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I will not go quietly into the night!

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  • The “Open-Minded” Can Be So “Close-Minded” ……. November 17, 2014

    shun (shn)

    tr.v. shunned, shun·ning, shuns

    To avoid deliberately; keep away from.

    eschew (ɪsˈtʃuː)

    vb

    1. (tr) to keep clear of or abstain from (something disliked, injurious, etc); shun; avoid

    os·tra·cize (str-sz)

    tr.v. os·tra·cized, os·tra·ciz·ing, os·tra·ciz·es

    1. To exclude from a group. See Synonyms at blackball.

    2. To banish by ostracism, as in ancient Greece

    black·ball (blkbôl)

    n.

    1. A negative vote, especially one that blocks the admission of an applicant to an organization.

    2. A small black ball used as a negative ballot.

    tr.v. black·balled, black·ball·ing, black·balls

    1. To vote against, especially to veto the admission of.

    2. To shut out from social or commercial participation; ostracize or boycott.

    snub (snb)

    tr.v. snubbed, snub·bing, snubs

    1. To ignore or behave coldly toward; slight.

    2. To dismiss, turn down, or frustrate the expectations of.

    brush off

    vb (tr, adverb)

    1. to dismiss and ignore (a person), esp curtly

    n

    2. an abrupt dismissal or rejection

    cold-shoulder – pay no attention to, disrespect; “She cold-shouldered her ex-fiance”

         As many know, I have asserted that Men’s Rights should be as important as Women’s Rights. However, as a result of my doing so, that is, asserting that men should have rights, I have suffered all of the above. For asserting that feminism is sexism I have been insulted, shamed, and shunned by many. For standing up for equal rights (Equal stature, different function) rather than women’s rights I have been lambasted and snubbed. For inferring that men and women are different and cannot be expected to be the same I have been black-balled and ostracized. For standing up boldly for human rights rather than specific group rights I have been brushed off and eschewed.

         It has always been in my nature in the past to desire to be liked by all. As a result of finding that even the “open-minded” can have closed minds on some things, just like the so called “close-minded”, I now feel isolated, separate. Yes, I have some things upon which I now refuse to discuss, having made up my mind from the available information.. but I would be quite willing to change my views upon the presentation of “new” information, but not upon the simple repetition of previously debunked information. There are some topics that seem to be talked out, at least for me. On those topics, like feminism, religion, all I hear are the same arguments, the same lies, repeated over and over again and again.

         I accept completely now that there are many humans that I am totally incompatible with. Among them are many who claim to be “open-minded”, claim to be guided by reason and logic, but truly instead, are subjective, self-serving, only. This hurts me deeply to find such subterfuge.

  • The Little Children … November 9, 2014

          Soon there will be the Black Friday sales. Super bargains will be offered, but you better hurry. Best you be first in line, or you’ll miss out.

    crowded entrance     There will be the usual news stories the days before the sale, people actually camped out at the front door of the stores waiting to get in, hoping to be first so they can get little Suzy that premium whatzits, or Little Timmy that fine thingamabob. The bargains will be good, but the quantities extremely limited. You have to be first in line or you’ll be sure to miss out. The fights begin, jostling for the spots to lay the bedroll so sleep can be had during the wait.

    As the time approaches the crowd builds. Those who did not come to wait for three days in the cold find themselves the back of a building crowd. Those in front are shoved close to the doors. The doors nearly cave from the pressing masses. The doors spring open and the bedlam begins as eager parents rush into the melee.

    All to save a few bucks on something a child will no doubt grow tired of in a few days. Such childish behavior elicited by stores nationwide. Just to generate cryingexcitement the merchants risk turning holiday shopping  into a riot.

    The stores are not entirely to blame, they only set the stage. The real culprits are those who so willing come to act in the play. Surrendering their maturity to save a few dollars on an expensive gift, no doubt made in China.

    Tempers are made to flare, friendships strained to near breaking, just to get theiranger3 alpha male angryhands on this years new gadget. All for a few dollars saved. Civilization surrendered for the sake of new toy. Insults hurled to gain a new bike. A happy season turned sour because of greed. People who are spoiled rotten by the plenty we enjoy declaring their willingness to throttle you to gain a little more.

    I implore you to wait until the silliness is over. You may have to pay a little higher price but your sanity will stay intact. Stay home till these immature children have patienceclaimed their cheap prizes. Let them suffer the stress, let them age 2 years for your one. Sit back and enjoy your family on Black Friday. Have your kitchen stocked. You don’t even want to endure the madness of Black Friday at the grocery store. If you can’t get the whatever that the little crumb-cruncher wants tell them you will write them a rain-check, yes, teach them patience. Patience is so rare, teaching them patience is an expensive gift indeed.

  • Morality and Niceness … November 10, 2014

    Morality:

    mo·ral·i·ty

    noun \mə-ˈra-lə-tē, mȯ-\

    : beliefs about what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior

    : the degree to which something is right and good : the moral goodness or badness of something

    Nice-ness: (Nice)

    nice
    adjective, nicer, nicest.
    1. pleasing; agreeable; delightful:

    a nice visit.

    2. amiably pleasant; kind:

    They are always nice to strangers.

    3. characterized by, showing, or requiring great accuracy, precision,skill, tact, care, or delicacy:

    nice workmanship; a nice shot; a nice handling of a crisis.

    4. showing or indicating very small differences; minutely accurate, asinstruments:

    a job that requires nice measurements.

    5. minute, fine, or subtle:

    a nice distinction.

    6. having or showing delicate, accurate perception:

    a nice sense of color.

    7. refined in manners, language, etc.:

    Nice people wouldn’t do such things.

     

    It seems very much possible from these definitions that you can be a reprehensible, immoral, nice person.

    I imagine this may be how some really bad people persuade some really good people to commit some really bad acts.

    On the other hand, these definitions also mean that it would be possible to have some really moral people who were not nice at all.

    I think of myself as a moral person. I rather dislike most humans. This makes me appear as a person who is not nice. I look at other humans and they seem to appear and act immorally. “Morality is relative” you say? I can only look at them through my morality “window”. Objective morality may exist. I am sure that many of the things I believe moral are among those things I would categorize as objectively moral. Whether my parameters are set too high or too low, who can say? I can only say from what my reaction to what I have seen, I have concluded that I am quite the misanthropist.
    1. misanthropist – noun – someone who dislikes people in generalMisanthropist

    misanthrope

    crank, crosspatch, grouch, grump, churl – a bad-temperedperson

  • Women and Children? .. Puh-leese! … November 3, 2014

    “Women and Children first” is the cry often heard. The example cited is usually that of the Titanic.

    A recent example of this gynocentric point of view is the “save the girls” plea about the kidnapped Africans. This occurred shortly after the slaughter of innocent boys in the same area about which there was never a mention in the western media.

    Among populations there are many innocents. Men can be innocent also. Women can be non-innocents. Even if not actually involved in combat, women can serve as a support for combatants. At that point they are no longer innocent.

    The stance that women and children are a priority must change. Women must not be given value that exceeds the value of men. If women actually desire equality they will agree with this point of view.

    As a result of these events, and this reasoning, I will personally not answer any call that pleads “Women and children first” or “Save and protect the women and children”. I will only answer the call if the phrase is corrected to “Save (or protect) the innocent men, women, and children.”  If engaged in a noble defense, even the defenders are innocent and should be respected as such.

  • Reason and Logic … October 27, 2014

    rea•son (ˈri zən)
    n.

    1. a basis or cause, as for some belief, action, fact, or event.
    2. a statement presented in justification or explanation of a belief or action.
    3. the mental powers concerned with forming conclusions, judgments, or inferences.
    4. sound judgment; good sense.
    5. normal or sound powers of mind; sanity.
    6. Logic. a premise of an argument.
    7.     Philos.
    a. the faculty or power of acquiring intellectual knowledge, either by direct understanding of first principles or by argument.
    b. the power of intelligent and dispassionate thought, or of conduct influenced by such thought.
    v.i.
    8. to think or argue in a logical manner.
    9. to form conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts or premises.
    10. to urge reasons that should determine belief or action.
    v.t.
    11. to think through logically, as a problem (often fol. by out).
    12. to conclude or infer.
    13. to convince, persuade, etc., by reasoning.
    14. to support with reasons.

    logic (ˈlɒdʒɪk)
    n
    1. (Logic) the branch of philosophy concerned with analysing the patterns of reasoning by which a conclusion is properly drawn from a set of premises, without reference tomeaning or context. See also formal logic, deduction4, induction4
    2. (Logic) any particular formal system in which are defined axioms and rules of inference. Compare     formal system, formal language
    3.     the system and principles of reasoning used in a specific field of study
    4. a particular method of argument or reasoning
    5. force or effectiveness in argument or dispute
    6. reasoned thought or argument, as distinguished from irrationality
    7. the relationship and interdependence of a series of events, facts, etc
    8. (Logic) chop logic to use excessively subtle or involved logic or argument

    On many sites on the internet the difference between logic and reason is given as:
    Reason is subject to personal opinion, whereas logic is an actual science that follows clearly defined rules and tests for critical thinking. (http:www.wisegeek.com/what-is-the-difference-between-logic-and-reason.htm)

    Logic is defined as core principles. Logic uses reason.

    More information gleaned from the information highway (aka “the misinformation highway”) claims that reason assumes that every cause has an effect and that every effect has just one cause. Logic, meanwhile, assumes that similar causes lead to similar effects. Reason is voluntary and transient, while logic is involuntary and eternal. (www.answers.com/Q/What-is –the-difference-between-logic-and-reason)

     

  • Misanthropy Anyone? … October 20, 2014

    Having the knowledge of good and evil may in itself be the source of good and evil. Animals, though they may do what humans consider horrendous things, possess no knowledge of good and evil. They, therefore, are incapable of doing good or evil. They are indifferent and function by way of instinct.

    Humanity is capable of great good and great evil. The majority of human beings in this world possess a conscience. Most know good from evil. The majority choosesTroglodyte good; the minority that chooses evil is growing.

    Knowing what the right thing to do is does not guarantee that the right thing will be done. In many instances if there are repercussions to doing right, doing right will be avoided to avoid the consequences. Sometimes if there is gain from doing the wrong thing, as long as no one is hurt, or just maybe hurt a little, or perhaps if the identity of the perpetrator cannot be discerned, the wrong thing will be chosen. Greed is an evil humanity knows well.

    People will lie to protect themselves. If the blame falls on someone else, some may come forward and confess… but few, I guarantee. Is there a good lie? A lie like those that saved many Jewish people during WWII? Are those lies evil? Honesty works only when you are being honest with decent moral people.

    A person who looks upon this perspective, feels this perspective, of the inherently flawed nature of human beings, can begin to grasp why the ancients struggled with it so. Humanity possesses the attributes of both beast and reason. The beast alone is innocent, and the reason is perfect. Combined they become corrupted. Evil is Faith and reasonborn. Initially, I think, religions were fabricated by this struggle (and to explain the unexplained to assuage fear). In time, however, the religions became corrupted as unscrupulous humans used them for their purposes.

  • Death Penalty Re-visitations …October 13, 2014

    Much has been said regarding the morality and need for the death penalty. Many have remarked that the cost to the public of maintaining an individual in confinement for a lifetime is less than that associated with the many appeals of a death sentence.

    I have, I admit, overtime, gone from one stance to another on the morality and need for the death penalty. I went from staunch supporter of the penalty to the opposite camp. Now… I am re-evaluating that position.

    I am concentrating this opinion solely upon the individual habitual criminal. This is directed only at those people who cannot be reformed, cannot become empathetic, cannot, if you will, see their evil ways and relent. The question I pose is: Is it moral to maintain the existence of such a person?

    I have always said, in reference to suicide, that as long as one is not terminal and suffering great pain, that existence trumps non-existence every time. (If you are suffering in great pain or terminal, my opinion of euthanasia is that it is moral and should be available to all.) The most terrible punishment society can exact then, despite objections to the contrary, is the death penalty: depriving the person of existence.

    Monetary costs aside, the scum of society is using up space, food, air, water. Space, food, air, and water are commodities that are in finite supply. By eliminating the useless dregs of society perhaps an equivalent number of people will be able to eat a meal, breath clean air, have a drink of water, or space to live. One is torn here, seeing callous disregard for the convict’s life on one hand, or callous disregard of quality of life for the good decent person on the other.

    The despicable scum of society that travels in and out of the penal system as if through a revolving door is affecting the lives of everyone he/she (yes, women can be scum too) meets. They, since they are amoral, must necessarily affect the behavior of everyone they influence in a negative way. Such un-redeemable people are, regardless of financial measures, a subtraction to society. They are a negative, draining element of society. It would improve society if they were removed.

    To kill a killer? Does that not make society as evil as the evil it seeks to expunge? If the resources of this earth were inexhaustible, cheap, abundant, then perhaps we could afford to keep every piece of excrement living and still maintain quality of life for the rest. Without quality of life, what good is life?

    In my opinion the penal system’s efforts should all be directed toward reformation of the incarcerated. Those who over the years are found to be incapable of reformation need to be eradicated. Those who make no effort to reform need to be excised. This would not be punishment. This would not provide deterrence. Its benefit would be to improve the morality of society as well as the quality of life for those who remain. 

  • Circumcision… The Mutilation of Male Offspring……….. October 6, 2014

    Circumcision… Why the controversy?

    Circumcision was common but not all encompassing among ancient Semitic peoples. The reasons for it are not known with solidity. Many think it began as a religious rite or rite of passage for boys into adulthood. In ancient times it was also thought to aid cleanliness.

    The first medical doctor to advocate its adoption in the English-speaking world was Jonathan Hutchinson. Jonathan_Hutchinson_2Although his studies have since been proven flawed, he claimed that circumcised men were less vulnerable to STD’s like syphilis.

    In a British Medical journal he asserted that the foreskin was a haven for filth and a constant source of irritation. He added that it promoted masturbation, a great concern of his time. Other doctors added that circumcision acted as an effective measure against the prevention of some cases of epilepsy and chorea.

    As these beliefs became common they were applied to females as well. One Baker Brownbaker brown, an obstetrical surgeon, recommended the use of clitoridectomy as a cure for several conditions. This procedure involved the removal of the clitoris. He claimed that such diseases as epilepsy, catalepsy, and mania, which he attributed to masturbation, would be cured. He was eventually expelled from the Obstetrical Society of London for carrying out these operations without the knowledge or permission of the patient.

    An interesting article is available for your perusal on Wikipedia : Male Circumcision.

    Opinion:

    I consider circumcision an unnecessary and barbaric holdover from a time of ignorance. Though not conclusive, some studies have pointed to the possibility of trauma to the infant male. Female circumcision has been made illegal in the United States. It is time to make male circumcision illegal here as well.

  • Is Christianity a Myth? …. September 29, 2014

    If one examines the Egyptian Sun God Ra many similarities will be noted between Ra and the story of Jesus. In fact, the stories nearly parallel. It is apparent that the story of Jesus was plagiarized from the Sun God’s story. This is the basis for my assertion that Christianity started as sun worship.

    If one does not think Ra real, and Christianity was taken from Ra’s story, can Jesus be real?

    More clearly: If Ra does not exist, and most Christians will deny Ra exists, then can Jesus exist?

    Clearly if one accepts that the story of the Egyptian Sun God Ra is a fabrication, and that the near parallel of Jesus’ story was taken from the story of Ra, Jesus never existed and Christianity has no foundation. If one says that the story may have been plagiarized but that Jesus did exist then one is admitting that the Bible is not the infallible word of God. 

    Naturally no Christian can admit the two stories are one from the other. Christianity was never based in logic, it is totally tied to emotion. Emotion does not reason. No true believer will be swayed by logic. Does the true believer’s belief make the story of Jesus true? Of course not.

    Conclusion: If one takes the Ra story as a fabrication and Ra non-existent; if one accepts the apparent truth that the Jesus story was extracted from the Ra story; if one insists that the Bible is the infallible word of God; then Jesus is fiction and Christianity a myth.

  • The Last Sane Man … September 22, 2014

    “Does believing you’re the last sane man on the planet make you crazy?” said Spooner.

    The march is slow, determined, and unstoppable. Many are aware of the fate which is approaching. Among them there are desperate cries to take action. The consensus is that something must be done. Plans are formulated but only those that provide temporary relief are put in place. These temporary measures quiet all but the most determined. The meager measures put in place soon fail and again the chorus for action sounds. The most faithful of the crowd has seen this before, again and again, and though happy for the renewed call to action, have become jaded. They prove right as inadequate responses to major calamities are developed and erected once more.

    Earth …. if only there were another selection.