Homophobia and Homosexuality

PaintingOnScars.com

Are Homophobic People Really Gay and Not Accepting It? (Psychology Today) reports on several well designed studies that say they are.

This pretty credible source substantiates the reports on the Harvard/MIT and other studies that show a strong correlation between homophobia and suppressed homosexual feelings.

As Freud found, and with it launched the discipline of psychology... it is the intense suppression of true feelings that causes harmfully abnormal stress and behavior; not the feelings themselves.

The whole process of growing up and "becoming civilized" is the process of learning to suppress true feelings when they are harmful to others. This is the mandatory requirement in order to have any kind of functional society.

However, looking deeper tells us that (like everything) there are limits.

Too much suppression, too intensely, for too long creates a fragile psyche that can collapse into harmful behavior when stressed.
 

Some Favorite Quotes

"It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer."
Albert Einstein

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
widely attributed to George Orwell
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Orwell

"The price of freedom, is eternal vigilance."
Leonard H. Courtney, Thomas Jefferson, Jean-Luc Picard (fic.), et.al.

"A rising tide sinks all boats that are anchored to the bottom."
http://www.dailykos.com/user/Zwoo

“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

"If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough."
Albert Einstein

"No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it."
Albert Einstein

"Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted."
Albert Einstein

"Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."
Albert Einstein

"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."
Albert Einstein

"Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere."
Albert Einstein

"Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters."
Albert Einstein

"That is the way to learn the most, that when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice that the time passes."
Albert Einstein, 1915

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction."
Albert Einstein

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true."
Branch Cabell, author of satirical fantasy

"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away."
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, French writer (1900 - 1944)

Ayn Rand

Just watched Ayn Rand on Johnny Carson (1967)

This was not the usual late-night-talk-show guest interview. No jokes. Very serious. And went over into what was supposed to be another guest's time. (total of about 30mins)

If Ayn Rand were alive today and could speak for herself, I think she would vigorously denounce Rand Paul, Paul Ryan and the rest of her "neo-disciples"... and they would denounce her.

For example... In this interview, she very strongly asserts that no one has the right to another person's life. To that end, she clearly expresses her opposition to any draft for any reason. Only individuals have the right to decide to risk their lives.

Seems to me that the Republicans have hijacked some of her philosophies (primarily laissez-faire capitalism) to justify destroying the lives of others in furtherance of their own affluence.

This interview indicates that in her philosophy of Objectivism, she expected everyone to vigorously pursue their own self-interest. To me, the flaw in it was that she seemed to think everyone had roughly the same capacity to do that. We know that they don't. But at the time of the interview (1967), the divergence was far smaller than it is today.

I couldn't disagree more with today's Republican interpretation of Ayn Rand's philosophies. I could say the same about the Christian churches' interpretation of Jesus' philosophies. I think both have been used to further agendas that each would abhor were they alive.

Perhaps that's why these "reinterpretations" have only come about well after the icons were too dead to disagree.

Republicans are Scared. We Democrats are too.

We have become highly "risk-averse." The uncharitable would say, "cowardly."

I've been one of those. But I may be coming out the other side now.

We are afraid. We are overwhelmingly afraid.

We have a lot to be afraid of. More than most of us can rationally handle.

For most people, "truth" is almost totally determined by how much we trust the speaker. But Watergate began an irreversible erosion in the reliability of that instinct in this country. Iran-Contra was another milestone in that process. The 2000 presidential election.

The election of Barak Obama filled us with hope that the nightmare was finally over.

Then came Mitch McConnell and the R's war on the the first black Presidency, the Supreme Court's ruling on Citizen's United, and countless other recent events.

Now we have ISIS and Ebola... dangers for which it is socially acceptable to freak-out over because they are external rather than internal.

(Maybe it's like beating up somebody for calling your brother names... the same brother you pick on mercilessly every day.)

The freakout over Ebola is really our pent up fears finally having an outlet for their expression.

"Fight" and "flight" are both reactions to fear. Despite our prejudices, "flight" is often a wiser choice for ultimate success and survival than "fight."

Most species have a predilection, an instinctive bias, for one or the other. Cultures often develop such biases too. But unlike instincts, cultural bias can take less time to change in light of traumatic events.

By the 1940s, the Japanese culture had developed a "fight" bias when faced with adversity. A couple of atom-bombs however converted them to a more thoughtful "flight" bias. Look at them now!

The Republicans have a strong prejudicial "fight" bias. For them, "offense" is not just "the best defense," it's the ONLY defense. Anything else is considered shameful.

Democrats however have a "flight" bias. Most try to avoid conflict, "find common ground," and compromise for the common good.

Democrats force ourselves to respect the views of people we truly believe are just "bat-shit-crazy."

Democrats often have "bleeding hearts," but they bleed because their heads are restraining them from trying to give more than they have.

Democrats work hard to stretch forethought as far as possible to anticipate and overcome problems with our own ideas. (A practice that's often used against us, BTW.)

Democrats then, it seems to me, are the only hope our country has for survival. We are the only ones looking ahead, and using our heads, to overcome the dangers we face.

I never thought I'd say this but... Republicans are not "bad people."

They're just scared.

It is up to Democrats to protect them as well as ourselves.

It's up to Democrats to find solutions, as Republican fears have stopped them from even trying.

The Republican leadership have become like cornered animals. All rationality is gone. They see little or no way out. The only, very slim chance they see for survival, is an almost certainly suicidal attack.

We Democrats have to get off their backs and take action ourselves... though we don't know what to do any more than they do.

But their "fight" bias has them taking action anyhow. Actions that have put us all in that desperate corner.

Those Republican actions are lethal.

We Democrats had better figure out better ones... and quickly.

"How extreme isolation warps the mind"

(Getty Images)

How extreme isolation warps the mind, Michael Bond, 14 May 2014, www.BBC.com

My own theory goes something like this...

All that we perceive is the result of our imagination.

All raw sensory input is interpreted by our imagination.

If there is little or no sensory input, such as while sleeping or in extreme isolation, our imagination proceeds to rummage around through our memories for "input" to re-interpret.

This extrapolating and recombining and juxtapositioning is the process by which we solve problems and think creatively. The process by which we "imagine."

Wildlife Ambassadors

Instead of banning Orca captivity entirely as a California Congressman's bill does, I actually think there should be laws requiring much more humane living conditions for them. SeaWorld has done more for Orcas that anyone else by bringing them into our world. If not for SeaWorld and other major aquariums, the public wouldn't care any more about "Killer Whales" than they do about sharks, rattlesnakes, scorpions... get my drift?

Yesterday, my daughter finally dragged me to the Tallahassee Museum of History and Natural Science (nee The Junior Museum)

If you haven't been there, TMHNS is much more a natural habitat zoo than a museum. Like virtually all zoos in the U.S., they do as much as they can within their meager budget to provide natural habitat space for wildlife. Only a few dangerous animals like poisonous snakes live in "cages" (aquariums). Most live in well fenced areas of native Florida habitat of several thousand square feet or more. Visitors are kept high above these enclosures of palmetto bushes, huge oak trees and cypress swamp on a well maintained wooden walkway. The animals ignore us most of the time.

Courage

A note to conservatives...

We know you're scared s***less of any kind of human progress. If it hasn't been done before, it must be "... lies straight from the pit of hell."

We try to explain that things will be better with improvements in the human condition. But your fears just won't let you go there. We understand.

The survival of the human race depends on overcoming our fears of the unknown... "to boldly go where no one has gone before."

That famous line was a metaphor by-the-way. While fictionally "exploring strange new worlds," the story-tellers were really exploring the human condition. How we treat each other. How we react to change. How we overcome our beliefs in what is possible on encountering the "impossible". And how we embrace it a grow as a result.

We know your fears for they are ours too. We've chosen to let our rational minds hold our fears at bay, for there is no way out of fear but through change.

The only way to remove a threat is to learn. We either learn to understand that it is not really a threat, or we learn how to mitigate or overcome it. We'll keep trying.

... life and death in the so-called safety net

Sharing and emailing to everyone, including my doctor, Dr. Jose Rodriguez at the Neighborhood Medical Center (nee Neighborhood Health Services) that is one of only two free clinics in Tallahassee like the one in this article ...

Texas' Other Death Penalty

http://www.texasobserver.org/a-galveston

A Galveston medical student describes life and death in the so-called safety net.

by Rachel Pearson Published on Wednesday, November 13, 2013, at 2:01 CST

Exploring

Those who have spent a lifetime "believing" are very unlikely to change their views unless faced with some serious emotional trauma that creates a "a crisis of faith." It's a normal and usually beneficial trait of our psyche to comfortably arrange our values to fit our beliefs.

Is Your Boss A Psychopath?

Is Your Boss a Psychopath?
Psychopathic characteristics have come to dominate business management "success". Business is the model for running all organizations in this country these days including medicine, government, charities, etc. Thus the same values and qualities are used for promotions and elections. If a psychopathic personality is so highly valued, then the most psychopathic individuals would be found at the top. Hmmm....

Maybe we're all nuts
In Bob Lewis' Keep the Joint Running column "Maybe we're all nuts" from 08/08/2005, is more about psychopathic bosses. His column implies that the world has changed and that psychopathy is the norm, even the ideal, in business because everyone else is doing it. Blinders firmly in place, shutting out all distractions to the business of running a business today, I couldn't agree more. However... Is this a sustainable practice?

History would indicate that it is not.

In the past, when employers exceeded large numbers of employees' thresholds of tolerance for abuse, employees resisted, most recently (first half of the 20th century) by forming labor unions. Unions are a shadow of their former selves today but great upheavals are occurring. The breakup of the AFL-CIO could be seen as a further erosion, but the parting unions are saying they're leaving because the AFL-CIO has become complacent and too beholden to the status-quo. They're leaving in order to become more activist in attracting new members and resisting employer abuses. This suggests that the tolerance threshold has been reached.

Psychopathy has long been considered a mental illness that is extremely dangerous to society and possibly to the patient as well. A world of psychopaths does not decrease the danger because everyone is approaching life the same way. Quite the contrary. Without compassion, empathy, remorse and guilt, our daily little differences are amplified and acted on aggressively, escalating to destructive behavior.

For example, psychopathy would seem to be almost a prerequisite for terrorism. To indiscriminately kill large numbers of people in pursuit of one's goals would seem to require an extraordinary lack of concern for others. How many people can hold such a lack of concern up as an ideal in the workplace and shut it off when they walk out the office door?

Perhaps Dr. Hare's recognition of this tragedy will be an important signpost that makes us stop to consider its ramifications.

Will we continue down this self-destructive path until the body count (or the sales of anti-depressants) exceeds our capabilities?

Or will we stop and consider that the world survives, and even flourishes, by constantly seeking balance.

Extremes create progress, but allowed to run unchecked, without resistance, like a short-circuit, are ultimately destructive to society.

Quotes To Ponder

Found these on Data Options Quotes & Notes...

First they came for the Communists,and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews,and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics,and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me,and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.
German Protestant minister Martin Niemoller, after his release from Dachau at the end of World War II

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
John Kenneth Galbraith

Integrity and Faith

Are integrity and faith dead?
Replaced with image-making and opportunism?

We trust integrity. We have faith in those with integrity that they are being honest and forthright with us; that they are trying to do what is best for all. Selfishness and taking advantage of the weaknesses of others (most particularly us) for personal gain betrays that trust and causes a loss of faith.

At the core of every American is a fundamental belief in ourselves. A belief that we have the skill, the strength, and the duty to "do the right thing" for the benefit of all humankind. This faith in our "rightness" gives us the courage to act when others vacillate.

With a reputation for integrity, those who question will give us a degree of trust... pending the outcome. Without it, we further alienate others by acting, in their view, recklessly.

"The Da Vinci Code"A Threat to Christianity?

"The Da Vinci Code" proffers a fictional alternative interpretation of what's been written about Christianity and its origins. However, a number of prominent Christian leaders, who are more aware of how tenuous is the evidence upon which they've invested their entire lives, have railed against Dan Brown's best selling novel and still more are calling for boycotts of the upcoming movie. They seem to feel that any question of what they preach suggests that they may have it wrong and that such a possibility is terrifying.

The threat of such ideas is not to Christianity. It is to the personal self-image of those who know that vast amounts of the rhetoric used by religious leaders is not only objectively unsupportable, but is specifically designed to gloss over that and indoctrinate followers into blind obedience.

Repetition is the most effective way to train the mind to react automatically, without conscious thought. Repetition of simple concepts dominates Christianity. Followers are taught that any attempt by "laymen" to interpret the writings for themselves for example, is a breach of faith which makes them a nonbeliever, an outcast.

Christian leaders who are secure in their faith realize that faith is the most effective way to provide a "moral center" to human decision-making. A great many choices in our lives have no clear, objective right or wrong. Somehow we must decide. Faith, religious beliefs, can provide that "tie breaker".

Beliefs that are simple and unambiguous seem to work well. "Thou shalt not kill" is such a belief that, when adhered to in all situations, brings peaceful coexistence. Exceptions undermine the authority of such a belief however. First is the exception for plants and other animals, primarily as sources of food. It was long ago decided that this "commandment" only applied to killing other humans. Then came exceptions for killing anyone trying to kill us. So far, most everyone is in agreement. Then, however, we move down the slippery slope to it being alright to kill people who potentially might try to kill us in the future and further to people who don't hold the same beliefs we do. Beliefs that require adherence to very specific behavior are fraught with peril.

In modern terms...

Long term strategies are very beneficial.
Micro-managing undermines leadership.

The uproar over "The Da Vinci Code" is micro-managing of the first order. It is short-sighted and undermines the trustworthiness of religious leaders.

Most of all, it exposes leaders more interested in exercising the power to control others than on the wisdom Christianity can bring to heal and strengthen them.

Why Am I Here?

"The Purpose Driven Life" is a popular book that purports to answer this question.

Here's a more accurate and useful answer...

Any one of us is here because our biological parents had sex, our mother was fertile, one of our father's sperm beat out a few million other sperm to fertilize an egg, and our mother did not abort us.

It's up to each of us to find our own meaning and purpose.

The choice is ours. Not God's, not The Church's, not anyone else's.

Some choose to serve humanity by adding their voice to that of others working for change.

Some choose to try to destroy humanity.

Much of the time it's hard to tell which is which.

By far the most popular choice though, is to do nothing.

We immerse ourselves in work, sports, exercise, gardening and a host other pastimes in an effort to ignore societal problems that are depressingly troubling, largely because we feel helpless to solve them. We become terminally passive.

We're not going to find answers in a book or in a church or even on Google.

The answers are within ourselves.

Evolution vs. Intelligent Design

Well Said Dr. Fullam...

Debate Over Intelligent Design Of God
and the case for unintelligent design

by Lisa Fullam

As the theory of intelligent design again hits the news with President Bush's encouragement this week that the theory be taught in schools alongside evolution, I have one question: What about unintelligent design?

Take rabbit digestion, for example. As herbivores, rabbits need help from bacteria to break down the cell walls of the plants they eat, so, cleverly enough, they have a large section of intestine where such bacterial fermentation takes place. The catch is, it's at the far end of the small intestine, beyond where efficient absorption of nutrients can happen. A sensible system -- as we see in ruminant animals like cattle and deer -- ferments before the small intestine, maximizing nutrient absorption. Rabbits, having to make do with an unintelligent system, instead eat some of their own feces after one trip through, sending half-digested food back through the small intestine for re-digestion.

Horses are similarly badly put together: They ferment their food in a large, blind-ended cecum after the small intestine. Unlike rabbits, they don't recycle their feces -- they're just inefficient. Moreover, those big sections of hind gut are a frequent location for gut blockages and twists that, absent prompt veterinary intervention, lead to slow and excruciating death for the poor horse. The psalmist writes: "God takes no delight in horses' power." Clearly, if God works in creation according to the simplistic schemes of the intelligent design folks, God not only doesn't delight in horses, but seems positively to have it in for them.

Furthermore, why wouldn't an intelligent designer make it possible for animals to digest their natural food without playing host to huge populations of bacteria in the first place: Couldn't mammals have been equipped with their own enzymes to do the job?

But that's not all: Consider mammalian testicles. In order to function optimally, they need to be slightly cooler than the rest of the body and so are carried outside the body wall in the scrotum. Why would one carry one's whole genetic potential in such a vulnerable position? Clearly it's not a gonad problem in general -- ovaries work just fine at body temperature and are snuggled safely within the pelvic girdle for protection. But for testicles, nope -- the scrotum is jerry-rigged to allow for a warm-blooded animal to keep his testicles cool. Surely an intelligent designer could have figured out a way for testicles to work at body temperature, as ovaries do.

Here's another: Do you know anyone beyond the age of 20 or so who has not had a backache? Let's face it: The human body is that of a quadruped tipped up on end to walk on only two legs. The delicate and beautiful cantilever curve of the human spine
compensates (but not enough) for the odd stresses that result from our unusual posture. Perhaps the God of intelligent design has a special place in his plan for chiropractors? And what about the knee? Between the secure ball-and-socket of the hip and the omnidirectional versatility of the ankle is a simple hinge joint, held together only by ligaments (including the anterior cruciate ligament) whose names are known to athletes and sports fans because they're so easily and frequently injured. Again, unintelligent design.

The real problem with intelligent design is that it fails to account for the obvious anatomical and physiological making-do that is evident of so much of the natural world. Evolutionarily minded folks see this as the result of genetic limitations and adaptations accumulated in specialization for certain environments, while the intelligent design folks are left with a designer who clearly cannot have been paying close attention.

While there are extremely precise and fine-tuned mechanisms in nature, there is also lots of evidence of organisms just cobbled together. For instance, take marsupials, who give birth to what in other animals are analogous to fetuses, then have to carry them around in what amounts to an exterior uterus until the offspring are ready to face the world.

As a theist who sees natural evolution not as a theory but as well-established observation, I take comfort in the catch-as-catch-can of the natural world. I have every confidence that an all-loving creator walks in and with the natural world as it struggles to fruition, cheering on our evolutionary triumphs (let's hear it for the opposable thumb!) and standing in solidarity with the evolutionary misfits and misfires, like rabbit guts and horses generally.

Isn't this how God walks in and with us in our individual lives as well, cheering us on, emboldening us and consoling us in our often misguided attempts to live well and do right, and standing in compassion and solidarity with us when we fail, and loving us into trying again? And isn't this a more compelling vision of God, and truer to the biblical God who comes again and again to offer salvation to erring humankind, than that of a designer who can't quite seem to get things right?

Lisa Fullam, a former veterinarian, is an assistant professor of moral theology at the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley

Published on Thursday, August 4, 2005 by the San Francisco Chronicle

Batman Begins

The fifth Batman film, Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan captures the heart of the Batman saga that the previous films missed. Batman, like most good storytelling, is about us. Our fears, our foibles. Our dreams and our nightmares. Three messages stand out:

• Have Faith In Each Other
  Michael Caine, as Bruce Wayne's paternalistic butler Arthur, masterfully hammers this message home throughout the story. Through word and deed, Arthur continually reassures Wayne that he'll never give up on him no matter what. This faith carries Wayne through some of his darkest moments of doubt.


• Compassion Is What Separates Good From Evil
  When mentor Henri Ducard (Leam Neeson) insists that Wayne must be willing to kill decisively and without remorse if he is to defeat evil, he refuses. He instead insists that compassion is the defining difference between Good and Evil.


• Revenge Is Not Justice
  While Ducard tries to convince Wayne of the righteousness of vengeance for the murder of his parents, ADA Rachel Dawes (Katie Holmes) admonishes Wayne, "Justice is about harmony; vengeance is about making yourself feel better".

Resources

• Batman Begins in IMDB Database (comment added)

Firing People Raises Morale ?

In response to Carlton Vogt's post in Enterprise Ethics Weblog about the HP layoff of thousands of employees, this came to mind...

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

What's the incentive for mass firings?

(1) Large short-term reduction in costs which usually increases stock price which attracts more investors and increases net worth of stock holders and makes personal profits if liquidated.

(2) Any negative repercussions of the firings is usually short-lived. Morale plummets initially causing reduction in individual productivity (which is not perceived by management since the massive numerical increase in productivity caused solely by fewer people now responsible for doing more work dwarfs it). However, without more layoffs, the remaining workers lose their fear of "being next" after a few weeks. That's when a trickle of new hiring begins which is hyped extensively, internally and externally, to show the company's new found "strength". Over a year or so, monthly figures are released showing "new job creation". In short, the one-time massive layoff was largely to allow the company to show months of "growth".

(3) Undesirables can be purged without following disciplinary procedures.

(4) The company can call itself "lean and mean" which somehow is considered good nowadays despite the fact that, in nature, "lean and mean" would usually describe an animal that is starving and desperately attacking anything and everything they encounter.

Hmmm...

Perspective

Father, this latest leader of theirs greatly disturbs me.

How so, My Son.

He claims to know The Absolute Truth in all things -- "from the highest authority" -- and has half the population believing him.

Worked for you didn't it?

Perspective

Touch is the most universal and most powerful of all senses.
Beauty is the most desired of all virtues.
Intimacy, the most cherished of all relations.
Why then does The Church restrict, demonize and vilify these things that are so good, Father?

How else would they get any work done?

Perspective

I see they're at it again, Father.
Why do they hurt each other?

Fear.

Of what?

Of each other.