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"Now this looks like a job for me
so everybody just follow me
'cause we need a little controversy
'cause it feels so empty without me."
-Eminem

"Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased ,Äîthus do we refute entropy."
-Spider Robinson

You wanna know what?  It's all bullshit.  Everything.  Of course, you knew that all along, didn't you?  That was the whole point.  It's the sugar coating on the cyanide capsule of truth -- it's there, and it doesn't last, but it's there just long enough to get you to pop the little baby in your mouth so it can change your whole world more permanently than a vodka colonic irrigation.

The bullshit is beautiful, and that in and of itself is a reason to appreciate its existance. "Bullshit makes the flowers grow, and that's beautiful."  Never forget that.  Of course, it's hard to forget that which you have never realised.

I'm sure there's a quote about 'pearls before swine,' but I never talk to Suidae, so I must assume you are all Homo Sapiens, or reasonable fascimilies there-of.  And no, that's not why Homo Erectus went extinct, Joey.

Discordians.  Ooooh.  Aaaah.  Discordianism.  The Erisian Locomotion.  Oooh, aaaah, wow.  Far be it from me to ever vent, save for my bi-annual complete and total break down (I sincerely apologise to, in no particular order, the Priest at the Catholic Church down the road for entertaining my questions as to the nature of the mind of God, my keyboard, for withstanding so many years of typing, Hoshiko, and anyone silly enough to believe they know what's what.  Are you paying attention yet?), but I find that I keep on getting drawn back here, mainly due to a tickling inside my pineal gland, and partially due to defacement of my website.  But hey, I don't really care.  Changing a few words here and there lends a little bit of, I dare say, homeliness to my works.  And I'm sure some mod is going to alter this thing all helter-skelter without reading it.

Now.  Discordianism.  It's a bunch of shit.  Just like everything else.  Some people believe we live in four stages of life, gradually progressing through different desires until we desire to be free of the wheel that never ceases to turn.  I'm inclined to believe, while maybe wrong on particulars, the picture in whole is beautiful.

Discordianism in and of itself has no special meaning.  It will not make you a better person.  In fact, it seems to me that people seem to view Discordia, along with the complementary ideas on anarchy, as an invitation to just be the biggest asses in the world.  Like everything else, I admire it, and abhor a great deal of its followers.  Heinlein and I agree.  We may not know God, but we sure as hell know our intellectual inferiors.

Discordianism in and of itself has no deep truth, anymore than blowing one's nose is a magical act (Crowley supporters and Wiccans who have regained memories of their 'past lives' where they were tormented and proclaimed the goddess and raised up high their Books of Shadows whilst being burned at the stake may walk over to the far wall, as you shall be the first up against it come the revolution, atleast until we revise the list again.  And make no mistake -- the revolution will not be televised.  It will be brought to your front door. )

Discordianism is the Saccharin coating on the posioned pill of the truth.  It is far more devious than blip-verts and the post-modern consumer society combined, and has been responsible for far more enlightenment.  Accidentally.  Make no mistake:  Discordianism is hollow and empty.  Of the religions, it is closest to Zen Buddhism, no matter how some people may hate the idea.  You know who you are.

Just as every is a Buddha, so is everyone a Discordian.  And just as everyone is not yet a Buddha, so is everyone not yet a Discordian.  We all have the potential to become a Buddha, just as we all have the potential to become a Discordian.  But see, the thing is, unlike Buddhahood, Discordianism isn't the end.  Discordianism is that sugary sweet magical coating that some geniuses, probably not knowing what they had stumbled upon, slipped over that thing they had stumbled upon to get you to swallow it.  It's called Truth.  Capital T.  The one and only that is many.  E Pluribus Unumque Unus Pluribum.

But the problem is so many Discordians stop there.  They just love the taste of the sweet candy so much that they can't bear the bitter medicine.  Just like children (and I am running the gamut of emotions an actor can portray here as I think of this ) most of you refuse the medicine, no matter how much good it will do you, and prefer the sweetness that, while very enjoyable, is rotting the teeth of your souls.  Bakas.

Discordianism is a religion of Epiphany.  Of those moments of Zen where suddenly everything snaps into place in a blinding flash of irrational logic, a thunderclap goes through your being, and you're changed.  Unfortunately, Discordianism is not that religion of Epiphany.  Discordian -- the Erisian Locomotion (Oh, By the Gods what a Funny Term, and It was There All Along) -- is a vehicle.  That moves you.  That is capable of transporting you to the Truth.  But it's bitter, and painful, and ecstatic and joyous.  But you have to let it all go.

Your hate, your anger, your love, your trust, your fear, your doubt, your pride, your will.  Every religion has a little bit of it right, somewhere inside.  That's why they've managed to hold on for so long.  They're a morsel of pre-chewed, tasteless meat tossed to the masses to keep them coming back for more, when they hunger for a nice steak, or bowl of Miso Soup.

I can think of three people off of the top of my head who I would consider as being on the path to the top of the mountain out of the great deal of people on this board.  And I can think of many more who, while not on the path (as we never get to the top, though we spend our whole lives trying,) are actively looking for it.  They are to be applauded.  They seek for that which will make them better.

Ever read Stranger in a Strange Land?  If have, I hope you took away the bit of truth from that book.  If you didn't, or you haven't read it, you should.  Much that it says is true.

I know who my intellectual inferiors are, just as I know who my emotional and spiritual inferiors are.  (Define Inferior:  Someone whose progress is not as great as my own.)  They should take a lesson from a little man we call the 'Raging Goblin.'  Here it is:  He raged at his life, at his family, at the world.  But mostly, he just raged.

You who hate without understanding.  I'm very sorry for you.  You don't properly hate.  I don't know if you will ever be able to.  I hate my father.  And I love him, and I value him, and I wouldn't have him any other way, though he causes himself and others great pain and anguish sometimes.  I can hate him, as I can love him, because I understand him.  I can hate him because I see in him some of me, and some of me in him.  And because I see myself in him and himself in me, I can love him, too.  I can love murderers, and rapists, and the grass, and by roommates, and the damn annoying animals that inhabit my leibensraum, because I can understand them.  Because there is no difference between them and me.  We are all One.  I am God.  Thou art God.  All that Groks is God.

In hating others you hate yourself.  In hurting others you hurt yourself.  In raging against others you rage against yourself.  In loving others you love yourself.  In helping others you help yourself.  Your cynicism poisons only your own well of spirit.  You salt only your own fields with your hate.

I'm brought back the the thought of a Mad Dog.  I was once in a debate of sorts about legality and society, and the question was posed, "What would I do if I saw a Mad Dog walking down the Street."  It's simple.  I'd shoot it.  There is nothing that can be done for the Animal, and it is kinder to society to kill it, so that it cannot harm others, and it is kinder to the animal to kill it, so that it does not have to suffer through its own dementia and deterioration.  I'm with Valentine Michael Smith on this.  Some people are just so hopeless that there is nothing good that can ever come out of them, and we're better off sending them back to the foot of the line to try again.  It's both sad and beautiful.  English, and the other languages I have a slight grasp of, fail me for words.  There is no tongue known to humanity, it seems, for such fine discriminations of emotion.

And I've figured out why, to the fool, the wise man sounds foolish, and to the fool, the fool sounds wise.  It's because anyone can put across bullshit and make it sound convincing.  But no one can communicate the truth.  This whole thing, like every other half-assed attempt in my life, is another failure, due to no deficiency of my own, to communicate the Truth.  It can never be transmited.  Knowledge can be taught, but the Truth has to be learned for one's self.  It is not possible to make the journey for another, but it is possible to give them a map.  However, I never excelled at cartography as a larva.

So.  It's a good thing there aren't more people like me.  Because we would make an ideal world.  And I reckon that about one in ten in the modern world is fit to live in it.  Some people on this board like to rail against America:  And that's a very fine thing to do.  The Loyal Opposition, like the Devil's Advocate, is a time-worn and well-honoured part of society.  However, the hypocrite, while time-worn, is not well-honoured.  The thing that is wrong with America is control.  The thing that is wrong with so many of you is Control.  Try to make the mirror of your soul shine before you try to fix others.

And to anyone who says that I should follow the same advice, I would say to you, that I have touched the mind of God, I have fathomed the unfathomable, I have seen the unseenable, I know the unknowable.  And before anyone tries to call the Florida Department of Mental Health, I just have one more thing to say, and then I'll leave this little experiment alone for another month or so.

I love you all.  May you live beyond this day in years of blessings, and may the stars shine on your faces.  Go in Peace.  Go in Love.  I think I'll just Go.

I know that many will call this useless work.

Eventually everyone gets older, and then you have to act your age, and not your shoe size.

[But] [n]ot by age but by capacity is wisdom acquired.  A witty saying proves nothing.  Wisdom is better than Wit.  A man with wisdom is better off than a stupid man with any amount of charms and superstition.  To the fool, he who speaks wisdom will sound foolish.  The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.  Wise men learn more from fools than fools from the wise.  The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook.  The plainest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness: her state is like that of things in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.  Wise anger is like fire from a flint: there is great ado to get it out; and when it does come, it is out again immediately.  Wise men hear and see as little children do.  Wisdom begins in wonder.

-- Leonardo Da Vinci
-- Unknown
-- Titus Maccius Plautus, Trinummus
-- Voltaire
-- Jane Austen
-- Anonymous
-- Euripides
-- William Shakespeare, "As You Like It", Act 5 scene 1
-- William James (1842-1910)
-- Michel de Montaigne
-- Matthew Henry
-- Lao-Tzu
-- Socrates

LSD Dissonae Voces Unae
High Inquisitor Carl Eric von Kleist, IV jumbling.

I submit here the proof.

Voyager 1 is now crossing into interstellar space.

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/voyager_agu.html

This is meant to be purely illustrative, and not to be taken humourlessly (or was that humourously?)

The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

or

Nero was Right:  Blame the Christians!

That's right, friends, Romans, Country-men.  Country-women.  Enemies.  Neutral Parties.  Not only is America in the tail end of its life span, but I believe the causes of its demise can be traced conclusively back to modern-day Christianity.  Nota bene the use of the prefix 'Modern-day,' as the author has nothing against the early church in the, oh, about seventy years after the Mythical Jesus' death.  From what the author understands of it, it was actually an okay place until the men took over and made it masculine.  The author has grievances specifically with the religion that these days presents itself as 'Christianity.'

"But wait a minute," you say (or maybe not, considering the constitution of the intended audience,) "how can Christianity possibly be responsible for everything bad in this country?  It just doesn't seem possible."  Oh, my friends, but it is possible, and I hope to illuminate how.

The are two problems in this country known as the United States.  Two main ones, I should say, which seem to be at the root of everything wrong.  The first of the problems is that no one will take responsiblity for their actions.  I believe that while many, many people have this problem in modern (American) society, it is particularly apparent among Christians.

Christianity is a religion that preaches that one should be careful of one's actions, not for reward in this life, or for consequences in this life, but for reward in an afterlife.  Because this world does not matter, only getting into the next one, and because not caring about this world and getting into the next one are often compatible ideas, this world is going to shit at the hands of the Christians.

Christianity is also the religion of the cosmic scapegoat.  I know of no other religion where one can so easily escape responsiblity for one's actions.  After all, one is never truely responsible for one's actions in modern Christianity.  "The Devil Made Me Do It."  This has even been used as a defense at trial, in a court of law, and people accept it.  And because this easy cop-out is built into the Religion at a deep level, and ingrained early on in its adherents (particularly in childhood for those children unfortunate enough to be raised in a Christian household), this contributes, in the opinion of the author, to the rising levels of scapegoating in this country.  Anything from Rock Music to Grand Theft Auto is being cited as the source of people's bad behaviour these days (since to claim in public 'The Devil Made Me Do It' is to expose one's self to ridicule.)  The person commiting the act is no longer responsible:  the game, or music, or play, or other people are.  It is simply a modern day 'Devil Made Me Do It.'

Thus concludes part one, as I have become fascinated by a caterpillar.

So.  I just finished reading everything I've ever posted to this board.  To celibrate, I have forgotten how to spell, and I made a post before this one, as I've nearly completely lost it.

I've finally figured it all out.  Every little bit of it.  And I've figured out what I do that you people don't like.  And I think I may have figured out why you don't like it.  And I'm sorry.  I really am.

Fluff you can stand.  Crazy you can stand.  Insane babbling, you can stand.

Mild psychotic breaks?  Not really.

Other things that really don't need to be said.

For those of you with sapience to understand what's really going on, I don't need to say anything.  And for those of you without, you'd never get it.  I'm not even sure I get it, because I can't fully articulate it.  However, I can't fully articulate lots of things which are true.  So there it stands.

And let's talk about wisdom.  Wisdom is the commemoration of the temporary.  Wisdom is being able to look around as say, "This is a beautiful day."  Wisdom is not fearing change.

Things change.  If you think, "That's always the problem," well, I'm very sorry for you.

Looking back through all those posts was a great deal of fun, and it was quite funny.  And by funny, I mean it hurt.  Alot.  Things have changed, you see.  I've known you (most of you) for less than a year.  And most of you, down to a few exceptions, I have spent maybe less than a full day's worth of time interacting with.

Some might say this is too short a time to decide on anything of importance, let alone complex interpersonal judgements.  However, that's not the point.  Change is the point.

Where's Medeo?  Where's Hotsuma?  Where are all those people who used to be here?  Don't blame me for all of them running off.  I've enjoyed my hubris for quite some time, but I'm not that powerful.  If I was, I'd have gotten rid of the fundies by sheer force of will.

Compositus Confusio, Dream of the Endless...  It's funny.  Truely funny.  Not amusing, not ironic, not any of those other concepts.  It's funny.

People often wonder what makes humans special.  What is that thing that helps to define our indefinable 'humanity?'  What do we do that other animals don't?  Our complex social interactions?  Go stare at an anthill or a beehive.  Art?  Go critique a bower-bird.  Verbal Language?  Sorry, I think several others have prior art on that patent.

I'll tell you what makes humans special.  We're the animal that laughs at itself.  We have to laugh at ourselves, because very few of us a prepared to deal with the pain.  That's what makes a joke funny.  Someone gets hurt.  Someone has their feelings hurt, or are subjected to bodily harm, or makes a fool of themself.  And we laugh at it.  Most of us have to laugh at it, because if we don't laugh at it, if we don't shrug it off with a guffaw, we'll have to think about it.  About the pain.

Death is one of the most painful topics for the majority of humanity to discuss.  And we make so many jokes about it.

I don't laugh much anymore.  But these past 16 hours or so I've had to laugh, alot.  I've had to laugh because I'm not ready at the moment to accept all of this.  Eric, CC, Dream, Caster Braids (yes, that was me)...  There is so much I don't remember.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Change.  Discordia is a religion of Chaos, and chaos is change.  We talk of Order and Chaos, Dichotomy, Creation and Destruction, Mindfucks, Jaking.  But next to none of us truely want change.  How many people whine about 'The Way Things Used to Be?'  I look on these forums (being no great master of life, though I hazard to say, I have a deeper understanding that most of the people within) and see so many people who are just giving lipservice.  People who think mindfucks are just about screwing with people.  People who are all for Chaos, completely rejecting order, never thinking about the matter.  Or people who got a little beyond that, and have rejected destruction, 'embracing an all creative trip.'

There is no such thing as a one-sided coin.  The Belief requires the Believer, just as the Believer requires the Belief.  You cannot have Chaos without Order.  You cannot have Creation without Destruction.

Change.  It's a constant, and yet it's not.  Dream, Eric, CC, Grey, PakProtector, vktsman, Eristvs, vK.   Change.

I don't feel this is a personal failing of mine.  But I am sad.  I can't laugh at it any more.  I'd set the record straight, but it doesn't matter.  Believe what you will -- it makes no difference -- as everything is true.   And everything is a lie.  There is nothing certain except uncertainty.

I'm fairly sure by now I've annoyed those of you who have managed to read this far by repeating myself so many times.  I'm sorry.  Telling people the truth is never the problem, you see.  It's getting them to listen that's the hard part.  Because, like most humans, we remember that which concerns us, and forget, instantly, that which we do not care to know.

I have this feeling that the wheel's going to keep on turning.  I really don't mind the hate.  Hate implies some sense of closeness on the part of the Hater to the Object of the Hatred.  Of course, it's easy to mistake hatred and dislike.  To be able to hate something you have to be able to see yourself in it.  It in you.  You have to be able to understand it.

For all the talk of viewing the world through different grids, of shaking of the 'greyfaced' mental baggage, so many of you are unable to do so.  You give lipservice to the ideals -- maybe enact some of them -- but you refuse to let your core change.  You hold to the same ingrained beliefs and expectations that you claim to be rejecting.

Also, many of you seem to misunderstand things on purpose, but that's neither here nore there.  We all interperet the truth to fit the facts (or the facts that we wish to find.)  Atleast, most of us do.

Things are going to keep on changing.  I'm not more an instrument of change than any of you.  The wheel will never cease to turn because, deep down, we need it to turn.  Hate me for good reasons.  Or simply hate me because you can hate.  But for those of you who choose the latter, I hope you don't go out and kill just because you can kill, too.  For those of you who choose the latter, I'm sorry.  Sorry for you.

But let's end this on a happy note.  After all, none of it really matters.  People here used to like me.  Hell, even Horab liked me at one point, when I first came here.  When I was silly.  When I sugar coated everything with easily graspable humor.  When I was funny.  When I conveyed the message with humor.  When I made the truth funny.  Think on that.  And reflect on the true reason you hate me, for those of you who do.

But I said, "But let's end this on a happy note."  After all, nothing lasts forever.  Fruit Flies, Books, Poems, People, Empires, Stars, the Universe.  This too, shall pass.  So buck up.  Either I'll die, or this Eric will die, or the hatred within you will die.  Or anything else.

It might get better.  It could possibly get worse.  But the one thing that is for sure is:  It won't be the same.

[Audigy]

This is my performance of a one act play.  The original can be viewed here.


Creative Screwed Me Like a Bitch
ACT 1, SCENE 1

The setting is a computer hardware shop.  Rows of parts are on shelves.  Audigy is on a shelf near to the front, looking cute.

Boo enters from stage left, looks around.

Audigy:  Buy me!  I'm ever so sexy, for I output in 7.1 channels, with crystal quality and hardware MP3 encoding and decoding!

Boo:  Audigy, my love!  Come home with me, and together we will sample such marvels of musical delight as none before us have known!

Audigy:  I love you, Boo!

Boo:  I love you, Audigy!

Boo and Audigy exit stage left.

ACT 1, SCENE 2

Boo:  There, my darling, how is that?  It's the PCI slot you wanted, with the greatest cooling, and I even put in a much larger PSU, just incase you had a desire for more juice.  Now, let us sample-

Boo is cut off by Audigy.

Audigy:  LET JESUS FUCK YOU IN THE ASS WITH LLAMAS, SON OF A FRENCH FUCKER!

Audigy begins to trash Boo's computer, playing noise across the PCI Bus.

Hard Drive:  Mein leben!  Nein!  Neeeeein!

Hard Drive head crashes and falls over.

Audigy:  BLARG!  AUUUGH!  YOUR MOTHER SUCKS COCKS IN HELL, PRIEST!  FUCK ME!

Modem:  Me Necavit Nonne?!

Modem catches fire and burns.

Curtains close.

The Beer Prayer, by Methos:

Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink.
Thy will be drunk,
(as I will be drunk)
At home, as it is in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill upon us.
And lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers.
For thine is the beer, the bitter, and the lager.
Forever and ever,
Pass the pretzels.

Some may consider it an act of great hubris to say that of everything in life is about sex.  And not just for Homo Sapiens, the only surviving member of Hominidae, the group whose members, by and large, seem to think themselves the end of creation, which in and of itself was just a means to that end, and them.

Let's face it.  Living Things are just Genes' way of making more Genes.  Everything that you or I or the dog or the fungus growing outside in the dirt have in our Genomes are there because they have been good at getting passed on to The Next Generation.  The only reason a large majority of so-called 'more evolved' creatures use sexual instead of asexual reproduction is because the recombination proved has benefits over asexual reproduction.

It's all very well and good if I have more efficient metabolism, am stronger than you, faster you, more intelligent than you, and have better eyesight and sharper hearing.  But if I am more efficient at metabolising, am stronger than you, faster than you, more intelligent than you, have better hearing and sharper eyes, and am sterile, my decendants will never benefit from any of those genetic qualities.

Sterility can never by passed on to one's decendants.  Or atleast not by natural means.

And everything about us (and for ease of my outlining my ideas, I will restrict myself to Homo Sapiens, whom I am most chiefly concerned with), every little gene we have, ever little trait we have evolved over countless millenia of evolution and change and adaption, has all come down to this one question:  Is this (my nice plumage/my reasoning/my ability to smell my mate's pheremones from a mile away/my walking up right) going to get me laid?

For some reason, we are what we are.  We, on average, have two arms, two legs, walk upright, have no tail, hair (mostly) on our heads (and before anyone brings it up, I know I have exactly as many hair follicles, if not more, than any other Great Ape), and are omnivores.  And we are what we are because being what we are at some point in the past made it more like for us to make more of what we are.

Speech, for example.  We can talk.  We are blessed with the ability (some of us) to make the most beatiful, hauting melodies with our voices, and all of us, or nearly all, are able to form such sounds that can be recognised by others, with the help of our intellect, as meaning thing.  In short, I can call someone up and tell them to meet me at 3PM at the usual place, and they will know that I mean for them to meet me at a certain time, in a certain park, for a certain activity.

We have language for many reasons, a few of them I can think of, though I'm sure any anthropologist could do much better.  The ability to communicate helps us organise.  It's quite hard for you and the boys (and/or girls) to get together with your fire-hardened sticks and nice clovis points and bring down Ye Olde Wollye Mammothe if you can't all agree on what your sticking where.  Of course, many other creatures have gotten along for much longer than we have, as a species, in doing similar things as this without our form of communication.  Just look at the Ants.  They will most likely be around long after we are gone.  But I digress.

To go on living, and thus to gain time in which to have a chance to pass on those all-powerful genes, you need food.  So any means that helps you exploit a previously unexploited source of food is a great boon.  And the people who are better able to exploit the unexploited will have an edge over the rest of us Neanderthals, so to speak.

Since long before the days of Homo Habilis we have been animal habilis, and quite good at using those tools, too.  One only needs watch certain finches that were studied by Mr. Darwin quite some time ago to notice that even when you can't make them, you have them, if only you use them.

The first person who figured out that the creature they'd just killed didn't need its pelt anymore, but by gosh, it'd be nice to have something between my naked ass and the elements, suddenly had an advantage.  As did the much stronger person who probably beat him up and took it from him (or her, as  the case may be.  Women probably invented agriculture, so I don't see any reason why they should not be credited with the invention of clothing for similar reasons.  In my experience women are far more intelligent than men, and also in my experience, most men can't seem to stand this, so they rely on their, on average, above average strength, atleast when comparing the averages of men and women.  But I digress.)

Every trait you have that is genetic you have because those genes proved very good at making it possible for your ancestors to go about making more copies of those genes.  Or rather, Every trait that you have that is genetic you have because those genes proved very good at not making it any less possible for your ancestors to go about making more copies of those genes.

As an example, I have Thalassemia Minor.  More accuratley, I am heterozygous.  In me, the trait is not expressed, and I am a carrier.  If I ever have a child with a woman who is also heterozygous, and we have a homozygous offspring, the child will most likely die, or lead a very complicated life.

Thalassemia Minor causes a warping in the shape of red blood cells.  As a heterozygous person, my red blood cells look slightly different than someone who is without the condition, and not at all like those of someone who is homozygous.  In person who is homozygous, red blood cells have a tendancy to break.

However, people who are heterozygous have an increased resistance to malaria, as a group.  My odds of contracting malaria are around equal to those of a person without Thalassemia Minor, however, if a thousand of us Heterozygous Thalassemia Minor people were exposed, and a thousand people without the trait were exposed, more people would become infected, on average, out of the non-trait-bearing group.  And this is particularly advantageous in place where you would expect to be exposed to malaria.

So, like I was saying.  My gene for Thallasemia Minor is in there because in one of my parents, it was very good at not substantially lowering the chances that that parent would find my other parent and mate and produce me.  For the curious, my mother is the carrier out of my parents.

However good it is to have one allelle for the condition, it's horribly bad to have both.  So you can expect, in a group where you have the gene, something like this to happen:

There is a group of people, some of whom have the gene and some do not.  Children who are born with the gene expressed generally die.  There is a severe outbreak of malaria.  A larger portion of people without the gene recessive die than those who have the gene as recessive, and therefore the next generation contains a larger number of people with the gene as recessive.  However, if too large a group of the population has the gene as recessive, the odds of children that are born to paired individuals dying goes up.  So from generation to generation, there is not a large change in the ratio of people with and without the gene recessive, and it never becomes too spread throughout the population.

However, that is for a detrimental mutation.  What about the genes for something like intelligence?

Giving birth hurts.  As a male, I bow to the experience of women in this matter.  They tell me it hurts, and from the look in their eyes when confronted with males who say it can't hurt that much, I am inclined to believe women that it does hurt.  I am also inclined to believe them because I have some small concept of what it must feel like to pass something about the size of a grapefruit through an opening far too small for it.  But I digress.

Giving birth hurts.  It is a consequence of our upright gait.  To be able to effectly walk upright as a sole means of locomotion it requires a repositioning of the pelvis with narrows the birth canal, and thus increases risk for mother and infant during birth.  One need only look at statistics for infant and maternal mortality rates in the pre-modern area.

The way we, as a species, have coped with this is to have the child be born immature, and by that I mean not fully developed.  The brain is not fully formed at the time of birth.  This means that infants are horribly dependant on their parents for protection, shelter, and food.  Since the skull of a child is soft, to allow passage through the birth canal, and then hardens later in life, the brain has an extraordinary capacity to grow after birth.

But let us get back to a paragraph with the open sentance of 'Giving Birth Hurts.'

Giving birth hurts.  As a species, or rather, as a society (and I speak only for American Society, atleast, that small segement of it in which I was brought up and now interact on a daily basis), we seem to have a fixation on women with small waists.  I find that most unhealth on many levels.  But it must be stated that we actively select, or atleast, a great number of us do, for small waistedness in women.

As waists get smaller and smaller, the spacing between the bones of the pelvis that constitutes the birth canal gets smaller and smaller, and thus the risk to mother and child during birth gets higher and higher.  Just look at the number of births these days that must be preformed as caesarian sections.  Also, read the book, "The Handmaid's Tail."  I myself tried to watch the movie, and that went much better than "The General's Daughter," as I left the room before I vomitted, but I digress.

We are selecting towards a point where natural birth will no longer be an option.  Towards a point where there will be very few women left who are able to bear children.  With the proliferation of fertility treatments for men and women who normally are not able to have children, we are making it possible to pass sterlity on.  Now I will readily grant that many of the cases in which fertility treatments are neccesary are not due to genetic problems but accidents of human stupidity and/or violence.  But nevertheless, we are making it possible for genetic sterility to be passed on.

Of note is the important fact that even if you're not sterile, but you can't give birth because it will kill you and your child, that's effectively the same thing.  Fertility Treatments and Caesarian Sections are making it possible for many people who cannot breed to breed.  Traits that have been weeded out of humanity for countless aeons, for the reason that what kills you is not good to pass on, are being put back into the population.

I should prehaps note now that I am not in favor of eugenics.  However, I do see the problem arising, possibly sometime soon, where a large majority of the population is no longer able to procreate without the aid of science.  And since dark ages are an inevitability in this human game that we all play, this seems a bad thing.

However, I didn't mean to get this far on this particular topic.  This whole talk seems to be one large tangent of a tangent.  As a matter of fact, I can't even remember what I was originally trying to get at, except that people should keep their noses out of other people's business.

As a species, we seem to love sticking our noses where they don't belong.  Throw government into the mix, and suddenly you find that people love telling other people what they may not do, under the pretext of doing it for their own good.
"We need laws that make prostitution illegal!  And murder, and rape, and larconey!  And selling tobacco and alcohol to minors!  And to stop people from buying any gun with a bore-size over one inch!"

To these people, I simply ask them, "Are you going to go out and commit all these horrible acts without a law that forbids you from doing them?"

Every action I take, everything I do, I do because I wish to.  I do not obey the laws of society any more than I obey the laws of physics.  I do not go out and kill people at random because I have no need to.  I give alcohol and tobacco to minors (myself being under age to drink) if, in my opinion, It is okay for me to do so.  If I have a friend who is sixteen and smokes, I will purchase for them a pack of cigarettes.  When I turned eighteen, some friends of mine whose house I was at at the precise minute (according to their clock) that I turned 18 gave me alcohol.

Anyone who needs a law to stop them from commiting rape, murder, or any other horrible crime needs to be dragged into the street and shot dead.  The same goes for any pro-lifer who needs a law passed to stop people from having an abortion.  If you don't want an abortion, simply don't get one.  If you don't think children should possess firearms, don't keep them where they can get them.  If you don't think it's okay to sell a minor alcohol or tobacco, then don't sell them to them, and don't give them to them.  But under no circumstances, what so ever, should you limit my ability to do as I please.  Your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins.  Your right to regulate behaviour ends where other people begin.

Just because murder is illegal does not mean someone will not go out and commit murder.  There are many circumstances under which I myself would commit cold, precalculated murder, and not feel bad about it.  But anyone who is so nosy as to think to tell another human being they can't do something, well, they need to be shot.

The fact is, I can go out and murder as many people as I want.  And anyone else is free to go out and kill me to stop me from murdering as many people as I want.  That is the one and only power of the state.  The threat of force.

However, those people are also free to pass whatever laws they feel they need to insure their own safety.  I can 'obey' them if I find the coincide with my own person beliefs, or ignore them if they do not.  Much as I already do.  The only thing you do when you outlaw citizens having guns is make sure no one but law enforcement, the military, and criminals will have guns, and criminals already have them.  The only thing you do when you outlaw abortion is increase the number of deaths every year that come from abortions because now they are being preformed by idiots without proper medical training in alleyways with coathangers.  You silly sods.

Once again, those people who need to legislate to ensure their own safety should be dragged out into the street and shot.

What we need in this country is a serious weeding out, and a method to stop the 'weeds' from creeping back into society.  We need to drag those people out into the streets and shoot them, and then figure out a way to stop more people like that from popping up.  Law is the greatest joke there is.  A law against Breaking and Entering does not stop people from breaking into my apartment and stealing my things.  The fact that they will have their personal freedoms curtailed does.  Also, the fact that there could be a seven foot tall scotsman on the other side of the door with a sword curtails them.  Not that there is.  However, they are free to break into my apartment all they want and I am equally as free to throw a knife into their neck from my seat when they come into my bedroom.  And if I miss, I'll just get out a gun.  Metal meets propulsion seems to solve many problems.

In short:  America:  Stay the fuck out of my bedroom!