We Cannot Legislate Evil

File Under: Handwriting on the Wall

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You probably will not see this give much if any attention at all in the American Mainstream Media (MSM).  However, you need to bear witness to the simple truth that no matter what laws you pass, it is not the law, but rather it is failed governmental policies and the evil in humankind's hearts that leads to violence.

“When he was dead, they dragged him out into the road and left him there. It was strange, they didn’t run off, they just stood there as if they were waiting for the police. It must’ve taken about 20 minutes for the police to arrive, I think it must’ve been because they were waiting for armed police. [...] Lou Peluola, 53, arrived on the scene shortly after the incident when he saw one attacker standing over a body before the police arrived 20 minutes later. He said: "People were afraid asking: ‘where are the police?’ They took a long time to arrive. [...] I panicked, rang the police and ran away."

This happened not in Iraq, or Afghanistan, or some Sub-Saharan African war zone, but rather this happened in broad daylight, in the middle of one of the world's leading First World nations.  How many people could have put these two sociopaths down while the police took their time arriving?  What if they had targeted civilians?  Well Lou, when your right to defend yourself is violated by your government, that is all you can do - wait 20 minutes while the police find firearms - because, when you criminalize the right to bear arms, only criminals will bear arms.

What will the UK do now: ban cars? Ban kitchen knives? Ban Islam? Give each one of these murderers two consecutive "life" sentences?  Which one of those measures would have prevented this man's untimely, grizzly demise?  None of them.  Not one law could have saved this man because no law would have dissuaded these two monsters from committing this heinous act by any means necessary.  They did not care about having concealable firearms or how many people they could shoot before reloading - hell, they did not even care about escaping justice.  They were intent on venting their hatred and emotionally traumatizing as many people as they could in the process.

All those years ago, when the UK thought they were doing something about the violence in their country all they did was turn their backs on it, close their eyes, stick their fingers in their ears, and pretended it no longer existed.  Ignoring it, did not make it go away.  Evil exists.  It can take root inside anyone one of us; and, no amount of legislation will protects us from ourselves.

"We Didn't Start the Fire (Original)" by Bill Joel from Storm Front released 1989 on Sony

The Moment of Choice

File Under: Conundrums and Other Oddities

If you would take a moment to read the following and respond to the survey, I would greatly appreciate your feedback.  Thank you.

"Circles" by Incubus from Morning View released 2001 on Epic/Immortal

The Great Gotcha?

File Under: Dangerous Thoughts

Here is a sociological experiment that shows what happens when a prepared person with an agenda asks deep philosophical questions to random, uninformed, and sometimes inarticulate people who willingly buy $8 dollar coffees, buy packs of cancer causing dirt weed rolled in paper, don't know what Ruby Ridge refers to, and do not remember who Ted Kaczynski or James Earl Ray were.  Let's watch:

Fascinating.  This obviously proves his point.  Right?  Wrong.

We are talking about two things here: attraction and preference.  I am sure the post-PC scientific community and most lifestyle advocates are going to disagree with this assessment.  However, here we go anyway.  Attraction is a biochemical process which can, to an extent, be influenced by culture and societal norms.  While there are near universal constants which describe how a male or female brain responds to certain external physical and biochemical stimuli, the details of attraction have change throughout time and in different regions due to factors such as evolutionary stress, scientific enlightenment, and social mores.  Attraction is innate, and again near universal, it predates exposure to the object of attraction.

This is where the discussion gets hairy.  Preference is almost exclusively a learned thought or behavior that is predicated upon exposure to an object, culture, or societal norms.  Unless the topic is biochemical aversion (i.e. food allergy), which is not truthfully a preference, humans are not born with preferences without the presence of a physiological abnormality whether it be biochemical or structural in nature.  Preferences require  exposure, experience association, and usually repeated indoctrination.  In other words you have to become aware of something, some event has to create a positive or negative memory in your brain, and usually that association needs to be reinforced some way in order for a person to form a preference.

What does all of that have to do with the above video?  It is very simple.  Is the questioner talking about attraction or preference?  If we are talking about attraction, we are talking about a biochemical process within the physiology of a human.  If my heart valves form differently, my spleen forms differently, or my spine develops differently science says I have a disorder, an illness or disease if you will.  In the same way that if a person's brain forms differently and that abnormality affects biochemical processes then that person is said to be suffering from a neuropsychiatric disorder.  Just like rage, depression, anxiety, paranoia, autism, pedophilia, and psychosis are biochemical processes often influenced by the structure of the brain, so also is attraction.  Validly so, a person cannot choose (in the traditional sense) to have a disease and are in fact often born with it.  As such, individuals with disabling conditions are already protected by laws such as The Americans with Disabilities Act.  However, that would require reversing the notion that homosexuality is in fact not a disease, which I do not think that is going to happen.

On the other hand, if the questioner is asking about preference, we are getting into a completely different animal.  I want everyone to think about exactly how they learned to: talk, read, use the toilet, and develop affection for people other than your mother.  Cannot do it, can you?  That is because all this indoctrination happened at a time which predates your greater consciousness and "random access memory."  But, do not be misled that information is in your brain somewhere.  Just like the demarcation between when you had no concept of differences and benefits of gender and when you began to be indoctrinated to prefer one over the other for certain societal roles.  For most people this is a relatively smooth, trauma-free experience that commences from the moment of birth.  For others this process is marked by dramatic tribulations creating revolutions in thinking, a post-indoctrination re-indoctrination or brainwashing.  However you come to a preference there is a point wherein A) your indoctrination begins, B) your preference solidifies and C) you make a choice.  For the vast majority of people, this entire process usually happens in their individual "prehistory," in the nebulous time before your "first memory."

This difference has two bearings on this video.  First the questioner asked the respondents to comment on a process they could not scientifically observe or remember without significant assistance if it can be remembered at all.  Secondly, and more interestingly, the respondents do not realize that between when as an infant or toddler they first formed preferences and when they encountered the cameraman, society had continually exposed them to other ideas.  Therefore, at some time after the point where all earlier memories are gray and fuzzy (when they first formed a preference) they reaffirmed their preferences.  In plain English: several times in their lives, every last one of them chose to be straight.

"Outside" by George Michael from Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael released 1998 on Epic