Some thounghts on Genesis

I operate on the general principle that the truth is always somewhere in the middle, between the extremes.For me, both the Bible and the works of science hold truth, each an authority within its sphere, the Bible focused on spirituality and morality and their development, science focused on the mechanics of physical existence and their development. Science can say nothing about the spiritual and the Bible contains nothing on quantum physics. One of the problems with taking the Bible literally is that many concepts and stories were not included for literal reading, but were attempts to  explain things for which our modern concepts meant nothing to the people of the time. How can you understand billions of years of evolution when things like the Earth seem eternal and the term "forty" is used to mean a lot of something, as in 40 days or 40 years in the desert. So the writers used terms the people could understand, God's day being a long time. The writers also put things in their own terms of understanding (including their own prejudices, fears, traditions, superstitions and judgments) and embellished and altered details for the sake of the story told and the point they intended to make. And then of course, it has been copied and translated some many times that errors intentional and intentional have crept in, but the skeleton of truth is still there. 

I was thinking about the part in Genesis about Eden. My church teaches that Eden was a protected area on the North American continent. I see the creation of Adam and Eve's bodies and the later so-called Fall much as it is described but through a more scientific lens. My church teaches that we are god's in foetal form, with death being our true birth. God, Heavenly Father, was once the same as us and is far more evolved physically, intellectually, morally and spiritually than us. A god in comparison. Assuming this to be true, his ability to manipulate elements to produce proteins and DNA and thus life must be far beyond ours, and we can already turn one type of cell into another and produce pregnancies without sex being involved. It should be little effort for Heavenly Father to use the"dust" of the Earth to build and grow a body for Adam's spirit. Then cloning Eve's body from Adam's would be a snap (not to mention later doing a little gene-splicing with a young woman's egg to produce a virgin birth, but that's another chapter).

Protected in Eden, Adam and Eve grew and matured as far as pre-puberty where they remained, innocent, until the Fall. My church believes that Adam and Eve took on the knowledge of good and evil by necessity, the act of disobeying being that introduction to conscience. In was a sin, but a sacrificial one so that they and those who could follow could develop and learn to use free will, and live through its consequences. As soon as they took on adult knowledge, they went through puberty and Eden stopped being a protective nursery. The Bible says they were exiled east of Eden, which to me says Africa. No way to go back from there, at least not for a long time to come. It always confused me that the Bible says the children of Eve mixed with the people of the land of Nod (I think I'm remembering the name right). Where did they come from? Now I think it's fairly obvious, they were early humans, possibly Homo Sapiens, possibly Neanderthals, possibly earlier. The small group of Adamic people bred with them, possibly sparking our original migrations from Africa. My church believes that those with the purest Adamic genes lived for hundreds , even thousands of years as given in the Bible, until their geneses diluted to give our species the span to which we are accustomed. But we are all children of Eve and of Africa.
 

You encourage what you profit from

The problem with letting large corporations become in charge of essentials like medical care, drugs and cures, the justice system, the government, and the environment is that they will always encourage their source of greatest profits to continue despite what damage it may cause.

Drug companies aren't interested in producing cures, they want treatments. The drug industry and most medicine, as well as the justice system, depend on the misery of others to exist. Medicine, including drugs, are supposed to cure that misery but make better profits by treating the symptoms.

Mineral and petroleum extraction companies are about exploiting the resources available in the ground the cheapest way possible. Thus they care not what happens to other resources, ones that aren't supposed to run out, like minerals  (as long as we stay on this planet) and petroleum definitely will. The faster they rip it from the earth, the quicker it will run out, of course, the quicker it becomes rarer and the rarer it gets the most profit possible.

The large agriculture corporations are trying to make every farmer dependant on their seeds, which are incapable of reproducing and thus need yearly replacement, and fertilizers and pesticides because the limited varieties sold strip the soil of nutrients and lack the genetic diversity and symbiotic neighbours to ward of pests and diseases. Thus farms are addicted to what the corporations sell.

And in the world economy, large financial corporations profit from risky behaviour (aka gambling) and the lack of regulations as well as the people's fear and belief that these people know what they are doing. They continue to encourage greater, riskier debt so they can get more bale-outs when they loose the money that we give them to invest safely and loan at reasonable rates. What has that gotten us? Credit cards that charge more than Chinese loan-sharks.

And since at least the 1980s politicians have been trying to run countries like corporations. The dog often resembles the master. Economic growth, monetary profit, has been the only guiding ideal. If a country is a corporation when does it profit the most? When a large percentage of its labour force are slaves. Just ask colonial Europe, America, Rome, and Ancient Egypt, plus the women of nearly every age gone by. When the most you have to pay your labour force is beer, your economy grows like wild fire. China is well aware of this, and as its middle class is growing, it's growth is slowing. Because the middle class, in fact most citizens, usually want more from their country than a good profit on the balance sheet. They want services, protections, rights, decent living conditions, dignity. Profit is just one part of helping to achieve this. It's no good if it goes just to the CEO and board and a few majority shareholders. In democratic countries we're all supposed to be equal shareholders. We all get one vote.

Democracies can't be run as corporations. Corporations are single psychopathic legal entities with no other concern but profit. Like in most corporations, rising profits don't mean rising wages and benefits unless the workers make their demands and unity clear.

War is the ultimate way to profit from misery. Ask the so-called "Security Council" of the UN. The biggest five weapons manufacturing and dealing countries on the planet. When they ask each other to intervene in an ongoing human rights disaster or armed conflict,  they are really saying, "Do you need to profit from this one or can we take it this time? And how long can we milk this one?" The UN might have a chance of working if this Profiteering Council was abolished.

Do we want our countries to be nothing but misery breeding money machines? The Quebec government is giving funding to reopen Canada's shameful asbestos mine. We won't use it here, but we're sure willing to profit by selling it to people who don't know or can't afford to know better.  Do we want the world to be nothing than a grinding machine for human misery?

Capitalism is supposed to be the economic system that helps enable the betterment of our lives and the operation of our government for that aim. It's not supposed to be the government system itself. We created it, not the other way around. Like all our creations if we let it rule us, we are doomed by that very creation.

Our idols are always false. Nothing but the Earth is set in stone, and stone itself breaks.

The Harper Government: Making certain that we're unprepared

Harper has quietly cut funding for the federal program to help lower levels of government deal with large scale disasters. He also terminated funding for the training programs that prepared first responders for such disasters. They close this year with no replacements planned. He has told local emergency workers to learn from their peers. He has downloaded the cost of training and responding to such disasters to local government, provincial and municipal. This will hamper our country's ability to respond to such emergencies.

Harper is balancing his so-called budget on the backs of the provinces, municipalities, workers, necessary government services, refugees, the elderly of the near future, and the poor, as well as at the expense of our international reputation and safety. George Bush put a horse judge in charge of the US emergency measures agency and along came Katrina. Harper has basically shut down our FEMA, or at least our ability to act as a united country to disaster. This might be important should the climate change that Harper stopped our scientists from studying prove as dangerous as many think.

He's done this so he can wave his Hypocrite's wand and say, "Look how good of an economist I am. Trust me."

The real message: "We're on our own."

Credit companies put in perspective

I just learned that in China loan-sharks charge 21% interest on loans. Most credit cards start at 18%. Mine are over 21%. Yet they continue to get away with it because usury (loan-sharking) is defined in Canada as charging more than 60% interest. What loan-sharks made that law?

Some thoughts on space and time

Gravity slows down the effect that we call time. Time passes a slower around an object as its mass increases. Stand near one of the pyramids and time seems to pass a minuscule amount slower than if you are beyond its gravitation influence. Astronauts experience time a little faster when in orbit than on the ground unless they are moving fast enough to counter it. The faster you go, the more your mass increases, the slower time is experienced. I'm sure scientists have already considered this and moved on, but it just occurred to me that maybe dark energy - which scientists believe is responsible for not only the expansion of the universe but also its increasing rate of expansion - is not actually a separate energy or force at all but an effect of gravity or the lack of gravity. If gravity slows the passage of time, then time must pass fastest where there is the least matter. This would be between galaxies and between galactic clusters or even deeper in space. It seems to me that the expansion of the big bang would slow where gravity is strongest due the clustering of mass in matter and would be fastest in the vast universal emptiness. Beyond the mass clusters (including dark matter) space would expand at a rate that would increase as the distance from the mass increased. Dark matter seems to work to hold together these clusters, a basic level of non-interactive mass like a web upon which the more active forms of mass collect into islands past which rush the universal emptiness. The emptiness between the parts of the mass clusters  grow, but the slowing of the expansion by gravity keeps everything within the tolerance of the forces binding matter together.

Just a thought. 

Competition or Cooperation? The self versus society.

Competition is by its very nature selfish, the one against the many with only one left standing. Cooperation is by its nature more difficult but more powerful. Civilization and all our advances are built on it. You might say that individual geniuses competing are responsible for much of that, but without civilization allowing them the time, freedom, and resources, they could do nothing. Just take our bodies, for example. Our bodies are comprised of cells each doing their own thing, but in a cooperative effort that results in us. When our bodies compete against themselves, it's called cancer. or lupus. Competition must be kept within a cooperative framework. That's the supposed lesson of sports and warfare (which are basically the same thing). Teams are stronger than individuals. But it takes more maturity, confidence, and open-mindedness to cooperate effectively without having it imposed by a dictatorial "leader". Diversity of strengths and weakness can be harnessed to the benefit of all. As in the movie, A Beautiful Mind, when the friends stopped trying to score with the hottest girl, they all ended up with one of her friends. Life isn't a win/lose game. We all end up in the same place with no one left standing. We are here to mature and evolve mentally and emotionally by living the consequences of free will. We have risen to our place in nature by working together and building on the work of those before us. We cooperate within the group that we see as "us" and compete against the groups or individuals we see as "other". Problem is, we're reaching the point where there really is no "other", just us. The human race. Competing against ourselves can only divide and weaken us while likely destroying the very things that we are competing over. The major religions all preach cooperation, even among enemies. I've never heard of the commandment to "rise above your brethren and brag about it".

A true leader

We have lost the concept of what a true leader is. It is not merely the head of a group or team, but someone who can unite opposing teams. A leader is someone who can make use of the benefits of diversity rather than exploiting difference for personal or team gain. A leader unties and inspires people to look beyond their ideological horizons and cultural differences,combining strengths to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. Leaders don't pit those parts against each other. That is counterproductive to truly leading. You can lead fighting dogs. Leaders serve rather than rule, convince rather than command, working for the betterment of all not just themselves and their supporters. Leaders present their visions and let the peopl,e see the worth for themselves, they convince rather than coerce, avoiding ramming through their opinions or ideologies and never demonizing those who disagree of show other forms of difference. They earn respect through action, not position or wealth. Leaders show integrity, openness, inclusiveness, and wisdom. Politicians play the game of power to win. Leaders take their people to new heights unattainable alone. Leaders use reason not emotion to move others. People ruled solely by emotion possess no reason and are easily manipulated by politicians. We need true leaders to face the real future, not exaggerations and falsehoods and personal attacks based on the manipulation of ignorant emotion. Like medicine, we need to move to evidence-based practice in government. We need to approach government as a cooperative rather than cooperative enterprise. We're only beating ourselves.

How you determine what a good government looks like?

A good government is one that exists to provide services and protections for its people. Good, targeted, efficient regulations on business and the economy and environment without regulating personal behaviour that doesn't harm others. It should balance freedoms, rights, responsibilities and duties in its laws. A good government that is run for and by the people, where all view points get fair attention and representation an no vote is wasted. Mature coalitions are a sign of mature government. Working together on a problem instead of automatic opposition is a sign of good government. Government where the representatives are employees of the citizens and not their masters and are given benefits and pay as such. Bills that are actually the result of informed debate and reasonable comprises rather than so-called majorities ramming ideology down everyone's throats. Above all, a government not beholden to those who financed them. All parties should draw the same amount for their campaigns out of a central fund that anyone can contribute to. You fund democracy not parties. Government and civilization must be cooperative processes or they become tyrannies of one form or another. An never let the military gain control of the government. Militaries are trained not to give up what they take. You can tell a good government by its fruit. Does it improve the lives of the vast majority of its citizens or just a privileged few? If so it is only the government of the few for the few.

When duty doesn't mean shit

Remember when the word duty didn't bring up chuckles related to bodily functions? It's hard to I know. There was a time when citizens had duties to their society and one another. Now, thanks to ruthless competition, self-centred individualism rules so mush that we don't bother to vote. Voting isn't just a right, it's a duty to one's self. one's fellow citizen's and one's society. You don't just render yourself silent when you don't vote, you break democracy. It doesn't function, like the fact that our present majority government has a majority with 40% of the 50% or so votes cast. That means they rule with around 20% approval from the populace. A great argument for proportional representation but even that won't help if half the population continues to be absent, taking no responsibility while accepting the benefits. They don't even have a right to complain. Silence is consent so if you didn't vote, you helped put the one's n power there. Voting is more essential to the system than jury duty. In Canada trials can be by judge only or by jury. There are two options for justice but only one for democracy... voting. It should be at least as mandatory as jury duty, with similar punishments and exceptions. If you don't get you name checked off on voting day you should be in contempt of the country. If you were fined or put in jail for a short term, you might get off your ass and vote. Of course it would help if, like it was for much of the 20th century, you got time off work to go vote, like jury duty. It only requires an hour or two in most cases and with electronic voting may even get quicker. It's a small thing to do for freedom and democracy. Soldiers give their lives for their duty. The least the average slob can do is check a box on a little card, maybe even do a little research first. It is our duty to defend and serve the country that does the same for us. It is our duty to pay attention to the issues that involve everyone. There is no separation between man and nature. There should be no separation between the people and the state. One necessarily includes the other. Laws and regulations are there to help encourage and ensure that duties are lived up to. It is one of the cornerstones of civilization. Without a connection of responsibility between the part and the whole the system breaks down.

Politics... the expression of all evil.

It is politics not money that is the root of evil, or rather its perfect expression.. Money can be used for good. Politics always get in the way of good. The competition for power is what causes war, poverty and most social ills. Religion itself is not a political institution, but it quickly becomes infested with it, as does government, science and most other human endeavours. Struggle for power leads to inflexible dogma and the creation of some class or people as the other and thus open to attack. Politics, the struggle for power, is the combination of all  seven deadly sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Only in its absence or restriction can the virtues of Valour (Pursuit of Knowledge), Generosity (Pursuit of Charity), Liberality (Pursuit of Will), Diligence (Pursuit of Ethics), Patience (Pursuit of Peace), Kindness (Pursuit of Love), and Humility (Pursuit of Modesty) be expressed in our society. This is reflected in the commandment to love even our enemies as well as the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you wish done to you. The reason we haven't had any inspirational leaders in the last few decades is that we've let ourselves become led by politician, not mature  leaders trying to work together to improve the world. Politics is by nature competitive while communication, government, religion and civilization are cooperative. We shouldn't let a few rabid competitors rule us, we need mature leaders if the human race is ever to progress. In competition there is only one winner. Pretty sad for the other 6,999,999,999 of us.

Religion and Science

Religion deals with faith, morality, and the spiritual. Science deals with observation, measurement, and the physical. They are not opposed as each takes up where the other leaves off. They are two sides of the same coin. Humans live in both worlds and always try to fill the void left by one or other. Secularism and the belief in the supremacy of science is itself a non-theistic religion. Together they form the basis of human social, intellectual, and creative currency. Apart they are worthless.

Instability at the Heart of the Economic System

The problem is that there is too much private influence on the value of money. There is no standard except market whims and the expectations of gamblers. We need to go back to where governments printed instead of borrowing from central banks and the value of money was based on something tangible. You shouldn't be able to make money by trading money, it is not a good or a serve, it is a means to goods and service. We've named banks essential to the system and then given them license to gable with our money instead of just making a fair profit from loans at a reasonable rate and service fees, the total of which shouldn't be exponentially higher than what they pay us to use our money for loans. That's what their original purpose was. Governments gave them permission to run, not the other way around.

Slavery in the 21st Century

According to official US sources, there are over 27 million people presently victims of slavery and human trafficking. That's more than in any other time in history. Hell, that's almost the population of my country. And yet most countries act like slavery is a thing of the past, eradicated on the way to our modern times. Actually, it's a booming economy, a rampant success of the free market and renewable resource exploitation, the perfect companion to unrestrained capitalism and allowing economics to run countries instead of morals and principals. Tyranny is the oldest corporation of all, with the free market determining the value of everything, even life. Debt, coercion, and war have always been the gateways to slavery. Now they're trying to enslave entire countries through financial markets that trade value instead of producing real wealth, with those doing the trading siphoning off society's gains or gambling it away so they can take advantage of the lack of regulations and tax breaks to concentrate the benefits among the few dogs that survive to make to the top of a heap of dogs who ancestors got them there. Very few got there on talent or genius that benefits anyone but themselves. And the rest of us are supposed to take service jobs to wait upon our betters. And the number of slaves continues to rise.

Idolatry as an expression of ego: the source of problems throughout history

 The following link is a very good discussion on the concept and expression of idolatry throughout history to today, but I disagree with one of the concepts raised by the evangelistic woman in the piece. Eve's gaining the knowledge of good and evil and wanting to be like god was not in itself idolatry but a necessary step in our evolution and progress. God and Jesus are our examples. We are supposed to want to become like them. Idolatry enters the picture when we start to believe we, another person, a place, an item, an image, or an idea is like god and put our faith in it. For example, papal infallibility and the worship of the organization of the church, countless saints, and Mary are what turned Catholicism into idolatry. Process philosophy teaches that everything is in a state of becoming, there is no static truth or state. I have been taught that even god develops and the afterlife is a place for unending development and learning, so nothing in this life is meant to be permanent and fixed, except god in relation to us. God is not a mystery except to we blind mortals who refuse to hear and see him. The mystery comes from the contractions and errors built into the mortal test to see how we handle them.

 
Idolatry for Beginners - CBC Ideas

The 30-year neo-liberal war on the middle-class

I agree with this article, Harper is continuing the neo-liberal war on the middle-class started by Thatcher, Reagan, and Mulroney that includes low corporate and upper income taxes, removing protective regulation locally and internationally, worshipping and encouraging the gambling with society's wealth rampant in the so-called free market, destroying unions, and privatization of public necessities for the benefit of their financial backers. I still think he's more Bush/Cheney though.

 "Stephen Harper is a male version of Margaret Thatcher. This man has an employer’s agenda, which has nothing to do with the welfare of the Canadian people, and he’s using this opportunity to dismantle the social safety net of the nation.

Just look south at what has happened when collective bargaining disappears in the private sector and the public sector: levels of inequality that we have never seen; wages that have stood still for a quarter of a century; and the overall economic health of the world leading economy has suffered.

Stephen Harper is destroying the middle class of Canada. He’s choking the balance of power away from working people, and I think a different kind of Canada will emerge as a result." http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/06/19/philip-jennings-uni-global-union-stephen-harper_n_1610713.html

To Serve and Protect?

The RCMP were created as a military police force to establish control of the Canadian west. Storm-troopers with supposed honour, they serve only one master, the government. CSIS was created because the RCMP was trampling the people's rights in order to spy on them. So now CSIS spies on us. It is not an international intelligence organization but and internal security agency. In other words, the secret police. Our government pays lip-service to democracy and rights but our first-past-the-post, adversarial system is an elected dictatorship without term limits when a majority is in power. And it has all the tools of fascism at its disposal. Governments spy on their enemies, not their allies. Our system has placed everyone not in the ruling part into the opposition by default. Our system lets the minority punish the majority, for few majority governments have actually had the confidence and support of more than half of the people. Coalitions representative of the percentage of popular vote are the mature way to run a country. Canadians shouldn't be the enemies of other Canadians. We are not opponents in this enterprise called Canada but partners, and our government, the central organization point for that cooperation certainly shouldn't be working against us, let alone treating us like potential enemies of the state. And now Harper is removing a level of oversight for CSIS, a change that allows the minister in charge to claim that he didn't know what CSIS was up to when they get caught doing what they were created to do to us. He even told them that they can use information gained from torture. Considering we're who they deal with, that just makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside.... no wait, that's the electrode up my....

Thanks Canadian government for doing such a great job serving and protecting us.

Cooperation: the Force of Civilization

Competition makes species tougher, but cooperation has brought us from the jungle to space. Intelligence and wisdom grow because of it and communication isn't possible without it. Civilization depends on it, uncorrupted religion encourages it and liberal democracies require it. We are far strong in numbers than individually. That's whole purpose in government, though you wouldn't know it from the competition that so often derails serious, mature governance. Competition and cooperation must be balanced or we will compete ourselves completely out of existence.

Here's an article on point.

Why We Help: Far from being a nagging exception to the rule of evolution, cooperation has been one of its primary architects. By Martin A. Nowak
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-we-help-evolution-cooperation

Canada's Bush Era

 Stephen Harper is a combination of Bush and Cheney and surrounded the by same sort of drones. He would have taken us down the same delusional path when they were still in power, but he fortunately he couldn't get his majority. Now he's attacking the refugees, the old, the poor, the environment, science, his opponents, and anyone in disagreement.

Harper the Hypocrite is the most controlling, opaque dictator advised by criminals and cheats that our exploitable system has even produced. He inherited a strong economy and regulatory framework (which is why our economy wasn't gambled away by banks so-called "investing") just as Bush inherited the most prosperous and peaceful US ever. Bush also squandered the most international goodwill the US ever had, just as the Hypocrite is destroying our international reputation for reasonableness, social responsibility, peace, and the desire to good in the world by being an arrogant ass in the pocket of the oil industry. Just like Bush. Adopting the tactics, ideas, and blindness of Bush and the Republicans, Harper's war isn't against Ira and Afghanistan. Its fronts are against refuges, the poor, the elderly, the worker, the environment, and liberal democracy.

The Hypocrite thinks "Liberal democracy" means that the country is infested with progressives, so he's out to establish conservative corporate oligarchy (fascism) as the logical opposite. He thinks he's very logical, after all, economists like him are never shocked by the markets or economy, they always get it right.

The Bush era left the US a financial, political wreck so bad it caused the remaining Republicans to go into denial so bad they went insane.

It usually takes ten years for Canada to catch up to the US. Let's stop the process before we do.We cannot make the same mistake and give Harper the Hypocrite a second majority.

Our Katrina may be coming.

Conservative Arrogance and Self-righteousness

Conservatives always act like they have some great financial plan and skill. They get in, cut all funding to necessary programs and claim its a miracle that they lower the cost of government. Harper has benefited from good regulations that kept our banks from being as stupid as those around the world. All he did was stimulus spending, which any government would do. Now's he's got the arrogance to go around the world preaching to others. What an ass.

Legalization makes things safer.

Hemp/cannabis has many active cannabinoids, just not THC. The strains common in previous generations had a lot less THC than some of today's varieties and more CBD. CBD, or cannabidiol, is not psychoactive and blocks THC's psychoactive effects to some extent, making it a safer and more enjoyable experience. CBD is a highly effective treatment for many serious medical conditions, including pain, spasms, seizures, gastrointestinal conditions, neuro-degenerative diseases, an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory. CBD has more medicinal utility than THC, though THC is good as an appetite stimulate and anti-depressant. Because that's where the high has always been said to reside, the lust for THC as the simplistic golden egg of the plant has ended up in its corruption. In fact the increase in THC has resulted in a decrease in CBD. CBD needs to be restored in cannabis, it makes it safer and the experience better according to the old-timers.

This is one reason it needs to be legalized. I was told recently that legalization might empower the criminals and make it cheaper on the street. My argument to that would be the experience of alcohol. But just for argument's sake, if it did get cheaper on the streets, it would be less interesting to criminals who are usually interested in quick, big scores.

Life's Challenges

Some say HIV is god's punishment, but considering how Jesus treated sinners, it seems more likely to be a challenge for the rest of us, especially those who would judge them. He specifically said that those who judge will be likewise judged. Can you love the person and forgive the sin? Jesus did. He didn't condemn people for mistakes as long as they tried not to repeat them. He is a parent wanting his children to learn, not obey blindly. He hated willful blindness, hypocrisy, and selfishness. He said we must love everyone - NO EXCEPTIONS. (He also said that those who harmed children would be better off thrown to the bottom of the sea than face him, but that's another topic.)

He also said that we're each responsible for working out our own salvation (with him). That no one else can do it for us or force us into it. They can lend a hand, but they can't can save us. We're here to learn to love and rise above our animal natures, not to force others to be like us. We are to help, not judge or harm. The iron rod is a metaphor for the truth, not a literal rod. You don't convince of convert people by yelling louder.

We have chosen to come to this world from our pre-mortal existence  to be challenged and tested so that we might grow and develop. How do we handle contraction? How do we act when we don't know god's around? How do we handle free will? How do we handle power or the lack of it? Whatever our strengths were as pre-mortal spirits, that is where our handicaps now lie. Life isn't fair by design, but we are told that this is but our fetal stage and that the life to come will be relative paradise for all but the very worst of us. There is no eternal hell of flame and torture. There is no heaven of eternal purposeless bliss. The purpose of life is much grander than we dream and this isn't even really the beginning. We have yet to be truly born. 

The Hopeless War on Ourselves

Einstein defined insanity as repeated the same actions and expected different results. The war on drugs iws proof of that. It is making our society insane, fighting itself. It's time to end prohibition. It didn't work in the the early 20th century. It creaked a powerful class of criminals, rampant corruption, and citizens with no respect for the law. We're only making crooks rich, increasing violence and crime, and killing people with unsafe street drugs. Everyone knows that banning  never works, whether it be books, music, ideas, unions, abortion, or drugs. It forces it underground and out of control, forcing governments to spend rather than gain money and to work against their own citizens. It's a slippery slope on both sides. Once a government turns on its citizens a little, there's nothing holding it back from trampling them wholesale. Once a populace loses faith in laws, and start breaking them, it leads to willingness to go farther. Both sides inevitably meet in revolution. So it would be in society's best interest to openly discuss such things rather than trying to sweep them under the rug. Things grow under rugs.

The Neo-liberal Union

The North American zone was created with NORAD for defense and strengthened in the eighties between Reagan, Thatcher and Mulroney who brought in the neo-liberal idiocy that has ruled since. Then Mexico was swept in with NAFTA, the 'free' trade disaster that was the beginning of the current economic crisis. Free trade is another word for no-regulations or standards to protect industry or citizens. All hail the corporate masters.

Canada was made for the Internet

Our system was created with the apparent intention that everyone in the country would join a party. This is the only way that the people get a chance to elect a leader for the country. Until now, it has been impractical for people to travel to participate in these conventions so they tuned out and the system became dominated by political junkies. Now we can participate online. People complain that there is no one to vote for. If everyone were members of the party that most suited them, then we would have a much broader and more responsive system.

Deregulation: Private and Free - Really?

An example of the disastrous folly of neo-liberal deregulation and its true purpose as instituted by Mulroney, Thatcher and Reagen. Air Canada was privatized under Mulroney even though it is our only international and remote local carried and is given privileges as a result. Even though governments refuse to class it as an essential service, and thus point out that it shouldn't be private, they repeatedly treat it as essential to the country. The only ones who have ever benefited from this situation are the executives and shareholders sucking off the public tit disguised as free enterprise. Ever notice that workers always have to sacrifice to be more competitive, but the bosses and shareholders don't?  Deregulation creates chaos and puts the consumer at the mercy of the companies involved. It allows Canadian businesses to move to foreign countries that use sweatshops and then sell their products to us at huge profits while forcing backward the gains in labor standards and rights that we fought for over the last century.  Essential services need to be regulated government services, provided perhaps through contract tenders chosen on the basis of the best economic/quality balance (bang per buck). Trade agreements need to protect rights and standards, not allow them to be eroded. They should help the poorer rise to the level of the richer, not bring us all down. Deregulation degrades the service for those who depend upon by focusing on  profit maximization rather than service quality. True competition should make the service better and cheaper, but not if there is no protective regulations to keep all participants from lowering service quality to maximize profits. Fire people, raise prices. Large business and the financial sector do not suffer with the rest of us, they just cause that suffering.

Basic Philosophy

The intellectually weakest form of argument is a personal attack.

The Silent Speak for No One

Silence is consent. Engagement is the only option.

We Must Vote

All democracies need mandatory voting. It's as critical to the system as jury duty. It's not just a right, it's a civic duty

Residential Schools: I didn't know about the horror that we inflicted..

Residential schools are the great hidden shame of Canada. The government systematically tried to destroy the culture of our natives. They abducted children from loving families, inflicted physical and mental abuse, malnutrition and even death. The survivors were mentally scarred and given no control over their lives or communities. Then they were blamed for their inability to adapt and called lazy, when they were actually intentionally damaged and robed of the ability to parent. They have been through a silent war. We owe them more than we can ever repay.

The Body Politic

Freedoms must be defended. Democracy has to be exercised. The body renews itself every seven years. So must we.

Nuclear Capitalism

Capitalism without regulation is basically the strong devouring the weak, or at least exploiting them. There is no moral value in capitalism. The powerful do as they will. Growth at all costs. Exploit the workers. Damn the environment. Capitalism is essentially a system for concentrating wealth in the hands of those who already have it. Properly regulated and controlled by a democracy it is a powerful tool for progress and improved living conditions. But, like the atom, it is as destructive as it is creative and leaves a lot of waste.

Political Reform

We need proportional representation, including in the cabinets. We need an end to the adversarial system and the institution of a mature one based on cooperation and compromise, trying to come at issues from every angle and use what works best, regardless who proposes it. Opposite views can work together to improve results, each pointing out flaws that can be corrected in a constructive process.  We need the end of party discipline and the institution of free votes on everything. Every elected member should be a full participant in the government, not just the party with the most asses in seats. Ending first past the pole ends strategic voting and makes every vote count. We should also have compulsory voting. Jury duty is compulsory because it is essential to the system. It is  a microcosm of democracy as a whole. If jury duty is a duty, then voting is more so, and even more essential to the system functioning properly. We seem to have forgotten the concept of duty.  We also need an elected, effective senate, and politicians should be well-paid but they should only get the same sorts of pensions as everyone else...one that they contribute to themselves and/or the Canada Pension. They are citizens after all, they should be treated as such, not elected nobles. I'd also get rid of the crown and have parliament led by a president directly elected by the people who was both head of government and head of state for better representation and efficient use of our money. Then we would actually elect our leaders rather than letting small numbers of devotees select people for our most important jobs. I'd also have all parties draw from a central pool of funds for their election activities instead of letting special interests pay for policy.

Things that Make you go Hmmm.....

Quantum Mechanics seems not only improbable but ridiculous, except that it works so well nearly everything we use in our modern technological world is based on it. It has so far proved to be perhaps our most accurate model of reality so far, tested by daily life. Makes you wonder what other highly improbably, seemingly absurd things are true.

Democracies and Crowns Don't Mix

Monarchies are anachronistic left-overs from feudalism and imperialism and should be relegated to the dustbin of history.

The Proportional Solution

Proportional representation works as well as first-past the post (both being vulnerable to human stupidity), except that it creates a government more representative of the people. All the people. First past the post worked real well in the election that first put Bush in, and always leaves out the voices of a large portion of citizens, often the majority, encourages strategic voting against your beliefs, and the general apathy that most have about voting. Why vote when it doesn't count? Also the government of a country shouldn't be a game of winners and losers. The whole government of elected representatives are supposed to work together to govern and improve the country.

The Neo-liberal Disaster

The massive inequality (which causes and exacerbates most if not all social problems) is largely due to the neo-liberal ideas and policies began with Regan, Thatcher and Mulroney and continued by successive governments of all parties. A mantra of deregulation (national and international, particularly involving the financial system which has turned into something that should go on in casinos) , low taxes on the rich and corporations, and unrestrained 'free' market and trickle down economics based on unsustainable growth, consumerism and debt.

Balance is the Key

Aristotle was right. Balance is Everything. Presently the environment, economics, politics, and our lives in general, are unbalanced. Only through the recognition that all these are in fact one system governed as we choose with the will to cooperate for mutual benefit can we bring it back into balance. Civilization shouldn't be win-lose. That's the jungle we chose to leave.

The Source of the Economic Crisis

It is our present financial system, not capitalism itself, that is failing. It is based on gambling and taking risks with other people's money and has little to do with actually investing in anything. Countries are slaves to gamblers' expectations reflected in the stock market numbers.

Real Heroes

Our society is completely confused as to who to use as role models. Real heroes sacrifice of themselves for the good of another, not their own good. They risk that.

The Meaning of Life

Life is an aptitude test for free will, opposed by tyranny. The consequences of free will, tyranny and natural chance are the answers to the problem of evil.