Moderates United

These lists were compiled over thousands of years, by people without electric lights or TV’s, living with the stars, living with nature, living patiently and with no demand for instantaneous anything; who were taught from childhood that the universe is connected, and never given any reason to doubt it.

I think of the story of Hafez, at least one version.  He fell in love with a woman, and kept a 40 vigil at the tomb of a saint to win her, but found that the feelings of connection with God which emerged were infinitely more rewarding than any mere love between a man and woman, even though parallels could be made.

I worked 15 hours yesterday.  I have found that sometimes long days elicit interesting emotions.  Driving down some back country road last night, I felt an antique emotion, that I have not felt since early childhood.  It was my regenerative emotion, the energy that I let through myself when I was emotionally hurt, and which healed me, if I stayed with it.

This was beaten out of me.  My parents have confessed, as I think they have come to feel some mild guilt over this–they are narcissists, not sociopaths, so they retain some sense of conscience–that I used to get very quiet and just play with myself in a sort of trance, and they used to spank me for this.  This frightened them, no doubt because everything out of the ordinary frightens them.  Only once they took this away were they finally able to break me.

But I can reclaim it.  It will take time.  I cannot demand it. I need to invite it back carefully, by creating a congenial environment, and letting it come back when it is ready.

On a related note, I dreamed that I visited Harvard last night.  I tend to view Harvard as an epicenter of most of the bad ideas which have created so much suffering in this country and around the world, rightly or wrongly.  Harry Dexter White, who more or less created the IMF and World Bank, which in my view have both worked consistently to make it easier for global banks and corporations to rape developing countries, got his Ph.D there.  He was also a Soviet agent, who died before he could be brought to trial.

Alger Hiss, who played an important role in creating the UN, and who served time as a Soviet agent, got his Law degree at Harvard.

I could go on.

Be that as it may, I went down a hill, and the place was filled with the cafes, bars, book stores, and life and energy of a good college town.  Then I went back up a hill, and was on the campus proper.  In the middle of a central building I heard someone telling someone else: “Life is a meaningless accident”.  Then I looked to the side and saw people who had been physically wounded, rehabbing.

As I say from time to time, one must assume that all dreams pertain in some measure to oneself.  How this applies to me, perhaps it will be easy for a reader to surmise, but for myself I am not sure.  Perhaps I am healing the idea that life is meaningless, although I have never consciously believed that.  Perhaps I felt it.

On a larger scale though, I think it is readily interpretable.  At the CORE, at the very heart of the Science departments of almost all universities, of which Harvard can stand for all, is this belief.  Human kind was accidentally assembled, by chance and time, and means nothing.  We are born, copulate, reproduce, and that is the sum of what is biologically, evolutionarily important.

To believe that no person matters is to believe, necessarily on some level, that one does not matter.  Everything you do and say is nugatory.  Everyone you love, you love because of impulses beyond your control, impulses put in place because of evolutionary necessities perhaps a million or 100 million years ago.

You do not “exist”.  The sense of self is illusory.  One sees many arguing this very explicitly, even if they are completely unwilling to act as if this were true.  Logically, if nothing matters, then it does not matter if people are religious.  It does not matter if we wage wars.  Wars might in fact be good.  Certainly, there is nothing to proscribe them.  Why does it matter if humanity itself survives?  We are no different in principle from the rocks of the Earth whose existence until the Suns expands seems certain.  And even then, they will become a part of the Sun, and reblended with the universe in one way or another.

Now, college life is also social.  People who believe themselves machines made out of meat all day long find relief and comfort drinking beer with their friends, talking about many topics, debating points within the paradigm they allow.  They do not act as if their work is demeaning mankind, making it primitive, ignoring all that is good and expandable.  This is how they write books arguing that the writing of books in inherently useless and meaningless.  And write a lot of them.

What I would submit though, is that within this paradigm all of the emotions I mentioned, everything that has been passed down to us by people much wiser than us, are not possible.  Emotional growth in large measure is replaced by intellectual growth.  Intelligence becomes valued over emotional virtuosity.  Abstraction becomes valued over love.  Thought replaces connection.

And people become isolated and lonely without even realizing it.  They substitute their work for authentic human connection.  I don’t doubt that Richard Dawkins has many friends.  But I think in the middle of the night, he feels alone, except when he is with his work, particularly the aesthetic aspect of it, the beauty of science, of theory, of CORRECT THINKING, of honesty and truth, of the moral perfection of good math.

Humankind: we can do so much better.  We are infants.  We know nothing.

Rather: we know a great deal, oceans of knowledge, but most of us ignore it.  It is being swept away like trash into crowded corners, rather than valued as the treasure it is.

Ponder that substantially all the work going on in the sciences and Humanities is working to make human emotional and cultural life smaller, less fulfilling, and more dangerous.

If you only eat meals you could live healthily on the rest of your life, then I would say you are doing well.

This would be my submission as a good example: http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/country-captain-with-cauliflower-and-peas

I make it with coconut oil and chicken breasts.  Very flavorful.  This is probably my favorite dish that I make.

From earliest childhood, I told my children I loved them often, but I would explain to them why, and ask them to repeat it back to me often.  I would tell them I loved them because they were lovable, and because they were my children.  I wanted them to feel loved in and of themselves, and to know that my loyalty was absolute.  As they got older, I told them that second part was in case they became less lovable as teenagers.  Fortunately, I don’t think that is going to happen.

They have no need to rebel, because they have more than enough space to grow without it.  That is my feeling, at any rate.  And I have often pointed out to them that indiscriminate sex, drugs and alcohol are often used to make kids feel mature, but they are actually a sign of immaturity.  Both of them are and want to be responsible, which makes me feel good.  Their mother has a great deal to do with that as well.

Most of the world we live in is the result of parental decisions.  Good parenting makes for a good society, and bad parenting makes for generalized unhappiness, violence, and failure.

Global Warming is simply an operative pretext–that is my preferred term for the many pathways down which Leftist propaganda can flow–for a globalist agenda, one which is inconsistent with human freedom, human dignity, and common decency.

Will we ever start confronting the hard questions, most notably that of blacks complicity and primary responsibility in their failure to thrive as a community?

I say this because I DON’T think blacks are inferior.  They are capable of much, much, much more than this.  They are not the helpless, mindless children Democrats tacitly proclaim them to be every time they blame racism for pervasive and chronic bad decisions that lead to predictable results.

Yes, Democrats have been saying “trust us, we got it under control” for 50 years, but all the black community has to show for it is being forced to watch the rest of the world pass them by, with all the resentment, bottomless anger, and sense of rejection and inferiority that goes with it, none of which will be or can be cured by punishing whites.

A TRUE black leader would condemn this loudly and proudly, as not representing who they should be or should want to be.

A TRUE black leader would point out that the Democrats have been USING blacks for 50 years, not helping them.  He would call people who believe the Democrats chumps, as Malcolm X did shortly before his assassination by fellow blacks thoroughly involved in this systemic exploitation. (Then and now: consider the friendship of Louis Farrakhan, who likely played a direct role in Malcolm X’s assassination, with Jeremiah Wright, and Obama’s friendship with Wright)

Progress will begin when we as a nation begin demanding more, not less.  When we refuse to excuse behavior in ANY segment of our population that is uncivilized and barbaric.

If these were white people–and no doubt this sort of thing has happened and sometimes still happens in white neighborhoods too–most of us would not think for a moment about condemning them as culturally inferior.  We would call them white trash.

As I grow as a person, I am becoming less and less willing to avoid speaking the full truth as I see it.

All of these people deserve better, but more welfare–more of what we have been providing for 50 years–can only be an answer for the deluded and those who profit from it.

Generalized access to charter schools and vouchers would be an excellent start.  So, too, would a charismatic black leader sufficiently gifted rhetorically to tell the truth and get people to listen.

The question is not what white people can do for blacks, but what they can and should do for themselves.

Logically, the most intelligent diet is one which provides enough calories, but no more, and which consists entirely in foods which are as filled with nutrients as possible.  The most intelligent weight loss diet is one which does NOT consist in enough calories to maintain your body weight, but which ALSO consists entirely in nutrient dense foods.

In my considered view, for OPTIMAL health, you need a lot of good quality protein, and other than milk, meat is the only solid resource.  Hemp, chia and the like: they will keep you alive and reasonably healthy, but not optimally healthy.

Obviously, the quality of the meat matters as well.  One of the more interesting things to come out of the whole Paleo thing is the observation that the fat content of grain fed meat differs qualitatively from that of grass or vegetarian fed.  The fatty acid content shifts from something naturally healthy, to something unnatural and unhealthy.  The same would likely apply to milk from grass fed cows versus grain fed.

Paleo causes weight loss because it is a reduced calorie diet.  I have tracked calories on FitDay, and if you eat a normal Paleo diet, you are likely consuming way fewer calories than you would have on SAD–the good acronym for the Standard American Diet.

Where does insulin fit in?  Here is the thing: what consuming simple carbs does is bring about a near certainty of overeating.  Carbohydrates are not the enemy: overconsuming food is.  When science was corrupted to nearly the level seen in the Global Warming scandal in the 1980’s, and fat was made the enemy, compliance with “science” induced a global obesity epidemic that is still with us.

Those no fat chips?  You eat ten, you want to eat twenty.  Food becomes an addictive drug.

You need protein and you need good quality fat.  You do not need carbs to survive.  But I would argue you do need some carbs for optimal functioning.  The body prefers to use carbs for most energy needs.  That has been my experience.

You don’t need much fat, and of course you can survive on a wide range of protein intakes.  This means that many, many diets can be made to work both for survival and for weight loss.

And for weight loss, it is always, always, always about reducing calories.  It is simply the case that reducing carbohydrate intake at the same time reduces the risk of binge eating.  Both protein and fat rich meals induce satiety well.

I continue to think the Zone diet is the smartest one out there, but Paleo is much simpler.  I think Paleo intermittant fasting would work quite well as well.

I had a reason for posting this, but I can’t remember what it was.

Who cares?  Anybody?  After all, most or all of them were likely black, and blacks only matter in our national discourse as tools for propaganda, right?  In all candor, I believe that: not that their lives don’t matter–I think about them often and how to help blacks make their neighborhoods fit for happiness–but that our national media doesn’t care.  Not at all.  Nobody.  How they live their lives is a matter of complete indifference to most, and very certainly the Left except in tactical situations where they think they can buy votes (usually accurately, as in the phones for votes program.)

To state the blindingly obvious, they have “gun control” in Chicago, which means that honest, law abiding citizens are at an inherent disadvantage when dealing with criminals, as indeed they are everywhere “gun control” is instituted.

I will add that 3 of the 6 killed in this textbook example of bad parenting–I would guess both parents are clinical narcissists or outright sociopaths–were stabbed, in his own apartment, which I guess means they knew him.  The media insists on calling him a shooter, but he was also a stabber.  He was also hitting people with his car, so he may not have even shot and killed 3 people.

First, for those suffering from allergies and lung congestion, there is the Himalayan Salt Inhaler.  It’s a ceramic container filled with Himalayan salt (I see it called Himalayan Sea Salt, but I’m not sure how that works, although my knowledge of Earth’s geological history is weak).  You breathe it in through your mouth and out through your nose. I already notice a difference.  My specific goal is to reduce congestion in my upper sinuses, and upper chest.  I’m using Flonase, but adding this seems to be helping.

Here is a link: http://www.amazon.com/Original-Himalayan-Crystal-Salt-Inhaler/dp/B000GJQQ9O

Secondly, I snore quite badly, and am quite sure I have apnea.  I do not want to have surgery, and definitely do not want CPAP.  In searching for alternative therapies, I came across playing the didgeridoo.  Apparently some snoring and apnea can be cured by strengthening muscles in your throat which get soft over time.  I’ve had it two weeks, and again I feel it is making a difference.  I think the salt inhaler is helping as well.

Here is a link to the one I bought.  There are cheaper ones, and I may have paid too much.  I wanted something sturdy, though, as some of the reports I read said the cheaper ones break easily: http://www.laoutback.com/didgeridoo-for-sleep-apnea-therapy-la-outback-didgeridoos/

Here is a fun video of somebody who is good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQ9TJmmwRBY