Lowe D

By the way, I'll add that I am not an expert on sexual pathology and its links to childhood. I'm just a guy. If you need to talk to an expert, you might start with a psychologist whom you trust. Then, if that person sees it as necessary, you could get a referral to a sexual psychologist.

I think I understand what you mean, about feeling disempowered. I have fantasies around humiliation, which can turn my stomach, even while I'm having them. That is why I know about it. I think I understand the desire to get to the root of the fantasies, and it may be that part of you who is feeling disempowered. It's hard to get to the root of things we don't remember. Would it be all right to let that part know he doesn't need to work so hard, to figure things out? Then maybe he could give you some space, and you would feel better. He doesn't have to go away, because curiosity is a good thing. But when intense curiosity comes up to the emptiness of unknown history, it can be a source of pain. If or when you get some space from your disempowered part, you could ask why he needs to figure things out. ... If you don't want to talk about this in public, that's all right. You can PM me, and I'll try to get back to you.

He is now level 99.

It isn't unnatural to have a sexual fixation on humiliation, after a bad childhood. It's a coping mechanism a lot of people develop, as shown by the huge amount of sadomasochistic pornography online, in the form of videos, photos, stories, and artwork. So, whatever the exact nature of your fantasies, I think you can give yourself a break.

Not unless it's to say exactly what he said. After sinking decades of my life into succeeding in business, I'd sooner amputate my foot than tank my career by refusing a congressional hearing, or attending only to tell US Senators something they wouldn't like. So, no, he shouldn't have ignored "these fools." Fools who have large personal fortunes, oddly enough. Not very foolish sounding, are they?

If it can't, that's a total loss in any situation where you can't turn a profit. There are unlimited such situations, but most likely is that, in the months or years you are waiting for this company to deliver your ASIC, bitcoins go down in price enough that the energy needed for mining is more expensive. That point could be right now, yesterday, or any time, since they don't release any power specs for their machines. That is reason enough not to buy one. BTW I can't tell from the FAQ if anyone has one of these things. There may not even be a device around, at this point. EDIT: What I do see confirmed is that they had a FPGA version, which they have sold, and has been used by someone.

Can it do anything other than mine bitcoins?

I don't remember how Stefan addressed this line, although I think he did mention it. It doesn't stick with me, because I rarely get into conversations like this. Debates are almost never about what people say they are, and experiencing that with others triggers sadness, for me. There's a song that comes to mind. It's called . It's about a daughter who's molested by her father. The father is quoted as sayingYou could easily go and make your own life somewhere Couldn't you? Couldn't you? Couldn't you?

This is stupid. How is a child supposed to know that an adult can't see the message? Also if they do realize it, how does that make a difference? Is the guiding idea here that children don't realize they're being hurt by their caregivers, and if you just told them, they'd pick up the phone? I'm feeling pretty angry right now, so I'm going to write it again. This is stupid.

'Do not train children to learn baseball or football, by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of their genius in each' - bbeljefe

Are you asking for help, agun? If you are, Stefan might try to help you, if you called into his show tomorrow.

Vomiting feels pretty bad when you're doing it, but then it feels good, when it's finished. Is that why you're doing this?

@ MCS I think that the most important children to see, are the children in yourself. I know that's definitely been the case for me. And for me, those children need my presence, my kindness, and my strength. They need me close, in other words. I can't claim to be a fully formed person, or even happy most of the time; I'm functional, and that is due to a lot of hard work. Having said that, I don't believe lasting self improvement can be achieved by acting as if the past doesn't exist inside us, but only by finding the past inside us. I understand the idea that rationalizing the past is not productive. I have a part that rationalizes the past, in an attempt to spin a story, to satisfy a critical part. The critical part then criticizes it for doing that. "Oh, what are you doing? I see right through that." That's the thing about criticism, that it's always on the outside, looking in, no matter how much you try to put yourself on the outside. It's kind of like standing between two mirrors. Being on the outside is a tempting thought, and it's what a lot of my parts work on. Being on the outside of the sense of shame, or needing to run away, the sense of being wanting, of falling short of someone else's mark. The sense of being buried under someone else's anxiety, and expectations. Being on the outside can be helpful, and it might get you by for long periods. Maybe years or decades. But I don't want to be on the outside of my own life. And I think that's what this is about. The senses I mentioned, the feelings, the parts, they don't live on a video tape, or on the pages of a book. They live in my brain, which is in the now. Many might wish otherwise, but those things don't go away through meditation, or thought exercises, or anything like that. In fact they never go away. They change, if you let them.

Earlier today I was out walking, and I was listening to a YouTube video through my phone. I got to thinking about what it takes to motivate oneself, and how often those who seek help doing that, are people whose lives have been sabotaged by their unsupportive and exploitative families. This was true for me, and it's been true for many people I have met. Listening to that video and thinking on the subject, I wound up crying. I was also reminded of this yesterday, when I listened to a show Stefan must have done a couple weeks ago. A caller outlined some of his problems in the areas of socializing, dating, and interviewing for jobs. These have been problem areas in my life, and I think in the lives of other readers and posters here. One thing that struck me was how hard it was for the caller to see the horror of what had happened to him as a child and an adolescent, to cause these difficulties, and to feel into it. That's something I've had tremendous trouble with, over the years. Entire parts of my life disappeared because of the choices my parents, relatives, and teachers made: the wounds they left, and then ignored. Accepting that is difficult, even with the positive turns my life has taken over the past couple years. The sadness, shame, and loneliness of being an attacked and neglected child, has a way of sticking. That's what parts of us believe is best, for our own safety. Feeling safe is important. Feeling safe to put yourself out there with potential employers, to approach others socially and romantically, and to welcome the challenging feelings these experiences cause. Some people get denied safety, for years on end. This absence is hard to correct, and I think the only thing that can correct it is trust. Trust in someone; trust that that person sees you, and will tell you the truth. This may be the kind of trust one vests in Stefan, and hopefully the kind of trust one vests in a therapist. If I were reading a self help guru, trust is one of the first things that would come up. Can I trust this person to tell me the truth? To see me, as I am? Does this person see children? Or are they invisible to him? I think that to last, the motivation to life one's life, has to be based on trust, in oneself. But trust in oneself, can start with other people, as long as they can see you, and your personal truth.

Families were definitely more abusive in the past, but that trend has gone slower and faster in different places, and isn't steady over short periods. Also the type of abuse that is most prevalent has changed over time. So your theory is still possible.

Man, this thread got confusing quickly.

Why would you want to force anyone to do anything? Having a child out of wedlock isn't good for the child, but it isn't the end of the world.

A comical rendition of the history of the Promised Land, by Nina Paley, the author of Mimi and Eunice.

@ ribuck Stocks outpace precious metals on a long enough time scale. On short time scales that may not be the case. Take 2000 to 2011 for example. An investment portfolio should take this into account, considering you have no way of knowing with certainty what time it is, economically. I wouldn't want to be depending on the hope that everything's swell for stocks, in the decade I retire. @ OP The idea behind most investment portfolios is you hold X% of asset A, Y% of asset B, and Z% of asset C. You set some bands around those percentages, and when the value of an asset, say A, goes above/below its band, you sell/buy it, back to its set percentage (X%). That way you're constrained to sell when it's "high," and buy when it's "low." I think you should check out that link I gave you to Crawling Road. The guy who maintains that blog has written on the subject. There are other resources out there for do-it-yourself investing, including bogleheads.org.

The price of gold reflects the real interest rate, mostly. Real interest would be nominal interest minus inflation. The lower the real rate, the higher the price of gold. Considering this, gold is worthwhile to include in a long term portfolio, as a way of dealing with a high inflation and low nominal interest. Harry Browne fleshed out a lot of these ideas, and you can check out some writing on the subject here. EDIT: A safeguard in investing is to diversify among different asset classes. It isn't wise to have all one's savings in a single asset, like commodities (e.g. gold). That is, as long as you're a mere mortal.

Because increases in municipal or county level taxes often have to be voted on, through referendum, and the residents are bound to complain. Increases in traffic citations don't have to be voted on by anyone, and they also shift some of the burden onto out-of-towners. St. Petersburg is next to Tampa, and must see a lot of tourists.

I think that it is an ugly fact of life, that in the absence of significant self knowledge, people are more or less subject to their traumas, usually making them the social equals of chimpanzees. To paint this, as an inescapable aspect of our nature, is a mistake. Most parents willingly put their children into a prison environment, for over a decade. They praise the guards as paragons of virtue, and consider a child or adolescent dysfunctional if he or does not cope well with the horror and humiliation of what is being done to him. Turns out, most of those who do not cope well are boys. The amount of moral hypocrisy, victim-blaming, and vicious shaming, is unbelievable, and sickening to anyone with eyes to see it. Frankly, the brunt of these attacks lands on the most upright, most naturally virtuous children. This is how almost everybody grows up, and I think that understanding this context is important for maintaining one's self esteem, and mental well being, in any discussion of evo psych, or the the evo psych arguments put forward by pick up guys.

Most boys are abused and neglected to a degree. Maybe it was worse than ordinary for Roosh, though Idk. It was certainly worse than ordinary for me, and maybe you can relate. Masonkiller has already given you an idea of how many would define the term. What I think the term is, though, is a kind of othering of the self. E.g. who I am is not who I want to be, nor is it who others want me to be, and as I am now, I am not good enough. Like much of pick up, self improvement, and culture in general, the term is about shame, and coping with shame. Shame is a big deal for men. I think, even bigger than for women, because fewer escape routes are available.

If you run 45 minutes a day, you probably have good endurance. So I'm guessing you could manage 6 miles per hour. I'm also guessing you weigh 145 lbs. According to this calculator, you burn 488 calories with that exercise. That's the greater part of a big mac with cheese, leaving you a couple hundred calories to burn with your nervous system and low level body functions. So even if you ate a big mac every day, you probably still wouldn't gain weight.

Can you elaborate on this please? I don't understand what the cluster personality is. Also, I don't understand how men are "holding all the cards." And yes, women are miserable now. In jobs they hate. In debt. Depressed. Seperated from their children. Lonely. Preyed upon by the vanity markets. Men certainly do have more of an opportunity to figure themselves out and become more valuable. Unfortunately for women, they are often stuck in a situation by the time they figure themselves out, if they ever do. This disparity is one of the things that really gets at women, even if they aren't consious of it, so they try to level the situation by putting men down. I agree with this. It's unfortunate that women's lives are so different from men's, in their trajectory. By the time they're into their 30s and have figured out their lives, more or less, they're often married or with children, and even if not, they've lost much of whatever physical beauty they had. I also agree that America has raised a generation of entitled and arrogant women. This is a generalization, of course. I have a difficulty setting aside the time, and making the effort to date, but when I do, I'm almost certain to get a reminder of how good this generalization is. As for hate on Roosh's site, I think there is quite a bit of it, from the commenters, and some from him. Hate isn't a vice, though. I've read a many of his articles, and I think I understand how his feelings toward women developed over the years. At one point he wrote of being hit as a child, by his mother, with a broom. An episode which he retold laughingly, indicating either an inability or an unwillingness to empathize with himself. Though I willl not go into detail, my history has similarities with Roosh's. Unlike Roosh, I think, I have committed to self work and therapy. As much as I would like to tell you that this has resulted in a realization that my negative, generalizing ideas about women were purely the result of my upbringing, this looks everyday to be less the case. One can improve oneself as much as it pleases, and this is good, but one cannot change the state of others. I think that one advantage for viewing women in the way Roosh does, in an unempathizing and judgmental way, is that allows oneself to detach from the experience of sadness for the state of women, and sadness for oneself, at having to live under such circumstances. It may not be a path to personal enlightenment, but it is a rational strategy considering that sadness can be debilitating.