MysterionMuffles

I feel a sudden urge to read more articles and possibly troll the comment sections with slander. I dont think it would be wise because I know I'll be arguef in typical abusive parent style. Jeez you really cant be threatening to kill your children thats just sick in the head.

..........this is satire right?

Andros: Wow I didn't see it that way. The fact that we have to raise our hands to answer and placing our sense of self on the basis of answering correctly. Some teachers were harsh with wrong or incoherent answers instead of being curious on how the student can elaborate further. That paradigm always made me feel like asking, "does THIS teacher even know everything like they expect us to?" Also that's pretty cool about the Dalai Lama saying that. The newest Pope was actually open minded enough to say for Christians to forgive Atheists and let them be as long as they're "good" based on whatever their perception of GOOD is. Either way that's cool of him, but I don't need his goddamn validation. tasmlab: Um really, just be positive and humourous about your Atheist views and that's enough to dispell the impending hostility of people getting their mythologies crushed before their very eyes? I'm sorry, I need a little more clarification on h what you did to get your family to accept Atheism. It feels like you skipped a lot of in between work. What I want to know is how opposition was faced and if there WAS hostility that you were successful in disarming with just pure positivity.

LOL I forgot about The Onion and their hard hitting satire.

Dang man, welcome to the boards. What a great introduction. I raised an eyebrow when I read you lead a church group and that eyebrow raised to the back of my head when I also read that you're going to start testing your religion. Hope you have a good time here and get the most out of philosophy when discussing stuff with us here. You never know, despite not being argumentive you might develop some good arguing skills.

gwho, wow I didn't notice that. Think I'll watch it again. And you're right Extraordinary_rendition, I think the genders play a huge role in it. If it was the boy being forceful people will be easily on about how he's a future abuser, but no girls are such sweet frilly things that it is good for them to exact the same kind of aggression men do. Because when they do, it's EMPOWERING. Not trying to be sexist, but there is that double standard. Clearly she is an abuser in the making if she doesn't seek help, likewise with the boy, he's gonna need to seek a lot of help in the future if his mother doesn't stop acting this way. The obvious thing is the public humiliation, but what I'm more worried about is what happens behind the camera. Why does he fear women so much? And why doesn't this woman reach out to him and comfort him? Just sick. Totally sickening.

Yeah I have a good anecdote in which I successfully negotiated my neice into a better behaviour. One afternoon I was babysitting my neice and she decides to go play with the DVD shelf we had in my living room. She started pulling and tossing all the DVD's off the shelf very carelessly, causing a ton of noise and possible internal disc destruction due to how aggressively she was throwing them on the floor. I already knew that I shouldn't spank her or slap her hand for doing this, but I did feel the need to yell at her. I was really tired, just wanted some peace and quiet, but those are just excuses. Thankfully I didn't yell at her, and instead decided to take a different approach: When she was just about to toss another DVD behind her, I held her hand for a moment and said, "I know you want to have fun with the DVD's, but you have to be careful with them if you want to keep playing. Why don't you be gentle with them and place them neatly like this?" She let me take the DVD out of her hand and I placed it very carefully on the floor. Then I took the other DVD's surrounding us and started placing them on a neat towering stack over each other. She stared at me for a moment and I had a moment of doubt thinking that she would ignore me and resume throwing the DVD's around. I underestimated her ability to listen because she doesn't know how to speak yet, but to my surprise when she turned back around to get another DVD, she placed it as gently and as neatly as she could ontop of the stack. Each time she took one DVD at a time and quietly and gently placed them on the stack, I would express my enthusiasm, meanwhile times she took too many which would cause them to slip out of her hands, I just sat there quietly until she figured out on her own how to be more careful with them. You can totally use at least my FDR user name if you decide to use my example and if it really counts as a "negotiation."

holy hell I'm having a braingasm...I'll provide my input when I can even wrap this around my head.

when you have that question burning inside you.

I think the tools for gaining self knowledge can be taught. It certainly is the case when I've picked up books like The Power of Now, The 6 Pillars of Self Esteem and Real-Time Relationships. The use of external information that gives perspective on things you may not be able to see too clearly when you're wrapped up in your own, I think, would help you...well...put things in perspective. It's hard to say, sometimes it feels like these things I've learned from books are things that I've already known inherently, but just didn't have the verbalization of concepts to understand them better. I'll get back to you on this after I see what everyone else's input is. Ultimately, self knowledge can only be obtained within the self, but I think the tools can be taught in the sense of learning how to ask yourself the right questions.

Awesome. It fills me with great joy you guys got into it. I just finished the entire series a week ago, watching with my sister as opposed to my brother this time around. She wasn't into anything with that kind of depth a couple years ago, but she was ready for the show's message this year. I feel like it's like that quote "the teacher will appear when the student is ready." When you're up for some enlightenment, you gotta let the show into your life. Which is weird of me to say because it's just a show, but that that's how damn powerful the writing is imo. Anyways cheers folks! Hope you can successfully share it with other people in your life as well

Jesus Christ man what a harsh assessment of them...but if they were really that vile, I am both sorry and proud for you. Sorry that you had to put up with them, but even more proud of you for being able to acknowledge the truth about them. Wherein most people would delude themselves into thinking that that's just how parents should be. I don't think it's wise to intervene. If they hit bottom without you or your sister there by their side, I think that would be a huge force in making them want to shape up as not just parents, but people in general. Depending on how old they are, they may be stubbornly stuck in their ways that their brains really just can't rewire their behaviour enough to make them even an ounce acceptable. You don't owe them that helping hand if they never extended the empathy towards you. I wouldn't bother.

LOL did Flander's really story get replaced by a Libertarian HQ? I do not remember that episode.

Im thinking of getting a hard copy of RTR and wanted to know if the compact edition still includes the Parable of the Apple or if that is removed as well. Thanks!

Hey everybody! I started a Youtube channel called From the Book Shelf to the Big Screen, where I review the latest novels that get adapted for film. Not only do I draw comparisons between both versions, but I also dissect the deeper meanings to each story. I would highly appreciate if you could take a gander at my videos, preferably leaving comments on the Youtube page so it gains some traction, but discussions in this thread would be welcomed too. Here are the videos I've made so far: Intro to BSBS Twilight by Stephanie Meyer The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold Kick Ass by Mark Millar & John Romita Jr. Kick Ass is my latest one, and I hope to follow up with Kick Ass 2 after I get a chance to watch the movie. Hope you enjoy!

I'm not sure of the impacts, but if I would have to guess, its a lot of stressful rewiring of the brain to what feels natural. I write with my left hand, but I play right hand guitar and pretty much throw balls, use knives, and just about everything else with my right hand. The fear of left handed users is an old religious thing that brands them as Satanists because they come from some reverse dimension or some stupid crap like that. My advice is not to force a child to switch which hands they use for writing or anything else. What feels natural to them to use is what will feel natural and so that is why there IS Ned Flander's Left Hand Emporium. Just kidding, but there are a lot of accomodations for left hand users. Most notably is guitars crafted so that the strings are reversed in guage for left handers to use their dominant hand (the left, duh) to pluck the strings as opposed to the traditional right. I don't think there's anything huge traumatic that happens to natural left handers who are forced to switch to using their right hand. If everything was meant to be right hand, we'd only have that one lol. My brother was born left handed but my parents forced him to write with his right hand, and its godawful messy. (Brilliant ideas though despite the chicken scratch!) I also have a friend who was born right handed, but he punched a window pretending to be Batman when he was a kid, and he had to learn how to write with his left hand. As for me, even though I usually write with my left, from time to time I write with my right hand (because I hate my hand getting stuck in the middle of a notebook lol) and its just as neat, if not any neater. Hands are hands. We're free to use which one for whatever task we choose and shouldn't be a big deal. Take it from an ambidextrous guy!

I dont know about the video, but the audio podcast had the time skips here: 10:03 11:32 11:52 12:52 13:05 13:28 13:56 14:18 14:25 16:15 16:26 16:49 17:29 18:48 19:11 19:44 19:50 20:24 20:28 20:33 20:36 22:00 22:02 22:07 22:12 22:21 22:25 22:47 23:03 24:58 Some just may be natural conversation breaks but there are a lot of times where it feels like some importamt points get skipped and a whole new topic comes out of nowhere.

This was a really eye opening interview to listen to. Because here in Canada with its "free" and socialized healthcare...my God the waiting can claim your death before treatment can even occcur. Glad to know our Southern Bretheren in the States at least have a leg up on us with free market and privatized health. Sounds like its more productive and affordable. However the technical issue I have with this podcast is that a lot of the parts get skipped over. Like midsentence either Stef or the doctor will be talking and so many words possibly even sentences get skipped over.

I totally agree. Even pre philosophy the news always disturbed me How they can flatly say that people are dying then onto the weather! Its so desensatizing to watch. What I am disturbed by is when my family watches to have their collective gasps of concern but can barely summon any real empathy towards anyone in our immediate world. I have always thought that the news is just a soul and mind crusher to increase our dependance on state power by making us feel helpless about all the troubles in the world. News casters talk like heartless robots, and it is scary how anyone can take them seriously. And on the tip of how our brains are hardwired to retain negative news more for survival reasons...its an attempt to keep us in the primitive state of simple die or survive mentality. For Canadians, I dont know if youve heard of a show called The Hour hosted by George Strombolopoulous, but its very different late nightv. Unlike Letterman or Leno (lamewads!) George conducts REAL interviews getting to the REAL person within the celebrity he interviews. Like instead of focussing on tabloid semantics or anything else mundane they focus in late night, his line of questioning iss geared towards what drives people to fulfill their aspirations. Also he used to have a segment called The World of Good News for the same reason what we're talking about here. And man was it refreshing to hear about hero stories and advancements in science rather than yet another person getting shot or house burning down nearby. There really needs to be more positive news programs out there. A wayy to determine if its good news if it doesnt cause negative emotion in the viewers like feeling sorry or sad for the victims Instead it should rouse ambition in the viewer to follow in the example of the good news portrayed. Like how great would it be to see a soup kitchen volunteer story and you get testimonials from the houseless folk as to how grateful they are for being helped out? Hell why havent they televised the Google Science Fair contestants and do a huge piece on all of their inventions? Conventional news SUCKS!!!

Lol that is hilariously truthful of real life relationships.

Oh man you bring a very good point. I think thats why some novels contain disclaimers saying that any similar characters names places and situations are entirely fiction, any resemblance to reality is purely accidental. As for changing your name after writing an autobiography the name used back then was and will still be a symbol that pertains to you and your life. So yes its still non fiction. Its likr how if Snoop Dogg wrote an autobiography but he is now known as Snoop Lion, that book still counts as non fictipn because even though Snoop Dogg isnt even his real name to begin with, it is representative to his being. Thay is the value of x being defined.

Thanks Mellony! Yeah what an insult to anybodys ability to think for themselves. Its a blatant invitation to be brainwashed. This argument ended long time ago but I remember her accusing philosophy as brainwash. If thats the case then religion was brain clutter.

Once again sorry for the delay. I know you already have someone in your immediate world who can offer feedback and thats great. I hope mine can be helpful also. I want to start off saying that this is an awesome idea. A reflection of how hard science can work to replicate the very same things that destroy us in order to destroy the destroyers. Thats a lot destruction lol. Anyways I like how you briefly introduced Casey and made the first chapter all about his father. The transition from the school bus bully throwing that weird food out the bus at someone near the labratory. I think that was handled well and I love perspective shifts in stories. What I would improve is not saying that kid is a bully because his actions already show that. Also it would keep me in the scene if he had spunky dialogue stating to throw the chicken egg out the wibdow to interrupt Caseys conversation with the girl. Was her name Hope?.. again sorry the details are blurry to me now. From what I remember I also preferred between Dr Reeds dialogue with the Soul Rippers, theres no need to tell the reader hes lying about Rex. We know that plus Strayden accuses him of it anyway. Lastly, I know in the narrative Dr Reeds thoughts are about loving and concerning over Casey, but I think his death would have more impact if you establish their connection better. Unless Casey will have flashbacksbto interactions with his father, I think its worth while to have them share SOME sparse but effective dialogue befote he drops him off to school or something. So those are my thoughts on it and for YA you use a little more sophisticated language in the dialogue and I love that. Youre onto something good and I hope your edits will flesh more of the moments out with the flare like you said. Because the setup of the world at the beginning is well detailed so to have that in action scenes that would bring it to life more. Keep it up!

Simply put; we can resume our friendship if I so choose to in the future. After this kind of openness I feel more confident about seeking out available and hopefully more virtuous women.

Well the whole thing has been very heavy on me and I feel greater that I got a chance to have this RTR. What I need to be ready for is to re engage in this friendship if I ever feel the need to. She let me off the hook to basically unfriend her for as long as I need to. That might be forever unless one day she'll feel compelled to contact me, in which case I'll be open to it. I dont know if I my self will ever be willing to refriend her but for now I need the distance to cool off. As for loving the self in this context means accepting herself, her habits, her need to change some of those habits, her need for courage and her nerd for integrity--all of which she doesnt feel she possess. I cant speak for her on that but I can agree lol. Since Im all about self love first before external love, she expressed to me that she doesnt have enough of that to be compatible with me. That she needs to achieve a "perfect self" in order to be with me. I argued theres no such thing but there is at least a well known self that which was what she really meant in that regard.