TheSchoolofAthens

It was a superbly pleasurable movie to watch! I highly recommend it to everyone here. I have rewrote this post about 5 times because I really can't put it into words. I am thinking that I will have to type out an outline for a podcast in order to express how important it is that this movie exists. The question, to me, isn't whether or not what the movie is high quality. To me, the question is about whether or not people will walk away from the theater and truly understand the meaning of everything they've just watched. I definitely recommend everyone else here to see it as it would be great to talk with others about it and what you think was spot on or off. A movie that is about emotions, memories, and families that actually tries to examine human emotions and memories in a fun internal way is worth a watch. Even if you think its way off, it would be beneficial to talk about why it was off as a community. That is my two cents, I think I will try to write an outline now, if I can stay up.

I've just taken notice of some articles that claim that it is a myth that the black community suffers from absentee fathers more so than other races. Here is a link to one of the articles. You will quickly notice just how liberal this article is, but the statistics and visual aids are there. Link here. Is there anything flawed with the CDC study? Are the statistics wrong? I've been persuaded by reason that - because of a great many factors - black fathers are abscent from the family picture. It is tragic. But the articles I've seen, such as the one linked above, beg to differ. Please let me know what your thoughts are and how you would respond! Here is the link to the CDC document.

Thank you for the response! Right now my goal is to become financially independent. I am hopefully going to go into a 10 month program called Praxis! Some here may have heard of it as it is very pro free market and entrepreneurship. I think I will be happy with that. You are right. I talked about anarcho capitalism with them, in which they did their very best to try to counter. I talked to them about it because I thought it was a conflict of values that was causing problems, but honestly that is not the real or most problematic aspect. I talked to them about my childhood and all I wanted was to be listened to without being made to look as if I am just blaming them and being hurtful. I told them that I wish I hadn't been in public school, and that I was in a Montessori type school. That is when my dad said "we couldn't afford to put you in a private school, we could hardly pay the electricity bills!" Again that made me annoyed because the man did not give his career his all, he gave up on it and gave up on us. I wanted him to say "we couldn't put you in private school because I made mistake after mistake, wrong decision after wrong decision and I avoided responsibility and growth." Obviously not word for word but I wanted him to take responsibility for my poor education that I was unhappy with! When I told them that I was very sad in public school, they told me "we didn't know! We would ask you how your day was and you would say it was fine or okay, if I [my mom] asked questions you wouldn't want to tell me anything!" I told them that I was a kid, a teenager who didn't know how to communicate my problems, and that in retrospect there were so many signs! I had really bad posture, in a way that signified sadness, on top of that I would often sit with my hoodie on because I didn't want to be seen or see others too much in my house. I was sad. They knew this! My dad would even tease me about how mopy I was, my mom was not as bad but she made comments every now and then as well. I wrote a poem about it a few days ago: "Laying, crying, To the light I was turned. Just one days worth of knowledge, For that I yearned. "What is it today you learned?" The silence spoke, Claim no ignorance. The nature inside of me, Was replaced with gears and cogs, Rusted and torn, Desperately trying to move forward, If even only an inch. But why so desperate for happiness if I was in school and for knowledge I yearned? "What today is it you learned?" Claim no ignorance, The silence spoke." That poem really expresses my feelings best. How dare they claim that they had no idea - my mom said she had no idea until I started failing in in junior year of high school, which she got a therapist. She told me how she cried many nights and couldn't sleep at all because she was worried about me. I don't doubt that she did. I know she did. But she refused to see this bubble that was getting bigger and bigger, and she only acted once it popped. Again, I just wanted to hear "We are sorry, we should have put you in a better school, you deserved it." But my mom told me that "it was just the teenager phase." She said "all the books said to just give space and leave you alone unless you wanted to talk." I began crying at one point and she tried to come to me and hug me and I told her I didn't want to hug right now and she said "See, see I am trying to come to you but you are pushing me away! I wanted them to take responsibility but they wouldn't. They told me the bullshit about teenager phases and how most teenagers go through those phases - that is true but it does not make it right by any means! I told them that it is a fallacy that just because it happens to a lot of people doesn't mean it has to happen or should happen. My dad told me that I was responsible, as a kid, to tell them that I was unhappy in school. I couldn't believe it. As if my body language and other non verbal cues weren't enough, I remember saying - countless times - that I hated doing my homework and that school was incredibly boring. Hell I blatantly said I didn't like school, as if any kid goes through public school without talking about how bad it is! It just sickens me because he wouldn't accept the responsibility that he had to really talk to me about my life and really care about what I want and how I feel, he should have started that bond the day I was born but it wasn't there. It would be one thing if he accepted responsibility and if he actually given his career his all - whether that meant going back to school, or learning a new trade or skill like programming, or working for a bigger business (he just wanted to be a self employed graphic designer), but he did none of those things. He avoids responsibility for his actions, himself, and how it hurt me and continues to hurt me.

Actually, yes that is quite accurate! Spot on. Earlier today - but after I posted this - I went downstairs. My mom and dad were eating in the kitchen. My dad casually asks "did you get my emails?" I told him "yes, I didn't appreciate the passive aggressive part" He knew exactly what I was talking about and he thought it was funny. He looked at my mom and briefly explained it to her and he said it is true. I told him it's not funny, especially when the topic is about therapy, and when he said "well its true" I told him "no, dont try to bring government up because you never want to talk about it." He tried to say it was just a joke until I told him "accept responsibility, it was such an asshole thing to do" and then he said he was sorry. I know his apology was far from genuine. I was taking my food upstairs and he asked "you're not going to eat with us?" I said "No, why would I eat with you? When you say things like you've said It makes me not want to eat with you." And he said "oh so now you're not going to eat with me ever?" And I said "Just because you said sorry doesn't mean anything. You have to promise to change and actually change. If you keep making statements like you did then I never want to spend time with you." As a kid, my parents - especially my dad - would tease me about how I preferred staying up in my room to read or be on the computer. They wanted me to want to spend time with them and their family friends and do things with them. Of course a good family wants to do things together, but this wasn't like that. They didn't really care about what I wanted to do, they just wanted me to go with them because it was what they wanted. That went on for about 4 years, probably from 13 to 17 until they realized I was becoming my own man. And that is just one example. I think that is how he survives - by controlling others through manipulation, and playing the victim. I don't think he ever learned how to control himself. My god, now I think he had me and my siblings just to feel at bay and as if his life is under control. PS: By the way, I really appreciate your response. It has helped me think through some deeper things such as why he chose to have me. It's not that I never thought about it before, but I think I am far closer to a realistic answer.

Hello everyone! The other night, about two nights ago to be exact, I had a difficult conversation with my parents. I explained my interest in programs outside of college, such as Discover Praxis, and they really didn't want me to go into it. They think it is okay so long as I continue going to college, but I can't stand college, for reasons I wont go into right now, college makes me miserable and I'd rather be learning and building my skills outside of a college. As the conversation continued, we ended up discussing far more than just whether I should continue my college education. I talked to them about how my bond with them feels very weak, and that I wish we had a stronger bond throughout my life, especially from middle school till now. My mom was upset, seeminly shocked, as well as offended. My dad was more angry than anything. I was honest with them. We talked for hours. My goal was not to fix anything our relationship, but to explain why it was broken. I explained that we have different value systems and morals. My dad works for the city "government" and my mom works for the public school districty as an art teacher. (I had to put quotes around government, it is afterall the great ficition.) I told them our morals were at odds and my mom and dad thought it was like a cult, that I was just blocking people off and my dad said "when you die you will have no one by your side" or something very similar to that because I "blocked them all off." I told them I would like to see a therapist, I am only 19 going on 20 so I am still dependent on them, and they asked me why I hadn't asked earlier. I replied "How am I supposed to ask for something as big as therapy? When I asked for a new mattress (I had thrown away my 10 year old mattress, and after a year or two I wanted a new one, I was sleeping on foam on the floor. I liked the simplicity but I had grown tired of it.) you didn't want to get me one!" I remember when we went shopping for that bed, yes we bought one but I had to put up a fight. My dad was annoyed that I wanted one and didn't want to spend the money, my mom took me shopping and got me one. I can't remember exactly, but it seemed like I had to do my fair share of asking for it, probably a week went by but I suppose that makes sense as finances were tough. That was just a part of our conversation and what was said and discussed. My dad tells me he will look for a therapist and then he sends me this email: "Hey Nic- below are a couple emails showing cost and counselor options. Let me know if you have any questions. By the way, government is making this available to you. J Love you" When I saw that email I was so frustrated, but I think his goal was to frustrate me. Why on earth would he tell me something like "the government is making this possible" if he knows we are completely at odds with so called government. I see it as a shameful passive aggressive attempt to do one of two things, or perhaps both. 1) To feel morally superior. I told them my honest views and that means I told them that I thought there jobs were immoral. 2) To get me to not want to go! This makes sense to me and it's sick. The fact that he knows that I am opposed to the initiation of force, and here he is basically saying that this thing that is important to me is thanks to the initiation of force, therefore I think it is him trying to passively convince me to not go at all! I can't believe someone would do that in an email. If I had a son, and he ended up being a socialist, communist, fascist loving person then I would do two things. 1) Recognize that I failed as a parent to teach my son how to critically think, and 2) I would email him a list of therapists, of course if he requested therapy, and I would NOT tell him "this is thanks to the free market. I love you." I wouldn't do that because that is a passive aggressive sick thing to do to someone one supposedly loves and cares about! *sigh* any thoughts?

When I was in elementary school, I was quite the Christian. Well, to be more accurate, my father very much liked to indoctrinate us into his religious faith. I remember one day, a kid in my 3rd or 4th grade class casually told the other children that he didn't believe in god. I told my father and he thought that the kid was nuts! Flash foward to 6th grade and my dad is a militant atheist, and by then I was just an atheist who would discuss my beliefs with others but was not constantly emerged in christian theology vs. atheism like my father. You have the right idea to be thankful for challenge. Challenge makes us grow, makes us smarter, think about thinks differently or in new ways. But I would be careful to say something like "I'm thankful that I was put into a Catholic school." Really, you are saying "I'm thankful that I was put into a religious indoctrination center." (and given that it was Catholic, I assume it could have been a strict environment.) Public school really challenged me, but not necessarily in good ways. I wish I went to a Montessoris chool. I wish my parents sat down with me, and asked me about what kind of school I would want to go to, what I would enjoy, etc. My mom certainly got us into one of the best public school's in the area, even though it was farther away from us then the crappy public school across the creek. So my parents cared about my education, but not to the extent that a human being who is involutarily brought into this world deserved. I deserved to have been bombarded with questions (of course I am exaggerating with the use of the word "bombard") and they should have done countless hours of research. I would have been thankful for that. I am not thankful for being put into an idoctrination camp. I am, however, thankful for the fact that I have overcome the challenges in my life and that I have been able to move forward from bad environments. The resilience of the human spirit is something to be thankful for.

This would certainly be a fun exercise with children! I can imagine starting off with what the words mean, then going back and forth between times when we did or didn't follow these virtues, and also think about theoretical situations. Something to do when I have kids. (a long way down the road)

Could you be more specific in your examples? There are cetainly times to look on the bright side, and times not to. If I am hungry and can't find my favorite food to eat, I may be dissapointed but I will look on the bright side of the fact that I have found food that I do like, even though I don't love it, it is still worth being happy about. On the other side of the coin, if you are repeatedly punching me in the face while I ask you to stop, and you reply "come on, look at the bright side, we are spending time together" then it would be irrational for me to continue looking at our relationship positively. I know that's a silly example, but the point sticks, right? If you are hurting, then you deserve a relationship where you can express this hurt, don't you? Let's start there.

Men abuse boys, women abuse boys, men abuse girls, women abuse girls. It's simply the truth! I find it interesting that she mentioned that the hardcore feminists were abused by men, and those were the ones that wanted to do away with men and just have sperm banks. I am not suprised at all, I often think this is very likely the case when I meet a feminist that is more of a feminazi - she is likely horribly broken to the point of insanity. It reminds me of Lena Dunham, well known feminist who molested her younger sister. I haven't looked into Lena a whole lot, but I imagine she went through similar abuse and never was helped or seeked it, and instead started to glorify it, but that's my super amateur theory. It leads me to my question, does anyone know of any sources connecting feminism, or perhaps more extreme versions of feminism, to childhood abuse?

Hey everyone, Sometimes we need a good laugh about pop culture to temporarily relieve us of the responsibility that we choose to take on to fight for a better world. I've watched a couple of these videos so far, well more than a couple haha! Some are about rappers, DJ Khaled ones are hysterical! The link below is one about this ridiculous pseudo science-mystic-spiritual-nonsense called "diamond water." His approach is entertaining so hopefuly those who watch it enjoy it just as much as I have: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDkIl3WF3sc I also found the Papa John's one funny, tell me if you guys find it humorous or not.

Writing a book on it? I can't wait to buy it and read it of course! I do not have an indepth understanding of the concept but I do have personal experience with my own mecosystem. I know everyone has experience with his or her own mecosystem, but not everyone is conscious of it. One question for people new to the idea, beyond defining what a mecosystem is, could be "how does one know that a mecosystem is indeed interanlized family members and not simply one's own self?" And another one, "Is the fact that we have mecosystems necessarily a bad thing, or is there any potential for reasonable good to come out of mecosystems?"

Imagine a book store full of books on race, gender, feminism, and communism. No need to imagine it, I was in a book store just like that this past Sunday with my girlfriend and another friend. Here is a picture to make it seem more real: [picture coming soon, can't figure out how to upload it.] While browsing the bookstore, the three of us soon started to discuss gender. Our friend first asked what I thought about the idea of gender as oppression. I responded by saying that I don't see how it could possibly be oppression. We talked about how transgender people can feel trapped in the wrong body and how people can be offended if someone calls them feminine or masculine. This ended up leading to my girlfriend and our friend agreeing on the conclusion that we shouldn't have these words or use these words to describe people, because it ends up making people feel bad or it oppresses them. The entire time I was frustrated. I know that this gender oppression argument is straight out of feminism and marxism, after all we are in a marxist book store (the book store branches off of a coffee shop). It made me annoyed because I thought my girlfriend agreed with me that gender is not oppression, as a week or so ago we had briefly talked about an article thought said gender is just an oppressive social construct and we seemed to agree that it isn't oppressive. Offending people isn't oppression, nor do people have the right to not be offended. I couldn't wrap my head around what they were trying to argue, nor could I understand why they thought the words should be banned. I concluded that they are simply arguing for universal acceptance of those who they deem worthy of acceptance, and universal ostracizing of those who use the words feminine and masculine. I couldn't understand the logic behind why such words needed to be done away with, because there is no logic there! I argued that the words feminine and masculine are simply words that describe generalities based on biological facts, men with testosterone and women with estrogen. How could a transgender person even describe how they feel, what they like, or what they would be comfortable with if they couldn't use the words feminine or masculine (or synonyms, because those words would have to be done away with too)?! One couldn't say, "I feel like I'm in the wrong body, my entire body is just too masculine." Or, "I feel like I'd be more comfortable in feminine clothes." Both my girlfriend and our friend are anarcho capitalists, but our friend seems to be not dedicated to rationality, and more so an anarcho capitalist who is also leaning towards the left in terms of sexism and gender oppression. I'm surprised my girlfriend believes what she says, it makes me nervous, and while it is acceptable for us to agree to disagree I just can't fathom the logic behind what they were arguing for.

I have actually considered getting a book on the history of math because I've been interested in knowing the whole who, what, when, where, why, and how. I will look into that book. I love Khan Academy, I'm about to get on it right now! Anyways you learned to look at the bigger picture instead of just focusing on the algebra and trig? I'd appreciate the advice!

Thank you for the in depth response and questions! I had a very similar background to you. I understood math well all the way up to 5th grade, in 6th grade I took an honors class even. In 7th grade, enrolled in honors again, I dropped to a lower level math course because I resented the math class I was in. The teacher was not helpful, I disliked her methods, if I recall correctly her voice sounded monotone, emotionless, and harsh. I would say that from that point on, I didn't like taking the more challenging classes in public school anymore because I did not like the way things were taught, the often bad teachers, or decent teachers and bad classmates, or the worst case sennario of a bad teacher and bad classmates. Even with the regular math courses, starting with sophomore year of high school going into my senior year, I resented my math courses. Again, I did not like the quality or methods. But what I think is important is that when I didn't understand a concept or how to solve a problem in my homework, and when I told my mom that I couldn't do my homework because I didn't understand it, she told me to ask my older brother (who was always in advanced classes) for help. My brother didn't mind, he would sometimes remind me that he could help. But I did not enjoy his help. I remember feeling very tense whenever he would help because if I did not understand his examples he would soon get frustrated and raise his voice. This made me nervous of course, to the point where I wouldn't even want to ask him for help. So I usually wouldn't ask him at all! Then on occasion, if it was absolutely necessary, and if my mom had told me to, I would ask him for help, regretfully and with a tense feeling. My best answer for myself is that I am afraid of the humiliating feeling that comes from being scolded for being wrong.

Sometimes, I think it sounds like my mom - you know those moments where our moms were very sweet and playful, I hope we all had at least some moments like that. I appreciate those links! I am listening to the video as I type this. I want to look more into mecosystems now. I agree, it can sound very nice! But I will touch back up on the potential flaw in this below! Thank you for sharing your experiences and expanding upon what I've discovered in myself. I've listened to podcasts where it's been discussed how individuals can have their internal parents - or other familiar people from the past - speak to them. I think there is a danger in talking to ones self by addressing ones self as "you" or "we." You excellently pointed out that lack of responsibility that comes along with this, as well as the horrible criticism. Throughout our lives, we probably hear "You did this wrong! You messed up! You x, you y, you z! You, you, you!" In other words, when we heard "you" in not the nicest of ways, yelled at us, it stuck with us and we internalized those voices. Of course, sometimes I talk to myself by addressing myself as "you" in nice ways, like hitbox above mentioned, it can sound like a cheerful thing! The danger with this, I believe, is that by talking to myself with anything but I, I am opening myself up to the criticism and praise of others. This is dangerous because there can be many voices (people from the past that I have internalized, of course) that want to do me harm, or maybe don't have the intent do me harm but still do. On the contrary, if I am to get praise it needs to be permitted and accepted by me, not by a third party that if I let in to praise me can just as easily destroy me. I also like how you pointed out the responsibility aspect. When I tell myself "You should do this" I feel like it's the third party nagging me or telling me to do something, instead of myself. This makes perfect sense, after all, "you" is a word that comes from someone else addressing me. If I say I should do this, I know that it is I, Nicholas, who is in charge, thinking, and making decisions - not the good or bad of someone else.

I was just downstairs about to make myself a sandwich when I thought "You are going to make a yummy sandwich!" I paused for a moment in a bit of confusion and thought "You? I mean I! I am going to make a yummy sandwich." It may seem like a weird way of coming to this question, but I wonder, is there anything significant when one is thinking to oneself whether he or she uses I or you? If one uses you, it sounds like it is coming from a third party and being directed at the self. Now, even if one says I when talking to oneself, one could still be talking to oneself through ones internal mother, father, etc. I hope its of interest to someone here, I certainly think its worth sharing to get peoples thoughts. Please tell me what you think or share some interesting sources!

Hello everyone. I am in college pursuing my associates in computer science. This degree requires an extensive amount of math, which can be intimidating but it is something I definitely want to do and am willing to learn. I've realized that I have self esteem issues when it comes to my performance in math. This isn't a problem in my other classes, for example, in theater I did a reenactment of a scene from Wolf of Wall Street. Certainly I was nervous to an extent, but I didn't doubt myself and say "you probably got it wrong" or "you probably will get it wrong." I ended up getting very good feedback from my professor who said it was amazing, and I was happy with my performance. On the other side of the coin, I do not have such confidence in myself when it comes to solving math problems. I'm not even talking about physics or calculus since I haven't taken those courses yet, I'm referring to basic algebra. I will do the math, on paper or in the calculator - it doesn't matter - and I will doubt the answers that I get. In my head I will say "no, this doesn't look like the right answer, I must have gotten it wrong. I probably did." For example, I just did a algebra problem: 2% of the human population has red hair. There are about 7,000,000,000 people in the world. How many people have red hair? The very first answer I got was 140,000,000. I looked at this number in the calculator and thought "Ah, this can't be right! It doesn't look right, perhaps it is far too large of a quantity. I must have done something wrong." So I then went onto try other possible solutions - again basic algebra - only to get other answers that didn't look right. Of course 140,000,000 was the correct answer. But I was afraid to type it into the submission box on Khan Academy out of fear of getting it incorrect. I doubted my answers accuracy, and I was afraid to see what the result would be. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could take the time to help me out with my issues here, I don't know what else to call it other than self doubt and maybe self esteem issues. Please ask me the necessary questions, tell me what your thoughts are, and I will be happy to assist in anyway possible! Thank you an incredible amount!

Personally, I love rough sex. I was uncomfortable with it at first, but my girlfriend has gotten me into it. Just because I was initially uncomfortable with it doesn't mean it is a good or bad thing. I was uncomfortable with giving her my first romantic kiss ever, but it turned into something amazing with a million more kisses to follow. I was uncomfortable with the idea of teaching a preschool class at a church because of obvious religious reasons, I did it anyway and it made me a much better person, but I still ended up uncomfortable. As others have said, I see no problem with rough sex. Spanking, hair pulling, biting, squeezing, nail digging, pounding, slapping, choking, etc. can make for incredible sex so long as both parties consent. Now of course, there is sex which both parties might consent to but could still be very questionable. There are people who do sexual acts which are just disgusting in my mind, such as doing things with feces and throw up - good god no! I think the real issue is when a person wants to be humiliated and degraded, or when someone wants to humiliate and degrade someone else. To seriously want to be hurt or to seriously want to hurt someone should be a huge red flag. I would stay away from it, or if already romantically involved, do some serious probing and possibly consider therapy or seeing another professional. For those who want to get into rough sex, or who have partners that want to get into it, I encourage you to do so! But do so at a pace which you are happy with, if she (or he) says she wants it a little rough, ask her if she wants some light choking, maybe she will tell you to squeeze harder, or lighter, just be very mindful and considerate of each others and it should be fun. edit: I really enjoyed reading some of the evolutionary/biological theories as to why some people may like rough sex. I never thought about a woman wanting the alpha male genes and therefore liking rough sex because historically the alpha male was probably the strongest, all around roughest guy. I also thought it was a good point to say that maybe woman have evolved to enjoy rough sex because rape was common, as unfortunate as that may be, animals rape quite a bit - well, I am no expert on that, but I have seen ducks go crazy and just pounce on female ducks (in a flock mind you) just to have sex. So in my amateur opinion, that makes sense.

Cool! No, beyond cool - astounding to know someone translated it! I still haven't finished reading it but I only started earlier this week. What exactly do you need for the cover and typesetting? Do you mean the aesthetics?

Pretty cool! I haven't heard of "stylish" before but I have added some firefox extensions that give google and youtube a black theme. They were fun, but I must say I do prefer white backgrounds and lighter colors. I may look into stylish for fun, if it is anything like CSS/html it should be enjoyable. And I second how beautiful the fdrpodcasts website it. Simple to navigate, and incredibly aesthetically pleasing.

Good day everyone. I am wondering, how can one effectively measure professional development? Professional development as in: the advancement of skills or expertise to succeed in a particular profession. Speaking out of my own experience, I can measure development by setting goals, recording my progress towards those goals, and seeing where I've failed, succeeded, and can improve. This isn't a professional example but it does pertain to development: I have a spreadsheet for every day of the month showing what workout routines I've done and how many pushups or situps I've done for that day. I can clearly track my progress, set goals, and see if I've reached those goals or not, and perhaps adjust my goals if they are too high or too low. In regards to professional development, I figure that it would be very similar to the spreadsheet for working out. But how does one measure the advancement of skill or expertise in regards to public speaking, or say writing? I want to say through tests about, perhaps, speaking and writing etiquette, as well as through assignments such as giving a speech or writing an essay, and then getting feedback in the form of grades and/or critiques. I am working on an educational program where we need to measure the professional development of our students/associates. Whether you've worked on similar programs, have experience with them in any way, or you just have ideas, please tell me what your thoughts are! Thank you! edit: I can think of multiple choice tests, mock interviews, and speeches. I don't know why I've been assigned this task because I think that what I've just listed are examples of measurement. Maybe the real question is how to effectively measure assignments and projects.

I really like the line, "you are entitled to nothing." Unfortunately, Underwood is really saying the opposite. With his plan, the biggest job creation program since the new deal, there will be no more unemployment. "If you want a job, you get one." He's not saying that you have to go look for one, on the contrary he is saying the government will create jobs and give jobs to everyone. It is socialism under the guise of individualism. It reminds me a lot of Stalin's art style, socialist realism. Work hard, through government jobs, and watch as we all prosper! Very similar to the message of the New Deal policy and the art that was commissioned by the US government for the policy. Underwood specified in a meeting that the 3 points of focus for job creation would be infrastructure (build a bridge here! ooh ooh and a dam there! Build a highway system in the middle of nowhere!) military, as well as the the private sector. (One can imagine all the subsidies, bail outs, and cronyism) The narrative is interesting though. Once the economy gets so bad that it can no longer be ignored, will socialism take its hold on the entire nation under the guise of individual hard work? Twisted! I don't think this scene was about dominance, as in, Claire wasn't trying to dominate Frank. I think it was actually about them coming together, quite literally, in order to pull themselves up in order to dominate their obstacles, not each other. They are stronger as a pair than they would be separately - they get the media attention that comes with being a powerful couple, going out to dances and events, people also tend to like when a politician is married for a long period of time (we can trust that guy!) but overall they are stronger together. It is all their relationship really is. They are a power hungry couple who can only get satisfaction through high office and political scheming - and they would have destroyed each other long ago had they not realized the power they each gain by working together. They remind me of the relationship that Bill and Hillary must have, I'm sure Obama and Michelle have the same relationship, but Bill and Hillary are a better example because both are so addicted to titles and power.

Same with Bill Nye - sure he gets people interested in science, speaks about atheism, but the man is pro government and pretty leftist at that.

That is what initially frustrated me so much, I thought "so what?" I said that I don't think it is aggression, but if it aggression and you wont accept any exceptions to the NAP due to the fact that principles don't have exceptions, then what are you to do? Take the NAP, copy and paste the entire thing, add a section about how we all are using aggression as a result of having cars and factories and being civilized, and call it the minimal aggression principle (MAP)?! She is not for any government oversight, regulation, tax or anything. Good voluntaryist! But she was trying to convince me that air pollution is aggression, which I just don't see happening because I can't see any possible logical argument that all humans are using aggression simply for driving cars. I got into voluntaryism and philosophy years ahead of her, so she has some catching up to do in some areas, but overall she is very intelligent - besides we all got questions and ideas to clarify. I was frustrated as hell and I really let myself lose control of my attitude. I was saying things like "So for the sake of the argument, lets say it is aggression, what next?!" It seemed to always lead into the fact that the free market handles pollution problems best due to a system of property rights, competition (Prius or Insight, wonderful cars to choose between), and technological innovations. I hope to watch one of Stefan's videos about this very topic, it's amazing that she brought up something that he has rebutted. I look forward to it! Please excuse me I erred. I meant to say that I don't think car pollution is aggression, it is a consequence of nature, something that goes into the air. If a person were to deliberately put trash on your property, that is a direct violation of your property. But if someone drives a car, it is impossible to say that person is using aggression simply because of the pollutants.

If someone habitually chooses to avoid topics that are of great importance to you, then that person does not share your values. You can't build a relationship with someone unless you share values - of course this depends on the type of relationship. I can do business with others, for example work as an employee along side other employees, but this because we share values to some extent in regards to the business we work for, i.e. we both want to make money through the company and work together to do so. But family relationships are not business relationships. Family relationships tend to be an undeserved "I love you." This "I love you" usually derives from the fact that the individuals are related in blood and not as a result of sharing values and seeing virtue in one another. I am thankful for my childhood. I went to public school, which I would never send any child to, but I still spent loads of hours with my family - camping trips, hiking, fishing, swimming, wrestling, etc. We did so much as kids, it really was a blast. I don't really need to say that it wasn't perfect because no family is perfect, but I did look up to my parents and enjoy them a lot as a kid because they were very playful and caring. Unfortunately as I got older, my relationship with my whole family started to deteriorate. I didn't like public school anymore and I began to feel trapped in it, I didn't like how my parents lacked growth and work ethic, I found that I couldn't talk to them about my beliefs without feeling like I was either talking to myself (to my mom who didn't understand to much) or to bullies. (my dad and brother) I realized that even with my childhood which I am very thankful for, relationships which lack freedom to communicate and a sharing of values will deteriorate and turn into nothing more than memories covered in dust.