So much for gridlock. On September 12, the US House of Representatives proved that its members can in fact reach across the aisle to find common ground. On taxes? Spending? Foreign policy? Well, no. They agreed, on a voice vote, that they should get to decide what you can or cannot have for lunch.
Tag: animals
Stop Criminalizing Parenthood
Today it seems that childhood freedom has gone the way of afternoon paper routes. Both are relics of an earlier time, when kids were allowed—expected even—to be outside, unsupervised, playing with friends around the neighborhood, riding bikes, mowing lawns, walking dogs, and a whole host of other common childhood activities.
Dehumanization is the Order of the Day
The Nazis had their Untermenschen. Contemporary Republicans have their illegal immigrants. Contemporary progressives have their gun owners and users. Contemporary conservatives have their drug users and traffickers.
Smokey Bear: Enemy Agent
Smokey Bear and his propaganda campaign illustrate the danger of government perfectly. Use a memorable way to promote bad policy. The bad policy then causes damage which makes the original problem worse, which causes people to believe government (and its bad policy) is necessary to protect from the consequences of government policy.
Creating the Time to Do What You Love Every Day
Our days are often filled with things we have to do, and things we do to comfort ourselves from the stress and tiredness from doing what we have to do … so we end up putting off what we really want to do.
Psychology Goes Toe-To-Toe With Totalitarianism in Carl Jung’s “The Undiscovered Self”
To most of us living in the 21st century, it’s easy to forget that weapons exist which could easily destroy life on the planet a few times over. Jung was not ignorant of that. What’s more, he was living through a time when that kind of warfare seemed likely. The world had just lived through the destruction of two world wars, the Russian Revolution, the rise of fascism and National Socialism, and the Holocaust. In 1957, it was not certain that Communism would not spread over the whole world.
The Propagation of Knowledge
People don’t pass you information because it is true, they pass you information because it benefits them to do so. People don’t study information because it is true, people study what information benefits them. This isn’t a slight at scientists. Few people would suggest that scientists ought to spend time studying information that has no benefit. Many scientists study information based off of flawed premises built within the culture. Few scientists get grants from disinterested parties. The force that links “knowledge” to accuracy or truth is incentives.
Not All Molestation is Sexual
Your “polite” neighbors believe cops have a legitimate function: to molest bad guys by stopping them from hurting people or violating property. And if they actually did that without molesting the rest of us, I wouldn’t be completely against policing. But they don’t– because they can’t. Molestation is built into the “job” and is a result of every encounter with them.
The Reformulation of Rights as Liberties
Everyone and their mom likes to posit that humans have rights, and they shan’t be violated. Some say the source of these rights are God, or the gods. Others say that our rights were bestowed upon us by nature. Others, by “government” (Oy!). Through my study of this concept and the evolution of where my thinking on it stood, I have decided, for now at least, that “rights” are just liberties.
Animal Day
It took me many years to quit using the word, “pet,” with regard to animals who came to live with us. “Pet” now seems to me only a slight elevation from the word “slave.”