Odd Concepts

Now here is a guy who seems to think that only Christians can behave as decent humans.
https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2018/01/29/how-did-this-guy-become-a-darling-of-the-conservative-skepticatheist-movement/

And then there the is the Muslim concept of controlling women. Like that was even possible. Can you verbally herd cats?

Then there is the christian "free will", which truly is ludicrous. We can chose between the available and known options. If we do not know that that choice even exists, or is possible, it is not a choice. If it is at the onset an obviously bad choice, it is not a real choice. If we are unable to do what look like a choice, but we are unable to do it, how can it be a choice.

This nut thinks religion is the salvation of trouble. http://freethinker.co.uk/2018/01/29/a-shortage-of-irish-exorcists-has-led-to-an-upsurge-of-evil/   Pythagoras reminds us we can chose the natural way or the supernatural way. The supernatural can give us relief until we die, but the natural way can fix the problem but will hurt more. 


All humans have alturism and social need, is one more piece of bullshit. Abuse can remove altruism, it can even create introverts, hermits, isolationists. Avoiding people is a natural protection method for the abused and harassed people. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. But what do I know?

Ethics Important, Religion not so much

So even the Dalai Lama agrees, Ethics are more important than religion. So what about those things that religion can supply, that we give up when we become atheist? Social network? Well, some of us never really had those in religion much anyway.

We do not give up ethics, and in most cases we become more ethical. We become responsible for our own action, our own ethics, and morals. We lose the scrapegoats. We become responsible for all our actions. Ethics is the foundation for the remainder of our lives and by extension our morals. We do give up one source of motivation, but only duty based motivation, to follow the ethics and other behavior, that is the "because god said so" claim. Authority motivation, is what it is, but for some things it is not much good anyway. It is the slave-master relationship.

Many of us who become atheist,did so gradually not over night, it is a gradual growth away from any reliance to total rejection of any god concept. We typically do not get to the clear fork, clear dichotomy, like Pythagoras "live by nature or supernatural" until later. In hindsight, it is a clear choice, and decision.

Along the way we need to realize that there are many different schemes of motivation for ethics. The Stoics used duty to the city state, nation for military service and following of city laws, and virtue ethics for personnel life. Set out the characteristics that you wish to become, and work toward that end. Toward eudaimonia, that word with no English counter, pleasure satisfaction flourishing joy, the result of serotonin mainly. Virtue ethics still leaves the choice of which virtue to follow up to the individual, to a large degree. Following virtue ethics gives us the ability to think that "if there was wrong done, it was not by me."

Cultures utilize the technology that we have and that is limited to that which we can afford or are able to provide. With the great disparity that we have there is tremendous temptation, and in some respects, it is the opulence that creates the greed that drives much theft. It is the lack of sexual release that drives the lust that drives the sexual trial closing that causes the current environment of common male lust. Frequently the females know no boundaries, and this may create some of the problems to start with, aka flirting without any intention of allowing completion, baiting the trap, but it is just a trap that will do us damage. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. But it is up to our ethics to keep us out of such traps.

A Spade is a Specific type of Shovel

Freedom of Speech, verses Prejudices

So how much freedom of speech do we have in Canada? The US claims freedom of speech, but you cannot call a spade a spade. Germany has a "no hate speech" law, but do as they like, but not in the press, just like here. Here in the blog world, we can get away with more as some of us just delete or never allow the blow back to stick. Spam filters or black comment processes have there purposes. Just like black hole warranty, the product never comes back. 

Canada is trying to be an open culture, not prejudiced against any identifiable group except the obese, homeless, and the bearded. Oh, well, that is the formal position anyway. Individuals have their own views, many of which are far below what the government would like to see. Hiring practices are definitely prejudiced in many companies; others are culturally selective. There are companies that are Punjab run and staffed, Jewish run and staffed, Korean staffed, and many more. There is not much of an employment issue with natives that I have seen, many of them cannot hold a job for long except on the reserves.

So here in Canada, we have formal government standards, informal company standards, and private opinion on many subjects, and these are not the same. It is more about not transgressing any laws that the laws reflecting the true belief of the population. Our cultural superego, ego, and id do not match with reality, producing different results depending on the exposure conditions. We are a nation of great diversity, and opinions differ depending on what we think is or should be the desired objective. We are publicly inclusive and privately exclusive. Not a good mix. This effects what we say, and what we communicate to others, producing a selective truth in the media.

So the government sets out a vision, and laws to support that vision follow. We citizens do what we do, and occasionally the law alters our behavior, after it catches and prosecutes us. Oh well.

I was involved in the investigation of a fatality event of a sewer contractor. As soon as the site was released, the contractor was back in business under a different name, operating the same unsafe way as before. The hoe operator, who was the one man company, was fined a few thousand, and everything carried on as before, unsafely. The name of the trench victim was never made public while the event was in the news. I never did here the name of the fellow, only that he was day labor, and this is Canada, the land of the free, or so the song says.

    

Decriminalization-- but not really, at the traffic stop stage

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/drunk-driving-laws-decriminalize-2018-changes-police-licence-1.4468021

https://infotel.ca/newsitem/drunk-driving-is-nearly-decriminalized-in-bc-and-madd-is-quite-happy-about-that/it37915

So now if you are stopped, you loss your license, well for a while, and a bunch of dollars. OK. But that is not really decriminalization of much. If you have a accident, this change has no impact, you are still in court. So now the revenuers can just fine everybody, and there is no appeal possible, for the stop, towing, vehicular damages and inconvenience. It is just up to the revenuer.

Now the public opinion or each and ever officer will be driven even lower. They are having difficulty finding people now. So what is it going to be like in the future? Those hopped up egos that so many of the young cops have. They are all branded with the same brush.

When I went through school, the thug personalities joined the RCMP. What does that say about the makeup of the RCMP. Perhaps it is better now, but I doubt it.

So what about those who are drugged up? Some are so aggressive, and some are so lay back, creating blockages on the road. I am sure glad I do not drive as much as I once did. Some long days I would fill up the pick up with gas three times, 1000 km or more.

I think that it will push home drinking even higher. Buy a bottle and go home, bring your friends and get drunk. Get evicted, if you and/or your friends get to loud too often. Not good for society either, but it will shift the drinking out of the bars more. Unless we walk to the bar.

So it effect is limited to a bad situation, currently a bad situation, but will increase the revenue for the revenuers, tow trucks and storage, and the lawyers. If it was unconstitutional to remove the license before, it still is but it will take a while before it is declared such. Oh well, in the end we all just die anyway. 

A look at LifeRing

Since AA begat OA, can Smart or LifeRing begat a secular food issue group? Today, will not be an introduction to recovery trying to use LifeRing philosophy, for I am in the process of trying to discover the LifeRing philosophy. How does one convert "LifeRing’s solution is simple: Don’t drink or use, no matter what." into something that is useful for food"

First we need to understand the difference between over consumption of food and alcohol. Alcohol is a substance that humans do not need, food is necessary, so abstinence of the substance is just not possible. For a long time, no sugar and no grains was adequate for me to lose, but the vegetable intake and increased fat consumption grew over time. I stopped losing and started to gain. Now what?

Once I start to lose, I experience hunger and cravings, which never go away, and get worse as I became lighter. As I understand and felt, removal of the alcohol improved how I felt, while removal of the food made me miserable. The OA program gives something else to obsess with, a false fact as there is no god, and once I delved into rigorous honesty, that falsehood was exposed. There program is based on a lie, but as long as one believes, it may work. There is no way to adapt once we know the truth.

In the past I have looked at Smart, but it does not offer anything useful for continued struggle with food issues. It tries to treat overeating as alcohol, but does not recognize this basic difference. The Smart tools are useful, as far as they go, but the people do not mix as the alcoholics do not understand this issue, and say just quit eating, like as if I could. It is not my choice, for I am physically driven to eat. It is not within my free will domain to not eat, or so it seems. As a result of this difference of opinion, Smart does not provide a social network that OA does provide. In my opinion, the extended social network is largely the reason that OA works. FA takes it one step further, to be part of the network you need to obsess over following the program of calls, meetings, and the food program as well, the old OA " grey sheet diet," it was copied on grey paper. It means taking on the program like a job, living and breathing for that program only. It is a way of losing weight, but what about life long term?

In the past, the only way is to displace that desire to something else, but now that I am older, retired, I cannot do long days away anymore. I just get to tired, and that make it worse. Displacement has stopped working. Now what? Try to understand the problem and look for a solution.

At this point, overeating is epigenetically ingrained, a physical imperative, beyond my will power, or so it seems. What now? Some things are up to us and some are not, as the Stoics say. 

LifeRing puts recovery on the individual, who ultimately must be responsible. It is the act of continual letting go of inbreed desires that is difficult, and logically that must be the first step in this recovery, that is letting go of my desire to eat, and ignoring the body's demands. With food, in my case, the demands become larger and louder, as time goes on. I will explore LifeRing a bit more.

Bake that Cake, US Supreme Court.

Bake that Cake, US Supreme Court. This is just questions.

http://morinvillenews.com/2017/12/19/national-column-why-court-needs-to-decide-gay-wedding-case/ just for reference

So the US is about to make a decision on where the moral line is on individual rights vs the rights of a group of individuals. Forget that this fellow is the owner of a business, and as such, it is a company policy, which may split the question further. Consider an employee, working for a bakery, who has a personal issue, but the company policy is to serve all. The employee has the choice; stuff his feelings and moral guidelines down and do the job, or deal with the owners wrath. That is the just doing the job assigned defense. Does an employee have the moral responsibly to not do something he thinks is wrong? So we have seen similar in the past, but the US Supreme court needs to make the decision, is it wrong to not support gay rights. This is to say that religions are right or wrong on this point. If they support gay rights, they say the common christian belief is wrong. If they go the other way, they say that something like 10% of the population has lesser rights than the main population. The US is making moral decisions that are going to plague the US society for a long time.

What would be the decision in Canada? There is little doubt in my mind that the company would need to provide the cake, the decorations are a separate issue, as they are dependent on the skill of the employee making them, so there may be issues there, but the company cannot be discriminatory.

Canada is going through its own similar case with Quebec Face covering. Does the religious requirement have high priority than social safety? We are now into religious values debate vs public standards debate. Are we going to define and enforce national standards of behavior? How are we going to correct the behavior of those who do not meet the public standard of behavior? What about those who are unable to afford those standards? Yes, in this case there are no costs associated, but there are moral costs to changing our opinion of what is right and wrong.

In my opinion, all religions are based on superstitions, so the religious opinions have no value. The gays have rights, regardless of how disgusting I think public displays of gay affection are. Religions  are idiotic or socially retarded, and therefore have no right to create dangerous or stress causing situations. If a person comes into a bank with there face covered, what should the security guard do?

Ultimately, I guess what I am saying is that the religious values has less intrinsic value that the social/humanity based values. Equality of all trumps religious based prejudices, society safety trump religious attire.

How long can you (I) tread water?

http://michaelprager.com/food-addiction-relapse-weight-gain-spiritual-emotional-health  got me thinking about the difficulty of maintaining a behavior which is not not natural to this organism, that is staying on a diet that leaves us unsatisfied, for the remainder of our life.

Some of us arrived at this unsatisfied condition in life about when we realized that there was more out there then the life we had been living. Many of us suffer from some chronic pain, physically or mentally, and eating was our method of dealing with the chronic pain... what ever that pain is. Take away the food and we are left with the chronic pain, and no way to deal with it, and likely, we are not even sure what the pain is now, nor the cause of the pain. Yet the pain remains, or the memory of the pain (or the cooping skill) has become epicgenetically etched onto us. Now it is a matter of consciously, for the remainder of our life, struggling against the demon, and those who would push the demon back onto us. For those of us who deal with hunger and/or cravings 24/7, we know the struggle.

The cause is important to remove if we can; that is not always possible, even if we can find the cause. For many of us it is or has become biochemical, we are left to struggle for the remainder of our lives, without any effective medical help, but lots of useless medical bullshit... just eat less than 1800 calories each day and get 1/2 hour of high heart rate exercise each day. At the same time, we may become in chronic physical pain that is made much worse by physical activity. The overeating must end first, then the physical activity can increase.

So how does one resolve chronic mental pain that once caused overeating? Is it still an issue, or are we primarily dealing with the biochemical issues that may have been caused by the original overeating? That is the typical issue, as these can become permanent in as little as four months.

So it comes down to four hormones, ghrenlin, insulin, leptin, adrenaline, and three endorphins, dopamine, serotonin, cortisol... according to some, but the basic problem remains. Hunger and/or cravings out stretch our physical need for energy, so we must learn to live unsatisfied. Try to live unsatisfied 24/7.  I find myself essentially prowling, looking for food, in a time and environment in which food is always available.