iPandora

Some things just fail on their own

The best counter to moral relativism is still the quip “is that so?” delivered with the appropriate raised eye-brow.

Any sufficient response to that query must consist of a positive statement of an absolute value which proves moral relativism to be a fraud at best.

While academics and other invested relativists insist that such verbal slaughter falls far short of fully discrediting their preferred viewpoint, they must first dismiss the truism that any philosophy that is internally inconsistent cannot be truth.

But just in case one needs more proof, consider the idea of FGM.

Female Genital Mutilation, or Female Circumcision, is a barbarous practice found exclusively among cultures whose religions require extreme subservience of their women.

The ugly process ensures women will derive no pleasure from sex with the supposed goal of guaranteeing the servitude of that woman to her man in all matters of sex and children.

The side effects are pain during intercourse, increased pain and damage during childbirth, and increased chance of infection.

There is no way this practice is moral. It produces no realistic, practical, or natural good for the woman, and who could argue successfully such enslavement of women is good for the men?

In America, we can fix this. We can remove the terrible effects of this mutilation. We can restore pleasurable sensations during sex and lessen the pain of childbirth.

That is a moral good.

Now, if some still want to argue that all cultures and individuals can find their own good which may or may not also be good for someone else, let them defend FGM. Let them defend the pain and the suffering. Let them say that action of mutilation is the same, morally, as the American action of restoration and healing.

So, the swine flu is going to kill you, right?

Let me put this into perspective. Right now there are about 160 reported deaths from the swine flu world wide. This is not the number infected, but the number killed. But what does this number really mean.

First, compare this 160 deaths world wide to the 36,000 people who die each year in the U.S. to the common flu. In other words we are more worried about a disease that is at least 225 time less likely to kill us then the common flu.

So how has this flu affected the world population of over 6 billion people? Well, run the math and you realize that only .000002% of the world population has died from this disease, as opposed to the .01% of the world population that has been killed by genocide in Sudan since 2003 (675,000).

So why is there the worry? By last numbers there is between 2600 and 2700 reported cases of this flu for which there is supposedly no natural immunity. The fear is that a single sneeze could effect hundreds of people which could lead to a pandemic.

It is time for brief lesson on disease. Most  diseases inhabit our body for at least a day before they exhibit symptoms. This is because the symptoms are usually the result of the disease attacking our body and our body using its resources to attack the disease. In fact, for many cases of the common cold, by the time you exhibit symptoms, the cold is already destroyed in your body and your body is just tired from the fight.

So, I get the swine flu and a day later I exhibit symptoms and am quarantined, etc. How many people did I interact with the day before? How many hands did I shake? How many times did I lick my finger and rub it against something?

How many people did those 2700 confirmed cases interact with before (and even after) the disease surfaced? I would estimate about 54,000 people (20 interactions per person). So why aren’t there 54,000 people infected. Why aren’t we all wiped out as our body has “no natural defenses”?

The reason is because this is a created or imagined disease. It is sort of like the monster you feared when you were younger because you believed he was in your closet. There was some minimal evidence of a monster (boards creaking, darkness), but the reality was that your mind created the monster and cause you to be afraid of him.

So we have this monster before us. There is some evidence before us as we look at the deaths and infections, but the reality is that we have allowed ourselves to be scared into a fear. The media has become our brain as they show pictures of people wiping the legs of a school desk (honestly, who will be licking the legs of a school desk?) and have traveled to Mexico to show the place this all started and have told us that buildings have been shut down for this virus.

This is the monster that we have allowed our brain to create a monster for us where, in reality, there is nothing (or almost nothing). Sure, we should be concerned about this, but worried? No way.

In fact, what this really reminds me of is the movie “Wag the Dog”. Anyone seen it? The premise is that a “war” is made up by the political administration so that people will be distracted from the real issues surrounding the administration. Our media, finding nothing to report on the administration (since the administration is doing nothing good, but the media can’t report that) needed something else to scare us with. Something to distract us from the real news. Their answer . . . Thank God for Swine Flu!

The reality is that AIDS and HIV continue to kill millions, genocide continues to be acceptable in Africa, abortions of black babies continues to exceed the number of live births of black babies, and we recently rewarded large companies dieing in a capitalist society by changing the rules for them. But no, the real news that we should all “obviously” be worried about is that a disease that pales in comparison to any other disaster we have been facing for years may be sitting at our door ready to pounce on us when we are not looking.

Once again it is proven there are very few things in which we humans, as independent moral agents, do not have a choice.

It was not good to criticize an obese person because they may have been a carrier of the ‘obese gene’ and therefore had no choice whether they were chunky not trim, but studies out recently point to the fact that exercise counteracts the effects of that gene.

WebMD: Exercise Can Overcome Obesity Gene

The study showed, as past research has, that people with certain variations of the FTO gene were more likely to be overweight. However, the researchers found that being genetically predisposed to obesity “had no effect on those with above average physical activity scores.”

LATimes Blog: Lessons From The Amish: We’re Not Doomed To Obesity

OK, folks, it’s time for another round of Health Lessons We Can Learn From the Amish. Four years ago we discovered that the Amish maintained super-low obesity levels despite eating a diet high in fat, calories and refined sugar. They key was their level of physical activity — men averaged 18,000 steps a day, women 14,000. That’s monumental compared to the paltry couple of thousand or so most of us eke out in a day.

A recent study revealed even more about the Old Order Amish: They maintain low obesity levels despite having a gene variation that makes them susceptible to obesity. The secret here? You guessed it — lots of physical activity.

The important thing to remember is that we have choices, and our response to those choices affect out lives. If we are slothful and do not maintain our bodies by diet and exercise, we have none but ourselves and the choices we are responsible for to blame for the fat adorning us.

Anybody else think the average IQ of people in the news is falling faster than the thermostat in Chicago this winter?

In case you still think they actually have anything to add to any debate anywhere, these juicy tidbits ought to rearrange your thinking:

• Healthy Lifestyle Is the Secret to Longer Life, Researchers Say
  

  Not smoking, regular exercise, maintaining normal weight, and avoiding diabetes and high blood pressure seem to be the secrets of living to age 90, researchers say.

  No! Really?

• Some with chronic illnesses function as well as healthy peers
  

  Even people who develop heart disease or diabetes late in life have a decent shot at living to 100, according to a study published Monday.

  “You don’t necessarily have to be in good health for all of your life to attain age 100,” said Dellara Terry, the study’s lead author and an assistant professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine.

  It’s a choice. It is always a choice. Humans are moral directors: we decide. When faced with a challenge, true strength tries harder.

I laugh.

Either it pays for itself or it’s 4 billion of your dollars down the hole in 5 years.

The State of California (sometimes it’s more a state of mind than anything substantive) is facing a 14.5 billion dollar shortfall, and yet, in their reckless pursuit of assuaging all societal inequities, the majority of the Democrat Legislators and the Republican Governator are seeking to enact socialized medicine in California.

Using additional fees on each and every employer, worker, and hospital, plus a $1.75 tax hike on each pack of cigarettes, the system seeks to ensure universal coverage in the Golden State.

California’s big problem right now is that it’s legal climate has driven all meaningful business out of the state. It is getting more and more uneconomical to maintain a business in the state as stifling and confiscatory taxes, fees, and regulations increase alarmingly.

As businesses flee the state and close down, revenues will continue to decrease in an increasing trend.

California is a good example of liberal policy carried to it’s logical conclusion.

Soon, my parents and siblings and relatives will be waiting in line at the clinics to received government-mandated testing and/or procedures.

Think I’m getting a bit apocalyptic? What about the push to require the HPV vaccination of all girls? Somebody somewhere will have some golden idea that sounds great and looks like the “greater good” and someone else will believe them. That’s all it takes where there is no accountability and more stultifying bureaucracy.

The health care plan aims to extend insurance to roughly 70 percent of the state’s uninsured population by expanding government health programs, forcing businesses to provide coverage to workers or pay a fee to the state, and imposing new taxes on hospitals and tobacco. If the proposal wins the support of the Legislature, voters would have to approve a ballot initiative in November in order for it to become law.

In a best-case scenario, the plan’s revenues would cover its costs in the first year, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill wrote in her review released Tuesday evening. However, by the fifth year, she estimates the program’s annual costs would exceed revenues by $300 million.

From the San Jose Mercury News.

Read more articles on this, from Google.

And what about the plans being touted by each and every Democrat running for president? If the State of California will suffer this badly, let us just tank the entire US economy while we’re at it.

Remember, reform is not worthwhile if it makes the problem worse.

Germany

American feminists tend to be firmly in the anti-war camp these days, and firmly against any attempt to stop radicalized Islam taking over countries and cultures in it’s quest for world domination. A female world leader who has actually accomplished something beside marry ‘Slick’ Willy, Andrea Merkel, has begun championing a cause modern American feminists would likely faint over.

Japan

A popular praise of Japan is it’s extremely low murder rate. Now, I’m not one to naturally jump to splitting hairs and such, but apparently we should be speaking of Japan’s extremely low reported murder rate.

America

United Kingdom

Note: I am posting this article in whole because the blog it belongs to apparently is completely off-line or dead, neither of which cases make me happy. The original article was here, written by Dave of Out of Ergyng, but the link, when I checked, was dead.

**Update: Apparently the blog was just down for a bit. It’s now up, and I’m glad for that.**

The concern of the emergency services for health and safety rules has cost a boy his life. James Poynton collapsed on a beach near Liverpool. First his parents were told an ambulance wouldn’t be sent until they could be sure of the spelling of the nearest road. When the ambulance arrived, the paramedic didn’t run to his rescue. She walked. She didn’t want to be out of breath. According to the Daily Mail:

A spokesman for North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust confirmed that its staff generally would not run on uneven ground as they were carrying heavy equipment and might not be able to carry out resuscitation if they were out of breath.

But for those Americans looking forward to Hillary Clinton’s vision of socialise medicine (okay, you probably aren’t reading this blog if you do), there’s more to this story. His mother had been told the day before he died that his heart condition was non-urgent, so he wouldn’t be seen. The letter offering him an MRI scan at a future date arrived the day after he died.

Everywhere But Malibu Beach

Apparently beautiful women are smarter. But I already knew that. After all, the most beautiful woman in the world likes me, and she’s brilliant too.

A friend asked me a question last night which caught me by surprise. I had honestly never considered this question and am still digesting it’s implications.

Rather than give an answer right away, let me pose the question to you:

Why did such wide forms of progress (societal, scientific, medical, moral, religious, economic, governmental) occur in Europe (during times such as the reformation or the renaissance) and not in Africa?

This question is of especial importance for several historically cultural and certain current events. The legendary Dr. Watson (not of Holmsian fame but of DNA) has recently raised news and hackles with his claim that Africans have lower intelligence. (If you want an opinion of this event showing the ugliness of the evolutionary philosophy and relativist philosophy while making several very valid points, read here). And radical Islam, in it’s eons-old battle against light and right, spread rapidly across North Africa, preventing much exploration based on over-land expeditions.

Is this just an ethno-centrist or xenophobe who doesn’t appreciate the fear which prevented most Europeans from learning more about the dark continent or the difficulty of mounting a meaningful expedition to enlighten the interior? I think not. While there was general human progress, the tribal structure enjoys a mutually supportive relationship with human evil, allowing jealousy, avarice, and greed to rule. There were medicinal benefits, but none along the lines of antibacterial discoveries and exploration of the human body such as Europe enjoyed. It would seem that scientific and cultural progress happened in spite of, instead of because of, any passing of time in these two vast cultures.

And what of Asia? How does Asia affect this question? Was Asia a superior culture to Europe or not? Why?

I don’t have answers to all these, but as I continue to ponder the nature of this beast I hope to write a few bits here and there.

First they went after the Communists, and I did not stand up, because I was not a Communist. Then they went after the homosexuals and infirm, and I did not stand up, because I was neither. Then they went after the Jews, and I did not stand up, because I was not a Jew. Then they went after the Catholics, and I did not stand up, because I was Protestant. Finally, they went after me, and there was no one left to stand up for me.

Funny thing about spam, some of it makes you think. This is the content of a splog (Spam Blog) spam comment Akismet caught for me this morning. It really is spam, unlike the comments by our friend Random who I initially labeled as spam due to their off-topic nature. The blog the links pointed to exists to make money, not to serve content. But the content of this comment is intriguing.

Many of you may find this quote vaguely familiar. It is, in fact, a misquoting of Pastor Martin Niemueller, a Lutheran Minister during the Nazi rule of Germany. Initially, observing the evil taking over his country, he kept his head down, protecting himself, but then he realized his responsibility before God and began speaking out. He was arrested and tried and sent to prison. His actual quote, while he was in prison, is a haunting reminder of out responsibility before God to stand up for the oppressed:

They came for the Jews and I said nothing, because I was not a Jew. They came for the Catholics and I said nothing, because I was not a catholic. When they came for the workers, I said nothing because I was not a worker. When they came for me there was no one left to stand up for me.

This contrasts sharply with the quote in the spam comment above. A person today with an education derived exclusively from today’s American culture would say that the two quotes are substantively the same: they all reference groups that have been or are currently abused at the hands of the culture in general. But there are significant differences between the two. Deeper than the obvious additions of Communists, Homosexuals, and the infirm, is the idea that all choices are equally valid and that there is no compelling moral argument against certain choices.

This argument, on it’s face, is false. It is simple a retelling of the common and equally false supposition: universal relativism:

“There is no objective truth!” the claim rings across the hills and valleys.

“Oh? Is that true?” the echo returns.

“Yes, it is!” is the reply, ignorant of it’s own disproving irony.

Communism is a demonstrable evil, those who say otherwise are willfully ignorant or evil themselves. There is no comparison between communism and the workers or a religious perspective as similarly misunderstood ideologies or lifestyles. This is not the place and there is not the time to get into a full discussion of the evils of communism.

Homosexuality is a different beast altogether, and there are very emotional arguments and very reasoned arguments on all sides of this beast, (read my previous thoughts on the matter). But at the root is the inherent destructiveness of the lifestyle defined by homosexuality. It is not a matter of two equally valid choices: hetero or homo. It is a choice between life and death.

The infirm are a group that must be stood up for, as the nature of their infirmity may make it difficult for them to protect themselves if not prevent it altogether. It is no surprise that as we devalue the human, turning ourselves into little more than ascended monkeys, capital to be used, abused, and neglected, that the silent members of our species, the unborn and the sick, are being discarded like so much baggage at the whim of our fancy.

The Terri Schiavo incident revealed the culture of death in our society, where people argued that it was in the best interest of humanity to take this humans’ life. With the wonders of modern medicine we see a number of cases where people in what is popularly called “Persistent Vegetative State” are actually quite lucid, and simply unable to respond. In as many as 43% of cases diagnosed as PVS, the patient later recovers and in some cases tells of being able to perceive everything that went on around them and that was done to them.

I rather like reading my comment spam now and again. It is mostly trash filled with links, but every once in a while, a gem comes along, such as this, and thoughts ensue.

Kudos to Amy Menefee of the Business & Media Institute for her scathing article of Michael Moores latest “documentary” commenting on the state of the American health care system.

Michael Moore is a documented liar who uses “omission, exaggeration and cinematic sleight of hand” to make his political points. But that doesn’t seem to matter to the media who cover his movies.

Now journalists are using “Sicko,” which opens June 29, to make a giddy, unabashed case for socialized health care in America – and even urging Moore to run for office.

He shows “compassion” and “generosity,” he’s a great “campaigner” and an “adroit politician,” reporters have declared.

He’s “taking on America’s deeply flawed health care system,” said Terry Moran on ABC’s “Nightline” June 13. And “… the point his movie ultimately makes: fixing health care is a moral, even a religious obligation.”

“Father Michael Moore – hard to imagine, maybe, or maybe not,” Moran said, after learning Moore once ventured to seminary. “Well, try this one: Senator Michael Moore.”

The media have been in awe of Moore’s film and Moore’s charisma, and enthusiastic about the idea of socialized medicine. Overall, coverage has glossed over Moore’s distortions in favor of keeping the snowballing policy discussion going.

Those who promote so called “single-payer” or government run health care systems cannot be willfully ignorant. There is too much information readily and publicly available regarding the obvious and horrendous failures of those systems.

The American system costs lots of money, that is true. And health care is very expensive. But how much of that is already a result of government regulation preventing the market from deciding the cost naturally. There are many problems with the system, and the solution is always the same. Mandatory insurance guarantees payments for procedures and medication. If we were budget constrained in our medical choices, additional thought would go into what procedures were really necessary, fewer frivolous procedures.

But then consider the converse side of this. America develops nearly every effective medication in the world today combating diseases our grandparents only dreamed of. The incredible costs of R&D for these miracle meds are covered by the incredible largesse controlled by the medical industry. If there weren’t money involved in making the drugs, there wouldn’t be a sufficient reason for businesses to get involved in creating them. If the government were to get involved in health care, you can rest assured that it would be only a very short time until, in what would be called an attempt to control spiraling costs (and yes, they would continue to spiral, the government cannot control itself) they would begin blaming the drug companies and would begin hostile takeovers of those companies. Government has never been good or even adequate at creativity and creation. Government controls and destroys, the more it is given the more that is lost.

Read the article

EDIT:
Additional articles:
MTV News: ‘Sicko’: Heavily Doctored

Reading this article I was struck by how different the views of medicine are now that so much of scientific theory is based on the evolutionary hypothesis. For any who don’t believe that how you understand the origins of life determines how you view the nature of life, let this be fact enough to convince you.

The entire concept of useless organs is based on the idea that we are the result of random evolutionary processes bereft of design or purpose. Besides the statistical and factual errors which are never addressed by the hypothesis of evolution, the ideological errors are just as glaring. The difference in perspective between one who believes that God designed man at once in a whole, complete unit versus one who believes that man is the result of natural selection regardless of whether or not it was divinely directer (theistic evolution) is nothing short of colossal in its effect on how we live.  If random chance defined our beginnings and our mortal lives, there is no right besides might (tyranny of the majority), and there is no purpose beyond personal pleasure (why deny when this is your only chance to satisfy?). Conversely, if we were designed and created on purpose by an intelligent being we live for Him and His purpose, or we live without reason in a world where reason is available.

It’s as though we choose to be apes when sentience has been offered to us.

It is true that there are times when organs are damaged or infected or in other ways causing more harm than good, but to the extent that we label organs useless we only underline our own ignorance of the body and its functions. In the same way a phone has a distinct and designed purpose, whether or not we know what it is or understand its purpose, an Appendix may be inflamed and must be removed but it does have a purpose, regardless of whether or not we know or understand it.