Wesley

This is one of the instances where I wonder which is better. This overt propaganda, or the subtle and implicit varieties that people may not even realize exist.

I work out in a crossfit-style workouts and have slowly acquired a set of Olympic weights, a 1.5 pood kettlebell, a pull-up bar, a plyo box I build that is 18" x 20" x 24", I made a cheap med ball by filling a basketball with sand and taping it, which came out to 22 pounds, and a speed rope. I also can run trails, roads, sprint hills, bike, pushups, core stuff, etc and do all sorts of wods with that equipment. As I get a little more money then I buy something else. The equipment I learn many skills with after making a purchase and will have it for years rather than it running out in the way a gym membership does. To me, it is also far more motivating to work out when I have invested the time and money into it. Here are a few ideas on how to workout crossfit (one on the super cheap and one providing the order fr building your own crossfit gym and which equipment to go for first) http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/cfjissue1_Sep02.pdf http://crossfitcenturion.wordpress.com/equipment-on-the-cheap/ Beyond this you always can do bodyweight stuff and free running which costs nothing. Addin to your push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups and air squats you can start working on handstand push-ups. Been a while since I've tried them, but achieving them is quite fun. The only benefit to going to a gym is if you do not know what you are doing and want trainer help, if the gym has good classes or teachers which again is guided help, but also can let you meet people, or if you prefer working out with people and do not want to invite them over to your home gym. Other than that, havin the equipment at your house helps you learn more and be better, learn mor movements with limited equipment, cut down on excuses for not working out as you just need to go into the other room, and I find it fun coming up with some new wod to do that I haven't done before. Hope some of this was helpful!

Definitely forcing a child to write with a different hand would be at the absolute best questionably immoral/a waste of time. I think there may be a way to convince a child of the benefits of doing a task with a particular hand and allowing either to occur. As I stated before, I think it is completely unnecessary to do in a modern age, but I do not feel that teaching a skill as best done a certain way is necessarily bad. As a kid I thought it would be cool to write with both hands and practiced with my left in order to satisfy my boredom. I ended up losing the skill, but I would not have considered it negative to learn with either hand. Forcing me to learn with one would obviously be wrong.

Things that are in space time require causality, but there is no reason whatsoever that space time requires causality. You missed a few steps there. Also, something may have causally resulted in space time without being a creator. A creator requires consciousness where a causal chain does not. You are attributing some sort of causal chain to a creator rather than the causal chain being what exists in itself. The causal chain you may be able to prove exists, however you cannot then prove that it was a creator without creating an infinite regression or creators for the creators. (Even if the creator exists in another universe this does not mean that it does not need a creator and how could this universe affect ours?) It smells of a magical place to avoid the infinite regression problem to keep the illogic of a deity. Finally, if someone uses Stef's podcasts in order to present many arguments in a concise way that doesn't require typing pages and pages, then it is not argument from authority. If someone says "it is true because Stef said it was" then that would be argument from authority, which nobody has claimed. That was a somewhat clever way of dodging the argument by having someone fear that their argument was unjust.

Thanks to everyone who enjoyed the post and voted it up. It just made it to the top of the highest reputation content- at least for the time being.

As a person who works a desk job, I do not get enough vitamin d, so I take a 4,000 IU supplement with breakfast in the morning. Occasionally I have done rounds of now foods super enzymes, or a probiotic. I do a whey shake after working out whenever my workout doesn't end with dinner, which I usually work out before dinner, so that is rare. In the past I have had a lot of experiments with various things including vitamins, BCAAs, Creatiine, Fat Burners, and many other things. In general, I now try to get my supplementation with food now as opposed to expensive supplements. If I just looked up the right thing, this appears to be a multivitamin powder. If so, the main recommendation would be to take it with a good helping of healthier fats. With an olive oil dressing salad, coconut oil cooked something, or with breakfast of eggs or other fattier foods. Most vitamins and nutrients are fat soluble and it is essential to consume fat in order to absorb the nutrients into your body, if not it just gets wasted. There have been several studies, for instance, that increased calcium consumption is inversely proportional to % calcium absorption, mainly because most calcium in higher quantities is consumed with low fat milk and cheese or with a supplement and water with no fat in the meal. This also seems to be an energy supplement with the BCAAs and some CoQ10 in there. So as long as this is what you are using it for. The more stuff you have in there, the more expensive it is. Thus, if there are things you do not need you could probably get a less expensive supplement that does not have those things. The only mild concern is the fructose, which I try to avoid as it id digested by the liver as opposed to the process used by other sugars. I do not understand why they added that sugar and then added insulin into the supplement to prevent changes in blood sugar. It seems a bit odd to me.

Is it natural for humans to make war? New study of tribal societies reveals conflict is an alien concept http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/is-it-natural-for-humans-to-make-war-new-study-of-tribal-societies-reveals-conflict-is-an-alien-concept-8718069.html More in the article.

I would be very interested to see you read up on whatever you feel like you need to in order to be prepared and then to have a conversation with Stef (the other one) on this topic. I think if you dislike the written media, then the spoken medium may be a good way to iron out points and hear ideas. As well as make an interesting show. When I first came to FDR I was still religious, but questioning with many of my friends and family being religious (so not too dissimilar to you). My preference was to listen and read the arguments and then try to counter them (bouncing ideas off a friend who got into FDR with me) or find holes wherever I could. The minarchism to anarchism took me a while, but by the time I got to analyzing religion it did not take me too long to realize some of the logical problems. For me, more of the pain in the realization was that almost all of my friends and family did not hold those values. The main point is that it does not matter where you start, as long as you are willing to do the whole logic, reason, and evidence thing. Maybe you will find a massive hole that we haven't thought of, and it would be great to be corrected on the error. If people agree on the standard of logic and reason, then I tend to think they will eventually end up in a very similar area. P.S. I am a board game fan as well! Catan is awesome!

Circumcision Rate in the U.S. Drops as Societal Attitudes Waver http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-08-22/circumcision-rate-in-the-u-dot-s-dot-drops-as-societal-attitudes-waver Overall, the article seemed to lament the decrease in circumcisions and to only mention "anti-circumcision" as this irrational other opinion that is contrary to science.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-18563_162-57599011/violence-in-oakland-forces-residents-to-seek-private-security/

I do not particularly agree, but maybe this could be handled in a profile option of "hide for non-members" or something for the profile stuff. This would allow those who are concerned to hide information on their profile or on their posts.

No. You do not grieve them, you grieve what you didn't have. If you had amazing parents, then you would not be forced into this decision. How much healthier and happier would you be? My experience was that I spent a lot of time grieving what could have been. That I had to make this terrible decision. A good amount of anger also came during this time. It is a terrible situation and a terrible decision that needed to be made. I am sorry that you had to do make it.

She had trouble with it in the past as it was a new idea to her, but now that she knows what has happened, she is pretty much in agreement that it is pretty bad and likes the idea of us moving together in some other city. She is also supportive of my going to therapy and doing some of the chats I have with people about psychological things. I have 2 other brothers. In the past, one had move out with a crazy girlfriend. They broke up soon after, but he was on his own until he needed surgery and had to take off work for a bit. Now he's back and being roped in again. My other brother is college and ROTC (which is a whole other pile of crap in itself and the results of my father taking special interest in him, both being 3rd born sons) but he is never around, so also didn't count. Basically, until recently, I was the only one left. He wants me to do work around the house. He is lazy and I am young and strong. He also wants me to do "what is right" which is basically to conform to whatever he wants or what he thinks is best. In the past, this has lead to periods of depression when i realize I am on a path where I don't want the end goal at all. His father abandoned him with 9 kids. 7 boys, 2 girls with a single mother who could barely get enough money for the kids to eat 2/3 of the standard meals. He then went into the military to go to college and worked a ton. He views a father being around, telling kids what to do (as he got no instruction and was left without anything) and providing money is the epitome of fatherhood. I think that him providing money and criticism gives him self-worth as being a good father compared to what he had. So many times in the fight I had a complaint of abuse, he then would bring up money and what he provides to me, and I would say it wasn't about money, and then he would be baffled.

I have no idea how viable, desired, practical, etc this would be. However, the premium podcast seem to have a good little landing page with information on the side, a rating system, comments below, and overall allow some decent feedback and conversation around a podcast. The thought would be to have a "podcast" forum in which each podcast is located there as a topic and it allows people to comment, provide a rating and such. This may be ridiculous to go back for 2400 podcasts, but maybe could be tried for podcasts going into the future? I have no idea if it is a good idea and would not be offended to hear that it is a ton of work for no gain, but I thought I would float the idea and see if anyone else thinks it would be of value. Another possibility would be to in the general feedback forum to "add a reference" which puts the info and podcast at the top of the thread and then people still comment below? However, this would still allow multiple posts about the same podcast.. Ok, ill stop rambling. Let me know what you think.

I am very sorry for what you have gone through. That is just terrible. Onto your question, I do not know how to do this most efficiently or effectively, but the best way for her to treat he child with kindness and empathy would be to recognize how terrible the situation was in her family when she was a child, then truly empathize and feel the fear, anger, frustration, sadness, etc. When someone really feels what it is like to be a child and gets angry at what happened to them, then they are very unlikely to repeat the abuse and far more likely to empathize with their kids. I think parenting books or something will just be ignored, or a couple lessons learned and given up the second it becomes difficult. Maybe someone else can provide their input. I think the goal would be to get her professional psychological help from an expert. That is the most likely to have the best long-term effects. As far as "She doesn't want to do that, so how do I just get it the best I can?" I have no idea. Hopefully someone has some good book recommendations or something, but I think that they will likely be ignored. In the end, that is just something to chalk up to the horror of your parents and how far you've come in trying to piece things together in a better way. It is amazing the path that you are on to heal.

I am somewhat going through the process. I decided to defoo a while ago, but I am dependent on my parents. So, I am looking to 1. Save Money 2. Find a New Job 3. Get as much therapy as I can (while filling other 3 points) 4. Wait for my girlfriend to get a job (so I can defray costs and such) When these things are accomplished, then I will defoo. About a month ago now, my father was criticizing me for something stupid and irrelevant and I decided I would call him out on how dumb it was. How all he does is criticize me and how he has never said anything nice without 2 criticisms attached. He then ended up arguing for a while and discovering what anger I felt for him. The the words that set me off: "I never did anything wrong." I couldn't let this stand and proceeded to get very angry about the abuse he inflicted on me of spanking, tons of threats, tons and tons of verbal and emotional abuse. No matter what instance I brought up, he had 1 of 3 responses. 1. "That's not true, and if you think that, I think you should get out of my house." This helped me realize that my current dependence is completely intentional. He tries to get me to be dependent on me so that I don't have a car, a house, etc so that he can use this ultimate threat of abandonment (childhood death) for non-compliance. 2. "Yes, I did do some verbal and emotional abuse, but the physical stuff wasn't true. However it was way worse for me, so you can't complain." Which is an incredibly fallacious argument. It was a way of off-loading blame onto his parents (namely his absent father). 3. "I will apologize, and if I do then you need to forget about this and never talk about it again." Of course, this was a complete attempt to avoid the problem and get me into conformity. No matter what problem I came up with, he thought it was solved by him giving me money or supporting me. Or he used the threat of taking away the support to scare me into compliance. However, I could see right through it and call him out on it. I was not scared like I had been in the past. In the end, I had a lot of empathy for me as a child. I realized that any money he promised me in the past or that I was going to get the car was all a lie. He will not give me anything unless he feels like it (despite previous verbal contracts to the contrary). I also know that my dependence was intentional and that I am completely on my own. Thus, I am preparing even faster to accomplish the above steps to lose my dependency and to move out. The next time I saw him he tried to bully me into compliance again. I told him that I did not want to talk about it and that I needed to think about things. He then proceeded to talk about things. His main argument was "I am worried about your soul. God says you need to forgive." You can see how much he cares about me and knows that I am an atheist (saying I am an atheist would be the easiest way to get him out of my life now that I think about it. I decided to use the religious argument against him and said that "forgiveness requires one to admit to and atone for their sins" which pissed him off. I then pointed out that I didn't want to talk about it and here we are talking about it. He then got even more mad and stormed away. The next time he saw me I told him I didn't want to talk yet and he should ask me every day. He said "that wasn't nice" and then left. Since then, I live in the house, but pretty much don't. We have said about 4 words in a month or so since then. My girlfriend had a great interview she is waiting to hear back on, and I am saving up the money i need. I am not sure if any of this helped you or not and I would be happy to answer any questions about what happened. Hopefully something was useful haha.

The invisible hand has guided me to say that drawing is unnecessary, we have computers. ______________________________________________________________ ^^ Look, a straight line!

You are welcome!

I am here to address a very serious question that should affect FDR listeners everywhere. Everyone knows about the Budai by which, according to folklore, you rub his belly and will be blessed with wealth, good luck, and prosperity. The Budai is a conflation of several gods, but the idea is that he is a happy fat man that has his plenty, and thus rubbing his belling give you the luck to achieve the similar. Thus, the question is, what happens when you rub the Big Chatty Forehead? Stef is a champion of empathy and rationality and obviously gets his power from his monstrously large cranium. Thus, what blessing would one receive by rubbing the legendary forehead? If so, should we begin shipping Stefan busts to put outside of businesses and restaurants for people to rub? Has anyone rubbed his forehead and noticed any differences? This could be how we can really change the world!

You don't have to just wait for him to magically appear. You can contact him in advance by email: [email protected] With the extra show time, there usually is space for being early in chat, but you may find it preferable to schedule in advance.

I think any substance could separate one from themselves. If he was about to feel something from his past become connected with a horrible truth, but then uses a substance to avoid the feeling, it could add to the dissociation. I also listed this as a possibility, namely the worst end spectrum. The best end was a band-aid solution that will help for some time, but that the real issues should be addressed. He also seems to not be planning on having a little coffee, but intentionally to use it as an addictive drug to avoid depression and anxiety. This is why the worse end is possible. Not necessary, or even likely. I do not know the odds, but I would say it is possible.

This is exactly the problem. The golden rule only measures effects. The NAP or UPB attempt to measure principles. The golden rule is "If it is an effect that I would want, then I will give/inflict it on others". There is no addressing of violence, desires of the other, or force. The golden rule eventually will be used to justify violence because the perpetrator desires it. From the wiki: The golden rule inevitably leads to demanding positive action rather than only prohibiting positive actions. A moral system that demands positive action cannot stand up to UPB through the coma test. People who are sleeping or in a coma may have desires, but cannot provide them for others, and thus become immoral. The golden also becomes impossible as a moral standard. If I have the desire to eat and put a moral standard called the golden rule, then it necessitates that I feed everyone else in order to get food myself. There are just a lot of flaws.

I want to have sex, she doesn't want to have sex. Golden Rule: I should do unto her as I would want her to do unto me. NAP: I may not care about her preferences, but I cannot have sex with her because the rule requires me to consider her preferences. Thus, I cannot aggress against her by raping her. Rules are not for people who would be moral anyway and consider the preferences of others just like diet books are not sold only to people who are already fit. The "Other Person" admits that your preferences are superior to the other's preferences, thus this may result in a rape. If the other's preferences take priority then it results in self-destruction. It is only good when both people voluntarily agree and nobody has a superiority of preference that could override the other's preference. The Golden Rule is based on arbitrary preference and has no regard for the other's preference (unless it happens to coincide perfectly with yours). Thus, it is not the NAP.

I think it is not immoral as long as you use your skills to defend people from the state. Using your skills to throw people in jail for non-violent offenses would be a problem I would think. There are many areas in which people need legal help to avoid problems with the state or to defend against problems with the state.

Something to keep in mind: soda companies used to use cocaine in their sodas to foster addiction. FDA makes it illegal, they do research. Find that caffeine provides the same physiological and psychological addiction and begin to lace sodas with caffeine. You are proposing to take a highly addictive substance and make it even more addictive because you will have a special case of avoiding your anxieties and depressions (thus making coming down on the drug oh so much harder). I would highly recommend solving the problem by addressing the problem and getting help from a therapist rather than avoiding and dissociating from yourself as the solution. This is a band-aid at best and very destructive behavior that turns dissociation into more addictive behavior than it already is. I would very much recommend against this unless it was prescribed by a therapist for a short time of crisis while you were under the care of professional help. However, I find this scenario unlikely.