I was reading this post called Spirituality and Seduction and was struck by how much it resonates with the idea espoused by REBT practitioners of unconditional self acceptance. In either case, the idea is to stop worrying about who you are being and get on with the being of that who. Interestingly enough (although I have not seen the film) I think that these principals are also basically similar to those presented in The Secret. I was wrong.

Some argue that unconditional self acceptance leads to complacency, but that is not the idea. There is no conflict between accepting your self as you are now and setting goals for yourself. The important thing is not to dwell. The basic steps to being happy and content in life are: Accept yourself and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. Set strong goals for what you want to achieve. Go about living your life, do not consciously try to set a plan to achieve your goals, do not try to control every step etc. This kind of true self acceptance and self trust is very hard to achieve, especially for engineers who are used to having a well defined sequence of steps before them in order to reach a goal.

The scientist in me says that what is happening is that I set goals for myself and by so doing set in motion a sort of background process which colors my general day-to-day choices in such a way that I achieve that. The great thing is that I don't have to do any _work_ for this to run its course. All I (that is my ego, the part of me that I am conscious of) must do is live in the moment. I get to enjoy all of the joy of day-to-day living and never need to worry about the longer term stuff.

On a personal note, earlier this year I realized that I needed a change -- that I was getting stuck in a rut. I'm thankful to the person who specifically pointed it out to me and to the people who reinforced it. I decided to unstick. 2 months later I had a new job. Another month later I lived in a new city and one more month has passed and I have my first house. There was no plan behind these things, just the decision to unstick. I didn't know quite what a wild ride that decision would turn out to be, but I sure as hell am glad that I made it.

On a more positive note than my earlier post, here's a really nicely worded article on helping children grow into mature reasonable adults and learning and having fun at the same time.

Resisting the Obvious in New Orleans
Some plain truths about the post-Katrina city
Here's the question that ought to be considered: Would those people prefer that the money be spent shoring up dikes around a natural lake? Or would they rather get the money themselves and decide whether to stay or migrate to less soggy terrain?

Glad to hear someone other than me pointing out the obvious fact that we should never have spent a dime on restoring NO. We should have left it flooded and let any individuals who wanted to try to live underwater have the place. History or no history this is common sense.

The Drugging of our Children by Gary Null (one hour forty-three minute film)

Drugs are bad, mmmmkay. The paranoid part of me wants to say that the increase in the use of psychotropic drugs on children is a deliberate attempt by the powers that be to turn our children (and therefor adults) into proper mindless drones. The realistic part of me says that it's actually caused not by the powers themselves but by the useless populace which demands that the powers that be 'fix' their children.

I'm positive that if I had been in public schools when I was < 10 I would have absolutely been _accused_ of having a mental _disorder_. The symptoms of ADHD are almost identical to the symptoms of brilliance. All of the brilliant people that I know have been or would be diagnosed as having ADHD. The result? We create drugs which decrease brilliance to the point where people sit still and fit into their spot in the great machine.

I really can't say anything else that the video doesn't, so do watch it, it's fascinating.

Government Shouldn't Bail Out Failing Homeowners
The responsibility of paying back subprime mortgage rests with those who took them, not the publicity-seeking politician eager to sacrifice the individual for the "public good."

Well stated explanation of just a few of the reasons that the government should not help those who took huge loans on homes they couldn't afford.

We have somehow come to live in a society where what one can afford is not dictated by how much money they have, but simply by how much they can squeeze into a monthly payment. This means that as long as you can pay the credit card minimum bill at the end of the month, you can afford to charge up to the maximum balance on the card. I'm not sure how we got into this state of insanity, but it scares me horribly.

Personally, I think that government programs such as bankruptcy are the root cause of the insanity. People see them as a big fluffy safety blanket. As long as that safety blanket is always there, there is no need to make rational, educated financial decisions.

This, in essence, is why socialism does not work. In a socialist world, there is no motivation for an individual to innovate or even to make rational decisions to achieve their needs and wants. We see the negative effects if 'social programs' (socialist programs) every day in welfare moms and communities.

Just got back from the inspection for the home I'm trying to buy. I took some pictures of it while we were there. Kinda neglected the outside, whoops. If all goes well, I'll be a home owner by a week from tomorrow!

The FBI Can Eavesdrop on You Even When Your Cell Phone is Turned Off

According to this story, even with the phone powered off they can activate the microphone and incite the device to transmit what it hears. Can anyone confirm or deny this? It seems implausible to me.

Breaking News: Recent US Temperature Numbers Revised Downwards Today
* All of these necessary revisions to surface temperatures will likely not make warming trends go away completely. What it may do is bring the warming down to match the much lower satellite measured warming numbers we have, and will make current warming look more like past natural warming trends (e.g. early in this century) rather than a catastrophe created by man. In my global warming book, I argue that future man-made warming probably will exist, but will be more like a half to one degree over the coming decades than the media-hyped numbers that are ten times higher.

So how is this possible? How can the global warming numbers used in critical policy decisions and scientific models be so wrong with so basic of an error? And how can this error have gone undetected for the better part of a decade? The answer to the latter question is because the global warming and climate community resist scrutiny. This weeks Newsweek article and statements by Al Gore are basically aimed at suppressing any scientific criticism or challenge to global warming research. That is why NASA can keep its temperature algorithms secret, with no outside complaint, something that would cause howls of protest in any other area of scientific inquiry.

Not much more to say than what the article says. I think the author takes a very reasonable standpoint, which I agree with. There may be man-made global warming. We just don't know yet.

I say (of course) that we need to stop fucking panicking and resisting progress and get with the progressing so that we can one day tell what impact we have on climate. We also need to be progressing because the earth's natural climate cycle contains temperatures which would wipe out much of our current society. If we aren't much more advanced than we currently are by the time one of those cycles catches up with us, that'll be the end if our run. Not that I have a problem with our run ending, but I'd rather see my species continue to flourish.

14 Signs of Fascism - Bush’s America matches them all.
Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each. Bush’s America matches all fourteen.

Not that the UK doesn't match almost all of them too, but... this is a no duh moment to me, but perhaps not to everyone out there. We can only hope that the country can undo some of the damage that GWB has done in the coming years. If we can, I believe we will be the first nation in history to recover after going this far down the path toward fascism.

The most terrifying thing to me is always the big brother esque announcements about the department of homeland security which are constantly played in airports. How can the sheeple not see the coming threat!?

Does Altruism Exist?
Semi-humorous conclusion:

Therefore, I believe the only true altruists are robots without artificial intelligence who can only choose to serve (like a Roomba). Any human or animal or creature with a concept of personal utility is incapable of an altruistic act as defined above.

Much better stated than I have been able to manage description of why altruism does not exist.