We are culture driven

Consider what we learn from family and where those lessons come from. I was taught mostly fear of police, but also do what they say because they carry guns. Father was raised in the time of the Black and Tans in Ireland. Thugs with clubs and guns. Mother was raised in the west with RCMP before they took on traffic. There was one RCMP to serve an area of several thousand square miles. Not much contact with them until late in life, long after I was gone. In adult life, avoiding contact with police was preferred.

Now consider the increased police presence we see today. I doubt if I go a day without seeing at least a police car. They are everywhere, and with a egotistical aggressive attitude on most of them. What is this telling our youth about them? They have the same attitude as the guards in the Stanford Prison Experiment. 

Consider the black culture in the US. What are they teaching for an attitude to the cops, which likely have the same egotistical aggressive attitude, on of escalating force until they achieve compliance. Attitude on one side or the other must change before the issues can be resolved. There is no obvious way to change other that that of the citizens. Citizens must obey else the trouble will continue. But the real problem is the attitude of the police all over, that they are right, always. There are laws that even thy must follow, and those need to be a bit tighter.

Baiting, forcing bad situations in traffic and then ticketing those who do not handle the situation correctly is one of those bait situations. Sitting at stop signs when they have clearance to go is just baiting or is distracted driving, if they are fiddling equipment. That is there culture. Ours must deal with their baiting. We may all need car cams also for our own protection. Until a open citizens revolt happens nothing is going to change. They have gone beyond safety, law and order and become a revenue generating industry here in Canada.

“If you do it, they’ll do it,” David S. Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Children’s Hospital Boston, said. “Young children are like ducklings, they want to do what their mothers [and fathers?] do.”

and so it begins.   

Idiots

Never argue with an idiot. They will just drag you down to there level and beat you up with there experience. Never point out the error or limit in the argument with an Idiot, There is no win possible.

The internet has given everyone the ability to be heard in public, and some of the loud have big platforms.

To change society, we need a method of getting the message out, and a message that is workable. To make a huge course correction violent over through of the government is the only way, and are the conditions that bad? No. It needs tweaking, likely but what should be the tweak? In the US, the cops are shooting anyone who does anything that the skittish cops can construe as threatening. Oh well, in the end we all die anyway. It is the cops point of view that must be considered as they are the one with the guns, at least some of the time.

There are always loose lip radicals that can scream and say nothing useful. Oh well, idiots also die. It does not matter. Unless someone comes up with practical small changes, nothing will change. What is needed is a public information campaign to teach the public how to deal with armed police in a safe manner. It is the public that is at risk, and the silence is not helping in the US especially. 

Police use the principal of escalating force until success can be expected. You offer anything that could be considered deadly force and you get shot. It is that simple. Cops do not back down, especially scared skittish cops. Calgary, this guy is lucky to be alive. http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/07/10/calgary-police-video-arrest_n_10915586.html 

Skittish Nervous Cops

Nervous Cops are everywhere now. Canada and the US. Nervous cops are dangerous for everybody. Nervous people carrying guns is just not good. Anything that can be perceived as the least bit threatening to the cop will likely get oneself shot. It is dangerous time we live in. And the danger is from scaring a skittish cop.

When a senior citizen at a setup traffic stop can make a cop put his hand on his gun, that cop is too skittish. Oh well, we all die in the end. 

So now it is on we citizens to not scare cops. Become silent, slow moving, do nothing until asked.... Describe the required movement first... take your time .... waste time... etc...

And the short answer is

Headline:

If China Is So Committed To Renewable Energy, Why Are So Many New Coal Plants Being Built?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/07/08/if-china-is-so-committed-to-renewable-energy-why-are-so-many-new-coal-plants-being-built/#700bd56665f7

And the short answer is we are selling them our old plants. In some cases even paying them to dismantle, and remove the old plant. What a deal, a whole plant that they can have for taking. Labor is cheap in china, it is material that is expensive. So the cheapest plant can be repaired and away we go.

So Notely's losing plants doe little for the world as a whole, but puts cleaner technology at considerable cost in Alberta, while contributing to total pollution in China, or what other third world country that bought a old second world plant. Oh well, we all die in the end.  

Those plants are going to there for the next fifty years. That is the value of China's commitment to green house gasses. Only the depletion of coal will stop them.

On free will and diet

Some things are within our power, and some are not. Within our power is opinions, beliefs, values, the power of assent or rejection, some aversions and attachments, delusions and illusions. Most other things are only under our influence, nothing like control, and much is totally beyond the influence of anyone. So we can only have free will over those things that we have control over. Note that our body, at best we have some influence over but nothing like control. Our mind cannot influence our genetics, or our epigenetics much. Over extended time we can turn on or off some characteristics when we are young, before we have anything like mature reasoning ability. Those early decisions can screw us for life.

Epigenetics control our desires for food at a cellular level. When the demand is turned on through overeating, we are harnessed with that desire for life; it is no longer anything like free will. That is why sustained weight loss through diet is only successful long term in 5% of the population. We need to fight our very nature for the remainder of our lives or accept obesity. We do not have free will in this matter. We have a natural desire at a cellular level to eat. Anyone who says lifestyle knows less about this issue than I. Yes, I have confidence in this fact. The research is elsewhere.

AA, NA, OA, etc work by the creation, in the mind, of a divinity that is more powerful than the problem, submission to this divinity, and following the directions of this divinity and other "suggestions." It is not rational. When/if we are unable/unwilling to create this delusion in our mind, those programs are unable to provide any help other than "just do it because it works." So what is the rational approach to overcoming our nature? Well that is where things get really scarce. There are "tool systems" and education, and knowledge, but mostly it is unknown. We are exploring for the devil, as if there was one.

So what is stronger than our nature? One thing is obsessive compulsive behaviors. So is it possible to train in limited obsessive compulsive behavior in the self?

Brexit: the only way to apply brakes on immigration into Britian.

Some say patriotism and nationalism is wrong; perhaps it is but we live in a overpopulated world. Survival means deciding who to save and who to let parish.  We will not tolerate other dictating to us what we "should" believe.  Why should we care if the brown religious hordes are reproducing like rabbits and killing each other off. The few flee in front of the insanity of religions. Why should we let them into our country, which is already overpopulated? Perhaps the government needs to answer that question first? Canada has the same problem but to a smaller extent. But we whites took this land from the brown people... but never eliminated them... nor enslaved them... because they made poor slaves. Oh well, that was then, and now is now. And now we are letting a new group of browns in to take over this land, and they will unless someone develops the political balls to stop them...

All religions are not rational. They are belief based. Science and evidence, truth, and reason, these are real. Science is seldom wrong, some people jump to erroneous or wrong conclusions, or theory's to justify the observations...and in the end the group that grows faster will have the most people...

Perhaps the first question we should ask is what religion are you? If it is anything beside atheist in some form, then they are not rational or have never given the question any deep thought more likely (Socrates unexamined life) , or are holding on to religion so as to not disappoint parents, for those who believe family has value... all not good way to live but... oh well in the end we all just die anyway.

It does not matter anyways for me, it will all come to a head in the next generations time. It will be interesting time they live in, just as we have seen the electronic age, computer, internet, cell phones, in our time. I grew up harnessing work horses, and now self driving cars are around, or so I am told. But do we trust them; there was one "failure to recognize" the side of a truck and that killed the operator, (not driver for he was not driving). Perhaps we are too eager to adopt new technology. Anyways, the next generations will have there own issues.  

We are on our own, there is no government help comming.

This summer we have seen wild fires in Alberta. There was the flood in the south last year. Early drought over much of Alberta this year. The rain came but too late for some. The government "help" was sparse, just like this years canola crops. Oh well, we all die in the end.

The government and aid groups talk a good story, but when it comes down to the actual on the ground benefits, well those seem to be lacking. When we see the non-profit reports and we see 25% of the income actually got to the people, we cheer, often it is much worse than that. Oh well, it is non of my concert. I know we are almost all on our own. As it was, as it is, as it will be.

The insurance industry is guaranteed a profit on average. If they have a poor year, the rates go up. They delay paying out, quibble ever claim, disallow everything they can possible avoid or the homeowner is unable/not worth fighting. Impose a rider to uninsured over land water flow, that is floods. and it is not just overland; if it comes from the sewer, due to high water table, and the water has no where to flow out to, it is not insurable any more.

Wild fire, where there is not sufficient buffer area is no longer covered. For those of us on acreages, this may mean no fire coverage is available, if the fire is related to a wild fire. Now what? and how about the neighbors dry bush? and the counties?  Oh well, in the end we just die anyway. Is the struggle worth the effort?