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Post by Hunny on May 17, 2013 15:45:35 GMT
__________________________________________________________ _________________________________ issue nine - may 17, 2013 _________ This month...
two cherished members have left, to go onto other things. We wish them all the best, and want them to know they will be missed, and there's always a place here if they get bored and want to come back!
Everywhere we go it seems as if we're surrounded by narcissists. On our journey back from our recent holiday we encountered half a dozen of them in the airport and on the plane. I was so angry with their attitudes and behaviour that I had to restrain myself from attacking them physically!
What does narcissism mean? Basically that you only think about yourself and couldn't care less about anyone else. Narcissists think they're special, that ordinary rules of behaviour don't apply to them and of course they completely lack empathy. If narcissists have friends they are snobby, patronising, full of false pride and a mutual admiration society.
Of course there have always been people like that but for most of human history they were frowned on. As someone who loves history and cultural history I think the change came about over a period of a hundred and fifty years but it became entrenched in the 1950s and from the 1970s onwards became the dominant cultural trend.
It began with Romanticism where afflatus was all and the individual was elevated above society instead of being seen as part of a whole. Thanks to Romanticism the process of what Romanies call 'jekhipe' - oneness - was lost.
The beatniks and hippies turned it from a purely cultural self-indulgence into a whole way of destroying society and giving the individual primacy. Their attitudes were not the genuinely libertarian and compassionate approach of a great mind like David Riesman whose book 'Individualism Reconsidered' took a quite different view of the world. They were simply an excuse for their own selfishness. 'Man, do your thing.'
Nor was it just the so-called counter culture that elevated narcissism into a positive good. Ayn Rand and her disciples argued that selfishness was a virtue rather than a vice and that altruism was positively immoral. In Britain Margaret Thatcher declared that there was no such thing as society while Hollywood chippped in with 'Wall Street' in which Michael Douglas' character famously declared that 'greed is good.'
Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in America destroyed their countries in the name of narcissism. Every President since Reagan with the possible exception of Bush Senior has been a narcissist - Clinton, Bush Junior and Obama. One of the reasons I liked McCain so much was that he came across as a non-narcissistic politician. I felt the same about John Major and Gordon Brown whereas Blair and Cameron are both completely narcissistic.
Narcissism robs you of empathy, compassion, sensitivity, tolerance, consideration and even to a considerable extent of a sense of humour.
A society based on 'me, me, me' will never be anything but hell on earth for anyone with normal human emotions.
The culture of narcissism has to be fought with every breath in our body and eradicated root and branch before it destroys us all!
____________________________________________________________________________________ COMIC QUOTESWAYS TO ANNOY PEOPLE Run into a store and ask what year it is. When someone answers, yell, "It worked!" and run out cheering.
Follow a few paces behind someone, spraying everything they touch with window cleaner.
When in a room full of people, stand there switching the light on and off, then say "Ah.. now I get it"
Specify that your drive-thru order is "to go."
In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sensual massage."
Practice making fax and modem noises.
Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
Learn Morse code and have conversations with friends in public consisting of "Beeeep bip bip beeeep bip.."
Begin all your sentences with "Ooh la la!"
Leave your turn signal on for fifty miles.
Give a play-by-play account of a person's every action in a nasal Howard Cossell voice.
Try to fit the word "cornucopia" into every sentence you say.
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ANNOYING THINGS TO DO IN AN ELEVATOR
Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering "Shut up, all of you, just shut up!"
Crack open your briefcase or purse, and while peering inside, ask, "Got enough air in there?
When arriving at your floor, grunt and strain to yank the doors open, then act embarrassed when they open by themselves.
Greet everyone getting on the elevator with a warm handshake and ask them to call you Admiral.
Move your desk in to the elevator and whenever someone gets on, ask if they have an appointment.
Bet the other passengers you can fit a quarter in your nose.
Ask if you can push the button for other people, but push the wrong ones.
Frown and mutter "gotta go, gotta go" then sigh and say "oops!"
________________________________________________________________________________Delusions of A Hopeful Pessimist by Sadie1263 Sadie is married, with three grown sons and nine dogs. She works for a family business, loves reading (just about everything), watches a lot of TV and does a lot of dog walking!!
A good friend of mine and my husband’s passed away last week. He was only 57 years old. He was waiting at a stop sign and a large truck swerved to miss another vehicle and slammed into him exactly where he was sitting. He survived but had massive head injuries and succumbed to them a week later. I know after people pass away all you hear about them is how wonderful they were. But he was truly such a warm hearted, good person. Every time we saw him he would hug us and talk about his twin sons, his beautiful wife and just how happy he was. He made everyone around him feel good and went out of his way to help people in need. A genuinely good person.
This loss has really struck me hard. For those of you that don’t know....a year and half ago my youngest son was in a very serious car accident. He was the driver and he had three others in the car with him. They were going to school very early in the morning (it was still dark) when a semi pulling a 40 foot flatbed trailer did a u-turn in the road and got stuck. The driver left the black flatbed trailer across both lanes of traffic and didn’t so much as turn on the hazard lights....they never saw it until seconds before they hit it. One of the boys was in ICU for a month and had about seven surgeries, another had three surgeries, and my son had one to rebuild his shattered ankle with all sorts of metal. He went thru months of rehab to regain use and rebuild it. I fluctuate between feelings of helplessness, fear, anger at the other driver and gratefulness over how lucky we were constantly. It’s a constant roller coaster of emotion.
I cannot say I am a very spiritual person. I do believe in a higher being....and I believe that is a very personal thing as to how an individual person honors their beliefs. I won’t push mine on you, please don’t attempt to force yours on me.
While I sat and listened to the people speak about our friend at his funeral.....and then the minister talk about how God had a plan and we needed to accept that. I got very angry.
I don’t want to believe it is a plan to have people suffer or to take this life or spare that one. Do I believe that there can be some type of divine intervention.....yes.....otherwise many people, including my son and his friends, wouldn’t be here. That may be a little bit of a confused belief.....I believe something here.....but not over here. I realize that.
But do I believe that our friend dying or those children in that elementary school that were killed by that idiot with a gun....was a plan??? No.....I can’t. To me that would mean someone intended the pain, the grief and the outrage these acts cause. Do sometimes these horrible things cause improvements or better ways of doing things in the future? Yes.....but way too many suffer with no good coming from it. So what would be the plan there? Do you think that any of the relatives of that factory collapse in Bangladesh are happy that new building requirements will be enforced? Will the surviving relatives of the Colorado theater shooting feel good about their loved one dying to get new gun laws or better mental healthcare?
I do believe bad things happen. I believe people can be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I believe there are evil people in the world that cause evil and pain around them.
I believe that changes happen out of tragedy and maybe you can feel good about that......but to believe that someone somewhere intentionally selected a certain loved one....is just too difficult for me. Instead I have to believe that although we would want to keep much loved people in our lives forever......that some are taken way too quickly and only meant to touch our lives for a short time. They are something like rainbows.....beautiful and bring a smile to our face and hearts but fleeting. But we are never sorry we saw them. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ mikemarshall
Husband to BigLin who founded the site, Mike Marshall is a retired college lecturer with a PhD in Philosophy. He and Lin have been together 15 years - married for 12 - and have a son who's eleven and a daughter aged seven. They make their way together, buying and renovating real estate to sell and let. Here is another brilliant article which he was kind enough to write for us.
Certainty Humans are all too prone to claim certainty when a more appropriate attitude would be to claim that the balance of probability inclined one towards a particular opinion on a subject.
It is difficult to discuss certainty without also considering the notions of knowledge, truth, belief, evidence and justification. Some statements are clearly logically valid, for instance, but bear no relationship to reality. Bertrand Russell's famous example 'the present king of France is bald' clearly does NOT refer to any actual person since the last king of France was deposed in 1848.
The mathematical statement 2 + 2 = 4 is what philosophers describe as an 'analytic truth' because within the closed system of arithmetic it is necessary for that to be the case in order for calculations to occur. In the same way as in chess, the knight may move at the beginning of the game but none of the other major pieces because their movement is impeded by the pawns in front of them.
In such closed systems we can be certain that moving the queen at the beginning of the game is illegal and that 2 + 2 does not equal 108.
There are however severe limits to the extent to which this type of closed logic can be applied. In essence it tells us only what is true by definition and cannot provide any key to establishing knowledge or truth beyond that.
The question of certainty is a real problem for scientists whose hypotheses have to be modified constantly over the course of time. Even though they are generally reluctant to concede the point much of what is offered as certain truth by scientists is anything BUT that elusive commodity. Sadly too many scientists now see themselves as a kind of priest with the same degree of infallibility and the same privileged status that the Pope claims for himself.
Quantum physics is not only based on an inherent contradiction - that an electron is both a particle and a train of waves - but is also compelled as a result of Bell's Theorem - which has never been successfully disproved - to view reality in one of a number of equally problematic ways. One is that there is no reality to the universe and the act of observation creates the world; another that we live in parallel universes with infinite possibilities; another that we must abandon the whole idea of locality; another that relativity is wrong and the speed of light is not a constant; and the last possibility is that quantum physics is fundamentally mistaken.
Even though relativity and quantum physics have been established orthodoxies for over a century it is entirely probable that one or perhaps even both theories are either partly or completely WRONG.
When it comes to the realm of ideas it is even harder to make any meaningful claim for certainty. One can present evidence and logical arguments in favour of positions but it remains ultimately impossible to establish certainty. This is true not only of aesthetic and moral judgements but also of more metaphysical speculations.
Take for instance attitudes towards religion. It is perfectly acceptable to state that one does or does not believe in the existence of a supreme being but to make the stronger claim that there IS or is NOT a God clearly espouses a certainty that is NOT justified by either the available evidence or the laws of logic.
I am an agnostic and freely admit that I cannot declare myself either a theist or an atheist because BOTH attitudes go beyond facts and logic and instead simply elevate faith and dogma into an unjustified assertion of unwarranted certainty. For what it is worth my opinion is that the balance of probability inclines me slightly more to believe that a supreme being probably does NOT exist but the opposite opinion also has many good arguments in its favour.
What IS certain is that both theism and atheism are assertions of FAITH and that the claims of both go BEYOND the available evidence or the validity of logical arguments.
Both theism and atheism claim a degree of certainty to which they are NOT entitled.
Like theism, atheism is a declaration of FAITH.
It is perfectly acceptable for someone to describe themselves as either a religious believer or as an atheist but in BOTH cases they should have the intellectual honesty and the humility to admit that their beliefs are simply OPINION and do NOT represent fact, let alone rest on any basis of certainty.
Perhaps if we all adopted a more humble approach towards life and did not attempt to elevate our opinions to the status of facts and to claim for them a degree of certainty that they do NOT deserve the world might be a far better place in which to live. Most of the problems of human history seem to have been caused by those who believe that their faith was the same thing as certainty.
Let us hope that we can all eventually recognise how limited an area certainty actually enjoys in the real world. In Praise of Mountains
-by Linda Marshall
They call you terrible When they who know you not gaze coldly on you. Yes, your forbidding peaks Are like the heights of love, Alluring and yet difficult to scale.
On your lofty summit The wisdom of the ages proudly perches, And though you lie in lonely majesty Sometimes the snow that crowns your tops Slides down and forms an avalanche.
When the snows melt or tumble A miracle of green appears upon you; Walking is easy up those mountain paths, Crampons no longer needed.
Who knows what mighty thoughts Lie buried in your hidden breast? Who knows your history, And what processions time has set before you? Who knows what shrines to God lie in your crags, And if at times upon your very peaks God spoke with you face to face.
We, weak humans, fear you. You are full of mystery and beauty, yet Your solitude and danger frighten us. Our footing slips on your ice-cold crags; We fear your silence.
Only we mountaineers, Who come to you in reverence and love, Can understand and share your silent beauty, And your austere perfection.
We know You are a model of the infinite heavens; We know that God Has always revealed himself Among the mountains. ____________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________ Some are just an individual having fun, some have high production values, but there is "TV" online! Here's a sample - ______________________________________________________________________________Did you know? Gasoline was once sold in small bottles as a cure for lice. People didn't always say "hello" when they answered the phone. When the first regular phone service was established in 1878, people said "ahoy." Neuticles are synthetic testicles for neutered pets. The tagline: "It's like nothing ever changed." Sleeping on the job is acceptable in Japan. It is viewed as exhaustion from working hard. Some people fake it to look committed to their job. _______________________________________________________________________________By Donna
Married, with three children - a son and two daughters - Donna works part-time as an office cleaner, loves the countryside, West Ham United Football Club and politics. In her spare time she writes as much as she can as well as running three yahoo groups, four blogs and two other forums!
The assault on human rights
One of the saddest changes I've seen over the last ten years or so is the way in which the whole idea of human rights has been challenged. To me it's one of the things that defines a civilised society; to an increasing number of other people human rights are just a myth.
I honestly can't understand how anyone can take that point of view. Even though courts sometimes take what I regard as crazy decisions is no reason to throw the human rights baby out with the bath-water.
Surely we DO have a right to life, a right not to be tortured, not to be raped, not to be assaulted or robbed? Surely if we're accused of a crime we have a right to a fair trial and fair treatment if we're convicted.
But a lot of people nowadays seem to think we DON'T have a right to life; that torture is perfectly OK; that a fair trial is something we can do away with and that prisons should be like gulags.
How these people get to think like that is totally weird to me. I know as a writer of fiction that we can all create dystopias and such in our imagination but that's not the same as wanting to really live in them.
The opponents of human rights really DO seem to think that the world would be a better place if it was like Nazi Germany or Soviet Russia or the Spanish Inquisition or something like that.
To me life IS all about rights and about how we mutually respect the rights of others and expect them to do the same with our rights.
I understand the frustration of people who are angry at some of the stranger decisions by for example the European Court of Human Rights.
But to me the fact that we CAN recognise the rights of others and that IMO the real basis of society IS mutually respected rights and that's a mark of our greater civilisation.
Even the worst people are still human and it's up to us to behave decently and not sink to the level of the bad guys.
____________________________________________________________________________________ MEMBER INTERVIEWS ___________________________________________Our Member of The MonthSpeed!Congratulations! ___________________________________________I met Speed at GLASS GRAPHICS & V5 SUPPORT, an amazing board he built. (Really, check it out. It looks like glass!) I've gotten invaluable technical help from Speed. He really knows his stuff. This month he campaigned hard and was voted Member of The Month, a well-deserved honor. Speed, tell us how you discovered the internet, and a brief history of where you've been online. Started out on the internet at my work place in 1998. Started going on message boards in 2004. Discovered Proboards in 2006. Programed over 100 sites, currently have 3 pages on my forum dash board and am an admin on 9 of my own, most of them private for my own use and 2 of them open for membership. I even programmed one Proboards message board site to look like an actual web site. I am also a moderator on one of the most prestigious boards on the internet, InterOcean Designs. Tell us about your family?I am single with cat, I have a younger brother married that lives up north. I have 2 half brothers and 1 half sister. What are your three favorite things in life?A good porterhouse Steak Dinner Fast Cars Good company Tell us some favorite advice or lesson you got along the way?Learn while you are young and never stop learning Always listen to your parents or elders Never take anything for granted Don’t back talk a police officer Don’t drink alcohol in excess Don’t smoke cigarettes Don’t drink and drive Do you play a musical instrument, or have an artistic talent?Yes I play guitar Hobbies?All forms of racing from Formula 1 to Nascar to drag racing - watching of course. Do you play sports?Not anymore but I was a 200 avg bowler in my day and also a scratch golfer also I played High school baseball as well as football and lest I not forget programing proboards forums Did you get into trouble as a kid? Any stories you can tell?Nothing that I ever got caught at so I am going to take the fifth on this one Do you like to cook?Yes, Cook Grill and bake I make mean chicken wings on the grill. What's your fondest wish?That everyone could get along in this effed up world we live in Make love not war Your favorite material possession(s)?Pictures of my parents, may god rest there souls. What genre of entertainment do you like best?70’s metal and rock Black Sabbath Deep Purple Led Zeppelin Do you have any funny or strange tales to tell, things that happened along the way?Nothing ever out of the ordinary here I was actually a good kid growing up, Straight A student never missed a day of school Tried to walk an even line with all the peer pressure out there it was kind hard but I managed. If there is one thing you are absolutely passionate about, what is it?Animals and the ethical treatment of. If I saw one mistreating an animal I would beat the **** out of them. Would you like to say anything to the members?I would like to thank all that voted for me and I will do my best to do my duty to uphold the office of member of the month as best as possible. ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________
Bits & Pieces CONTRIBUTING STAFF
Big Lin MikeMarshall Sadie1263 Hunny Donna
__________________________________________________ If you have anything you'd like to submit for next month's issue, send it to Hunny (click). Copyrighted material re-printed herein is with permission, or for purpose of review or education, by allowance - in the U.S. - of the Fair Use Act. We do not claim ownership of said material. Our writers do claim copyright of their own material, by-lined or not. To contact the Editor, click here.
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Post by Hunny on May 17, 2013 15:52:03 GMT
I just want to say I love the things you guys write. It's always absolutely worth it, the time putting this together. Thanks.
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Post by sadie1263 on May 17, 2013 23:03:33 GMT
Thank you so much for all you do Hunny. I truly treasure you.
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Post by Big Lin on May 18, 2013 0:19:48 GMT
Thank you so much for all you do Hunny. I truly treasure you. Totally agree! Your'e a real star Hunny and we all love you!
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Post by Deleted on May 29, 2013 13:26:42 GMT
Awesome Hunny just Awesome!
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