointed towards blacks? Why are the Woke so quick to presume that the person committing the crime is black? It seems that, here, the Woke are stoking the flames of racism, while the song is talking about behavior — something which *can* be controlled — not skin color, which is intrinsic.SEE article posted by Red…
One of the obvious ways to reduce resource use without reducing quality of life significantly is to repair broken things. Of course, to do this well means shifting the way items are produced to make repair more do-able….Okay, fine, chickens have family, or “tribes.” However, in my observations over nine years, when one dies, fallen to the ground in the chicken yard or coop, the flock does not appear to be bothered in any way.
Misgendering has been referred to as an “act of violence” at some U.S. universities.
As someone who knows what it is like to be triggered to re-experience past trauma, and how it can powerfully affect current behavior and mental well-being, I understand the urge to protect vulnerable people — victims — from those who would bully them.
But…
The path through healing sufficiently from trauma lies through the triggers, not by crafting a life that avoids them.
I don’t care what very important people say…
Verbal abuse, though psychically painful, is not violence.
Emotional abuse, though psychically painful, is not violence.Yes, people who have experienced verbal and emotional abuse need to escape the abuse and find safe space in order to become grounded and start healing — but they do not need to perpetually live inside a safe bubble. To do so is to not truly live.
So, “misgendering” is not usually a form of bullying, not usually a form of abuse. It is often simply a reflection of physical reality or ignorance on the part of the speaker of someone’s pronoun preference. Since we cannot be certain what is going on in the mind of another, it is often impossible to ascertain in any given moment whether the “misgendering” was intended as emotional/verbal abuse or was simply normal conversation. Calling attention to physical reality — i.e. biological sex characteristics — through pronoun use is a form of speaking objective truth.
My thoughts on misgendering: stop expecting the world to create a safe bubble for you! If you feel vulnerable, go find a community where you feel welcome and safe, and spend enough time there to tank up on all of those feel-good emotions. Choose how much time you want to interact with the rest of the world. When you interact with society at large, don’t expect it to cater to your personal emotional vulnerabilities. That is what your “safe space” community is for.
I’ve been camping in the Coconino forest the last few days. Yesterday, to escape the afternoon heat (above 95 F here — of course, in Phoenix it is getting to at least 115 F — exploring via the car means air conditioning!) we explored Sunset Crater National Monument and the Waputki Pueblo ruins about 15 miles away. It is believed that natives settled in the area of the ruins when the area that became Sunset Crater began rumbling and shaking and spewing out steam, and the people living there fled for their lives. Subsequently, the volcano created an enormous cinder cone and lava flowed out from its base. At the ruins the temperature was over 100 F and there were no visible sources of water. We asked the ranger about the scarcity of water. Apparently, the agreement by experts is that a thousand years ago instead of only sage brush, scrub, and spindly juniper trees, this area was a grassland with natural springs, etc.
The “climate” is ever changing. Sometimes, human activity affects it. Most of the time, changes occur due to natural forces completely outside of human control. Regardless, it behooves us to minimize the poisons that we pour out around ourselves. And then there is the stupidity of injecting ourselves directly with poisons….
It wouldn’t be all that difficult to verify whether or not the old man in the White House really is Joe Biden. A little hair is needed — perhaps just a recently used cup, one sample from “Biden” and one from a close relative.
Dr D
. If there’s coal under your peasant’s house, get a solicitor to make something up to chuck them out. When you break all laws and contracts like that, erasing all legal property rights, it’s “CapitalismWhich is why it is helpful to clearly delineate the differences between economic systems and political systems. Sure, if capitalism is a virtue and is defined as purely following self interest in the economic sphere, it makes sense to use any means, legal or not, to get at the coal. Which is why we need a political system that respects rights of individuals and traditional property laws (which vary greatly from place to place, and age to age,) rather than being primarily beholden only to whomever has the most wealth, popularity, or guns.
To potentially prosecute a parent for refusing to use an adopted pronoun of their child is chilling and wrong. Nevertheless, a CPS spokesperson doubled down with a comment to Fox News that “domestic abuse is a severe crime and leaves victims with a lasting impact . . . This assists prosecutors to ensure that any victim, regardless of who they are, can get justice for the abuse they have faced.”
Here is the most ridiculous part of this:
Currently, it is nearly impossible to get CPS or a family court to pay attention to verbal and/or emotional abuse of children by parents. I gave “very important,” family-court-appointed people specific examples of verbal and emotional abuse of my children by their father. They were uninterested. Within a couple weeks of the “graduated parenting time” implemented by the court for my kids to see their father more and more over the course of six months, I saw marked changes in their behavior and demeanor. No one with any real influence over the situation paid any attention to my observations. Now, as teens, my kids sometimes open up and tell me what they were thinking and feeling and experiencing then, and now, at their father’s home. It isn’t pretty. Two of my kids struggle with depression. (Not formally diagnosed — this is their own observation of their own self.) My daughter sometimes harms herself. And all I can do is offer support — I am powerless to change their living arrangements.
Here’s the fun part: it seems that, generally, family court and CPS are not interested in verbal/emotional abuse because it is (a) difficult to prove and (b) common for disgruntled parents to accuse each erroneously of verbal and emotional abuse. For example: one year after the kids started spending more time with their father, and I noticed these things, he filed legal papers accusing me of neglect as well as verbal/emotional abuse of the children. He lost, because his allegations were unfounded, and conversations with the children proved it. But, he wasn’t asked to pay my legal fees and he was only asked to fund half of the costly custody study.
So now, suddenly, our society is going to elevate a *special* type of verbal/emotional abuse — misgendering — as somehow more sacrosanct and damaging than any other type of abuse?? They are insane. My daughter has a female friend who wants to use they/he pronouns and for people to alternate between “they” and “he” regularly in conversation. Some people don’t even possess the mental acuity to attempt to do this, let alone succeed. And the girl’s parents? They are great people, salt-of-the-earth types, and the continue to use female pronouns and the girl’s given name.
Homeless pet vet
How amazing to see a vet who will touch a pet in front of the human companion. Vets used to do this. I can’t find one that does anymore. During Covid, vet techs started taking pets to the vet in the back, and later the vet comes out to discuss findings with the human companions. I am very uncomfortable with this. I don’t know these people, and I feel responsible to ensure for my pet that the animal navigates safely the human world. Just because someone work in a veterinarian office does not mean that they won’t abuse my pet — once out of my sight, my pet cannot communicate with me what happens. How am I supposed to trust that a vet knows what is going on with my pet when I cannot witness the interaction between my pet and the vet?
I was told by an office manager at a local veterinarian that now it is for legal, not sanitation issues. Apparently there was a legal case where a pet being attended to by a vet bit its human companion, and the human sued the vet. I don’t know the particulars of the legal case…but this is being used as a pretext to create a situation where vets work behind closed doors. I am sure that, eventually, many pets will be abused by this model. When we create situations without natural oversight of vulnerable beings by humans who care for them and are bonded to them, corruption will enter, and the vulnerable will be exploited.
Teens — consent
I have three teens, 17, 17, and 15.
In some areas of their lives they each have very strong opinions and ideas. In other areas of their lives they haven’t decided, haven’t thought it through, don’t have the experience or information at hand. Or, they just aren’t ready to shoulder the responsibility in that area of life. One son, when asked where he wants to go to college looks at me and says: Where do you think I should go, mom?, but he manages high school classes flawlessly. Another, when faced with when getting his medicine each night (he has EOE): Will you do it mom? , but he desires full autonomy in deciding his daily schedule and will happily ride his electric scooter to the grocery store for something he wants. My daughter fixes herself all of her meals, except for cooking steak and chicken: Mom, will you cook me 8 oz of chicken?. She is happily immersed in her visual arts and crafts since I picked them up from their dad’s Friday evening.They aren’t adults yet. In some areas of life they can consent, but not in all. Each one is unique, and it takes a caring adult to get to know each one well enough to determine where they are ready to make their own decisions, a when they just need a little support, and when they lack the experience or judgment. Additionally, such an adult needs to gain sufficient trust that the teen is willing to ask for guidance and submit to the adult’s authority without coercion. An approach that suggests teens can consent in all areas of life is an approach designed to exploit the naïveté of teens.
Younger children require even more input and support from a caring adult.
@ Germ
@ EoinWI am seeing it mostly 2nd hand, but some is first-hand:
We suspect that some of my Aunt’s troubles that preceded her death were Covid vaxx related. She was institutionalized; had been for years. My young step-cousin (about 40 years old) nearly died of heart issues 10 days after his first mRNA jab. An adopted young cousin (in his 30s) developed cancer a while after Covid vaccination; he made a full recovery. My ex’s fiancée has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I do not know the time of diagnosis and whether it precedes or followed the Covid vaxx, (my kids don’t know specifics,) but my kids only mentioned it to me after she and their father had their Covid vaccinations, and she has noticeably deteriorate since then. A music student is vaxxed and has since had a prior chronic immune-related condition flare up repeatedly, and has been diagnosed with “long Covid.” One long-term client developed myocarditis and reduced kidney function after her first jab series— she has avoided the jabs ever since. Another long-term client had a “mini-stroke” about six months after her first jab series, and has been complaining of neuropathy during the past year. She does not attribute these issues to vaccination, blaming her advanced age instead (she is 90,) so she continues to get every booster on schedule. Another client developed blood clots in his legs a few months after vaccination; around the same time his wife developed some sort of swelling in her head (I don’t know the details on that one, but apparently it resolved.)
Beyond that, the rest is second-hand. Another student who over the course of six months both her niece and mother died suddenly. At one open mic that I frequent, in the past 8 months four individuals have died suddenly. (All were advanced in age — so it could have been natural causes — but in a group where 80% are over age 60, there would usually be one or two deaths per year, and not suddenly, but after slow decline.). At another local open mic, last Wednesday was a tribute to a woman who had been a participant for 30 years, who had died recently — I don’t know the particulars of her death. Most of the deaths that I am aware of that may be vaccine related are not people I know personally.
I have a medical office client. The primary doctor’s wife has been not-well since January 2020, or so. She had told me that she has believes it is “long Covid.” I don’t have enough data to really guess a what is going on, but I know that the entire office’s staff was vaccinated against Covid. Recently, I was told that her son (30s, I think?) has been doing poorly, a was diagnosed with Guillaine-Barre syndrome, and can no longer work in the office. I was told that he will likely have to apply for disability.
I can’t stop people from taking this injected poison. I warned some close family and friends—but the only ones who listened were my parents—and I kept my kids free of it. So I just keep watching the slow-rolling tsunami.
What happens when jewbankstergansters control your government, media, educational, financial and legal systems?
And, what do you know? The key guy who ratted out Biden & Co. for influence peddling in March 2019 was also Jewish. Would it be appropriate to append the religion or ethnicity of other bankstergangsters? There is an Italian mafia — but do we then suppose that all Italians are mafiosos? Are the Rockefellers “christbankstergangsters”? Does that mean that all Christians are suspect?
Let’s see…there is a really wise guy who stated “By their fruits ye shall know them”—so, just maybe, we should judge individuals by their own fruits and not by the actions of those who happen to share religion and/or ethnicity?
Ayn Rand teaches that little boy should pull himself up by the bootstraps.
Right. Would that we all would find an amazing, technologically advanced house in the woods, that only requires a little tinkering to get functioning, in order to provide one man — and his grateful friends — a life of liberty and freedom.I may be a little fuzzy on the details of Anthem. I read it around 3 decades ago — found it with my parents’ books one day when I was looking for something to read. (I read Animal Farm for the same reason a few years before that.) However, it left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I read it, and a part of myself, deep inside declared: There is something wrong with the message of this book. Something doesn’t make sense! I kept thinking about it. And then I realized…the amazing house pre-existed the character. It’s existence had nothing to do with his efforts. It was the product of prior people, and prior people’s efforts.
Of course, the quasi-religious, collectivist society was terrible and oppressive. However, the idea that selfishness was the antidote was puerile.
“soldier saluting with his left hand.”
The soldier is in silhouette.
To know which hand is saluting, we have to know which direction the soldier is facing — which we cannot know from the silhouette.
People see what they want to see.
Pattern recognition, our minds giving meaning.Dr D
“triggered by the killing of a teenager. career criminal.” Am I wrong here?Yes.
A teen usually gets involved with such elements because of aspects of upbringing over which the teen had no control. A “career criminal” implies that one has chosen and practiced crime as a means of making a living for an extended period of time (~ 10 years +?) during adulthood.Case in point: Malcolm X. As a teen, he was heavily involved in crime; in prison he reformed, and he afterwards he no longer committed crimes. (One may or may not agree with the positions he advocated after his reform — although, quite frankly, his positions continued to refine and change for the rest of his life through his assassination — however, he no longer committed crime after his incarceration.)
I didn’t vote for Biden either…but I still bear a shred of culpability for what the government does, even if it is a tiny, infinitesimal shred. I am horrified at the carnage, and at the pain of having sons and lovers pressed into a stupid war, having to flee one’s home. I am relieved that it is far from me…but that does not make it okay. I don’t like what Russia has done, but given the situation, it was a logical course of action. Ukraine fighting to the last Ukrainian — that is not logical. Bombing the Donbas never made any sense either.
Retrying…
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I do not believe that failing to teach today’s children about how to use an analog phone or phone book is a failure of education. To teach them how to use such items would be anachronistic and a waste of time. Cursive is a different issue — failing to teach children cursive is about controlling and curating the current generation’s access to source documents of the past.
Where I see a huge failure of today’s education is failing to teach kids how to use TODAY’s technology. In the past couple of years I am consistently running across 20-somethings who profess to know almost nothing about how to use a personal computer. Just a couple of days ago, I called a new retirement home telling the receptionist that I teach technology and music classes to seniors, and the receptionist told me that *she* could use technology classes. For another retirement community, the (young-sounding) activities director explained that while she had tried helping seniors with their smartphones, they had also asked for help with their laptops, and she didn’t feel like she knew enough to help them. I have run across a newly minted nurse practitioner with a MacBook, who didn’t feel like she knew how to use her own laptop.
The powers that be seem to prefer “end users” who are technologically stupid and anxious about “messing things up” on their technological devices.
On a side note, I sat with one of my sons yesterday as he opened his first bank account. The legal user agreement for the bank’s smartphone app was tremendously long. I walked him through scrolling through the entire document on his phone, suggesting that it was wise to at least look it over and be familiar with its provisions, noting sections that were not currently relevant, but that should be looked at before using those relevant capabilities of the app. (i.e. review the rules around bill pay in detail before utilizing that feature, etc.). The banker helping us with the new account process was very patient, noting that “no one does this.” Damn straight! I will teach my son not to be cajoled and bullied into blithely signing any document put in front of him.
Michigan Democrats Pass Bill to Make It a Felony to Cause Someone to ‘Feel Threatened’ by Words
Hunh? What happened to “Sticks and stones….”??Yes, energy density matters. But are humans sufficiently capable of crafting and maintaining nuclear reactors and safely storing the waste over the long haul?
Let’s see…it is too dangerous to insure, so governments (taxpayers) shoulder the risks. Yet corporations take the profits. That sounds like a recipe for disaster— look what has occurred over the last 37 years since vaccine manufacturers handed their liability over to the government while keeping their profits private…..
Look, those who reap the benefits (energy, profit, a job, etc.,) should also shoulder the risks from the uranium mining, reactor operation, and spent fuel storage. This is the ONLY WAY that humanity has a prayer of being vigilant about managing the risks of nuclear energy.
Dr d
That’s because the Federal level is not supposed to BE the taxing center of anything. All those programs are supposed to happen at the State, City, and Local level.
Yup. The feds aren’t supposed to control social programs. The correct Fed role would be an entity to which an appeal may be addressed should a state be administering a program in a manner that violates Constitutional protections.Isn’t saying “All you need is sacrifice”, just another way of saying that we should submit our wills to “the greater good” with the specifics of “the greater good” being defined by a different rubric than the covidiots?
I watched Plandemic 3. It contained a lot of valuable, cogent material. I disagreed with the way it framed the problem as “individualism” vs. “collectivism.” Every human society has elements of both individualism and collectivism in varying degrees. Neither concept is wholly evil nor purely beneficent. For me, the problem explored by Plandemic 3 was a small cabal manipulating the rest of humanity in order to serve the narrow interests of that cabal. Humanity can be manipulated by various means, including by appeals to collectivism and appeals to individualism.
I cherish my independence as an adult. I also recognize that for the past 11 years, ever since my ex abandoned his moral duty to provide for the material well-being of our children and I had to shoulder that role disproportionately, that I could not do it alone. I have had to accept assistance from family, friends, church, and state. It is a human reality that we are social creatures and need each other. That need means that it is logical to consider the needs and desires of others, not just ourselves. This leads to sacrifice. This impulse can also be subverted to induce foolish things…like permitting oneself to be injected with experimental substances. Yet, just because the impulse to follow a course of action for the benefit of others exists, and because that impulse can be be manipulated, does not mean that the impulse is evil or wrong — in the right context, it is one of the things that binds healthy human families and societies together.
DBS yesterday
The reason that the bad guys are compelled to show and tell you what they’re doing and intend to do is that by you allowing them do that action, without consequential restraint or punishment, is demonstration and proof that you find it acceptable. Really!? Well, you accepted it didn’t you? That’s proof that you find it acceptable, and since it is acceptable then I’m going to keep on doing it.My ex was like that. He erroneously believed that by following that course of action that he wouldn’t lose me, as he had checked with me first to make sure his behavior was “acceptable.” What he didn’t understand is that I wasn’t interested in putting ligatures on him — I preferred that he behave the way he pleased, without fear of reprisal from me, so that I could see who he truly was and what he wanted. Piece by piece he shattered the myths that I originally had crafted around him until there was nothing left that I could love, and then I then I carefully analyzed the situation and found a way to legally eject him from the home, because the home was key to the long term well-being of myself and the children. (It probably sounds very cold for me to write it in this way — actually, the process was heart-wrenching and very emotionally painful. By the time I found my solution he was an alcoholic and addicted to psychiatric medicine and barely brought in any income.)
What the “bad guys” don’t realize is that the “good guys” often play by rules. Those rules mean that the good guys won’t rain down repercussions on the bad guys until they have proof of the bad guys’ malfeasance. The good guys are giving the bad guys the opportunity to show their “true colors.” The bad guys don’t understand that rules can be followed out of desire, rather than only out of fear of reprisal; the bad guys have a fundamental misunderstanding that the good guys do not see the world as they do, and do not operate on the same assumptions as they do.
Forced degrowth leads to poverty of individuals and households, however…
Voluntary degrowth can lead to an individual or household to monetary surpluses which can be invested and lead to long term wealth.Therefore the natural food source for a proposed Jewish mafia is…?
Good point. And so many of the Jews (all types) are fully vaxxed and up to date on boosters….. Those “people” (horrible scum) who Biker rightfully despises (who he THINKS are Jews) are not in fact Jews at all, not by any stretch. In fact, they’re not even Semites. They are Ashkenazim
Right. Yadda, yadda.
And the Ashkenazim are descended from a different son of Noah, and converted to Judaism (becoming Jews…in a way), what, a thousand years ago? I don’t feel like looking it up.Whatever. It ends up being yet another excuse to look at the nefarious escapades of some members of a few families and then frame all of their distant relations throughout time and space as responsible for the actions of a tiny cabal. Humans have strong tribal tendencies. Shakespeare explored this theme in Romeo and Juliet. My spouse is descended from Ashkenazim from Poland, one of his grandfathers bore a tattoo from a Nazi camp. He has a lot to say about his family (whom I’ve never met — they all live in New York and Israel), but they are not a part of the WEFfers and elites trying to take control of everything. He has rejected their Orthodox traditions, but he has a strong moral compass and integrity — and this is related to his upbringing. (Actually, they are all vaxxed and boosted up the wazoo, so…who knows what may befall them in the next decade.)
Who cares whether or not the “evil cabal” elites are Jewish or Ashkenazim or members of European royal houses or from the nouveau riche: Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Rockefeller, Soros, Gates, etc.? People are not intrinsically “evil” (definition here: hell-bent on the misery, servitude, pain, and or death of fellow humans, often with the purpose of aggrandizing oneself or one’s close kin and friends,) because of religion or ethnicity or even family. Typically, a group of humans “hates” on another group of humans because of tribal tendencies (viewing the other group as “wrong-headed,”) because of cultural misunderstandings that could be overcome if both sides would sit down together and communicate.
In my elementary school in a Denver suburb there was only one black kid in the grade of 85 students. She was mean. I still remember her name. Since she was the only black person that I’d ever interacted with, for many years I thought black people were unkind. It took years to unlearn that impression. It was worth the effort to unlearn.
Regarding the Charles Hugh Smith post shared by Dr John yesterday…
It is true that a couple of people recycling does nothing to significantly adjust the larger system.
However…
I have found that by examining areas of my life and looking for ways to live more harmoniously with the planet and/or cut costs (as many resource reducing strategies do both), that it adjusts my perspective, and allows me to make connections that I did not see previously.
In his blog post, CHS bemoans more than once how he must import in fertilizer. I have found that between chicken droppings and compost that my garden’s fertilizer needs are satisfied.
I have found that on an income that is easily a quarter or less than my family had when I was growing up, that I can provide a lifestyle for my children that approaches what I was raised with.
Just one person can create a significant effect in that person’s life.
I don’t buy the existential anomie nonsense that because my individual contributions are insignificant in the big picture that they are useless. My individual contributions are huge — to me, to my children, to my spouse, and to the lives of others that I touch directly — and they work together synergistically in my own life.He said a little but he “learned basic math so long ago it was hard to remember that far back”
That’s not what was going on. What happened is a product of two things in our society that are certainly not the fault of the worker…
(1) use of technology, making stuff “easier” for human brains, and
(2) non-cash forms of payments. (Checks did this, too.)When someone makes change in their head, they are putting in a public “performance.” The mind does funny things in performance — we are more interested in how we will be perceived than we are customarily. We overthink aspects of what we are doing, which can distract us from the task at hand, or from the routine. When we do such performances routinely, they become routine and easy. When they are rare, we are surprised at how the performance situation disrupts our usual routine. Also, the type of thinking used in math is easy to disrupt…when I was in labor and had pre-eclampsia I was put on a magnesium drip — one of the side effects was that I couldn’t “think” math. Math thinking is easily disrupted by sudden “public performance” that we are not accustomed to.
That is most likely what happened to the young man. He said that basic math was so long ago as a means to cover up his acute embarrassment, not because of basic ineptitude in math. He is presented with cash so infrequently that he hasn’t developed the routine of handling himself calmly in this form of public performance. When I cashiered — 30 years ago — although the register could do the math for me, very often with cash a customer will present a few more coins, etc., necessitating math-in-the-head, done-on-the-fly, so I got over the performance anxiety after a few days. Next time this happens, we might show some compassion, saying: take your time, you probably don’t get presented with making change very often. This will help the cashier move through the performance anxiety, promoting better brain functioning in the future. Or, we can continue the old school method and simply give a look of disgust…. 😀
This is something that doesn’t get discussed much — a tractor saved a lot of time over a plough, and this translated to more food. The same could be said about the plough, versus cultivation by hand. But…a phone that remembers all of the numbers so that you never have to enter them by hand? — this promotes a lazy human mind. Every time an individual has to pull out an address book to look up a number it is an annoyance, and encourages the mind to remember the number. Eventually, the number is recalled without the book, which saves time, and keeps the mind functioning well. And lazy minds are not disciplined to do real research, accepting whatever fodder the fact checkers or legacy media or top search results or AI gives them.
DBS
Everybody seems to think (seems to fear, actually) that just because a tiny Cabal can oppress 8 billion people….I think that this hits the nail on the head neatly. It isn’t that capitalism, socialism, the writings of Karl Marx, the writings of Adam Smith, or the US Constitution are inept, innately corrupt, or untenable — it’s that small groups of very corrupt, very self-serving humans concoct plans designed to disempower the masses.
(I’m sure that some here will take umbrage that I included Marx, but let me share an explanation. Capitalism isn’t perfect. Marx penned a cogent, detailed critique that analyzed capitalism. His writings, and the works of others, helped spawn movements that, yes, led to the USSR and Red China, however, these writings and efforts also contributed largely to reforms such as universal pensions, compensation for those injured on the job, banning of child labor, the concept of “overtime” and minimum wages, etc. We can rail against the specifics of various programs for workers, but does anyone argue that children should work for pittance wages rather than receive an education? Or that those injured on the job should be hung out to dry? In the Communist Manifesto Marx did say that he wanted to see the destruction of the family. Well, actually, he said that he wanted the destruction of the “bourgeois family.” Interestingly, by now, the “bourgeois family” doesn’t really exist — it has been effectively destroyed — women can own property, vote, divorce, work outside of the home in a respectable fashion, put their kids in daycare, never marry, control their own fertility, and a woman can still marry and be a stay-at-home mom, if that is the woman’s wish. The “bourgeois family” was created by the social dynamics that flowed from women being unable to own property, subject to the whims of male family members or husbands, unable to vote, unable to work respectably outside the home, unable to control her own fertility, whose only role was as caretaker of the home and children. It is beneficial to look “under the hood” rather than have our emotional buttons pushed by explosive statements framed in ways that are designed to get us unto “emotional thinking” mode, rather than “logical thinking” mode.)
I have a singing student who is a middle-aged, “butch” lesbian. In her lesson yesterday she blurted out indignantly: “There are men and there are women. There are trans-women and trans-men — but a trans-woman is not a woman.”
I agreed. I think that her usual daily community are LGBTQI folks, and she must have been seeking a safe harbor to express her true views.
She is possessed of an amazing low female voice. She can sing significantly lower than most women. I’ve been teaching her to access her head voice as well. She says that it has been an eye-popping experience in femininity. She is in a gay women’s choir, and apparently many of her butch lesbian peers disdain all things feminine and refuse to sing high notes. I say, learn to use the voice you’ve got — and if you can do something that many cannot do, go for it! Utilizing fully the voice that you have, that is an intrinsic part of your identity. And she can be a butch lesbian singing lower than most women, and higher than them, too, because she knows how to access her head voice.
