not-ends 36

I'm declaring a change in the english language - i'm eliminating the word "man", and replacing it with "wowoman". What's that, wowomen? You say you suddenly feel like a subset of women, and not a whole person anymore? Hmm...why don't you go meditate on that for a while?

I am about to become the only male who ever has, or ever will, tell you the truth. I have no interest in a womyn's mind. There is only one womyn's body part that interests me, at all. Her leg. If i couldn't pull a womyn's leg at least once a day, i wouldn't want to live.

Would you believe me if i told you that over 80% of rapists and 90% of serial killers were circumcised?

Herculean labors don't impress me. My own labors involve making people understand that Russia was never communist...and after that, making them understand that America has never been a democracy. In comparison, diverting a river to wash some stables sounds like a nice weekend in the country.

Sometimes the childlike person is the only adult in the room.

We are taught not to be honest, but look honest. We are taught not to be moral, but look moral. We are taught not to be happy, but look happy.

The most mathematically destructive phrase in the english language? "Private property"...because it combines two of the top-twenty most destructive words. And really, isn't private property the most ridiculously redundant phrase around? If something is private, isn't propertyhood implied? If we see a gate that says "private", does anyone imagine that they're asking us to not steal their nice gate, but we should feel free to enjoy the land beyond? So why do we use this ridiculous phrase? Because "private" by itself sounds mean, and people (especially rich people) like to bullshit themselves into thinking we're less mean than we really are.

The only time to EVER give advice is when the same person asks for it thrice.

It's not "victim mentality" to acknowledge victimhood. If you were born into a culture of fear, alienation, and repression (and you were), it is reality avoidance to suggest we just need to tweak our mindset. Humyns are social creatures, and our biological needs include daily doses of love, play, and sex. To be a person, we need other people. You can't fix your life by force of will, and anyone who says you can is selling you something.

What are the only seven words that can save our species? END THE VIOLENCE OF PROFIT AND POVERTY.

It gives me no end of amusement to know that the abbreviation for Valentine's Day is V.D. That, dear friends, is called poetry.

"Factfulness"

(Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World - and Why Things are Better than You Think)

-by hans rosling, 2018

Hans was a doctor, professor of international health, and public educator. His biggest achievement was getting the World Bank to retire the racist and inaccurate terms "developed" and "developing" world, replacing those with a four-level wealth/poverty index. He spent a lifetime studying why the overwhelming majority of people score lower on a test of global knowledge then chimpanzees (or in other words, why all people would do better just randomly guessing, rather than THINK they know, as our guesses are overwhelmingly wrong, because of evolutionary cognitive biases).

The book begins with a multiple-choice quiz regarding global health, poverty, and education. The average person (including the highly-educated) scores a 2 out of 13. The average chimp, a 3. I scored a 9...but that was AFTER seeing the subtitle of the book.

Hans explores the biological instincts that prevent us from seeing the world as it is. The gap instinct, which makes us see only extremes, not the middle where the majority usually lies. The negativity instinct, which is why the news only serves up BAD stories. The fear instinct, a holdover from a time in evolution when danger was ever-present and to not be vigilant meant quick death. Plus seven other instincts that ill-serve us in achieving a global perspective. Don't fret, things are not "getting worse". In the big picture, living conditions for the majority of humyns are much better than they've ever been. And continue to improve at a startling rate. Within a few generations, poverty might be gone forever.

Even without the subtitle, i'd have scored better than a chimp...but i still had my blind spots, particularly regarding overpopulation.

Hans spares no one. On global warming, he recalls how al gore urged him to portray worst-case scenarios as the baseline. Perhaps in the big picture, gore was right to do so...but hans held fast to the truth, rather than succumb to the alarmist instincts that are present in us all.

Hans teaches us tools to overcome our ancient, faulty instincts.

So if i may make a recommendation (without falling prey to alarmist tactics myself), get this book for yourself. As quick as you can!

not-ends 37

You know how you can take out books from some libraries, and return them to another branch, where they shelve rather than return them? I've started taking out as many books at a time from my local library as i can, and returning them to other branches. I do this every day. I don't even read them. I calculate it will take another nine and a half months to empty the library entirely.

American wimyn have more negative feelings about their bodies than wimyn anywhere else in the world. What's America's biggest global export? Culture.

Screw-on sound amplifier for small-caliber handguns - made up, or actual thing?*

I've got a brilliant angle on people who are drawn to the "wounded" or "lost" ones - perhaps we shouldn't try to psychoanalyze them in terms of what they're attracted to, but rather what they're AVOIDING. Anyone who can manage to convince themselves that they're NOT wounded is in about seventeen kinds of denial, and it would probably be exhausting to have a relationship with them. So an affinity for the wounded ones, rather than being self-defeating, might be the only semi-sane solution around.

Malcolm x, abdul-jabbar, ali...i have the utmost respect for blacks who reject their slave names. The unmitigated arrogance of white people - to not just enslave humyn beings, but then name those slaves jefferson or washington or jackson? So...how do i reject my slave master name? Obviously religious fundamentalism is out. Hmmm...since i only use one name currently, perhaps i should add a second? Something peaceful, like wrob daffodil? Or deferential, like wrob africa? I'm open to suggestions here.

Yogurt soda - made up, or actual thing?*

For thousands of years, the inferiority of wimyn has been justified by eve's being "born of adam's rib". Now that we know that all fetuses are female at first, must we henceforth declare men inferior to wimyn?

The equivalent of "ballsy" would be "ovariesy"...or maybe "eggsy". Yeah, linguistically, i don't think either of those are going to catch on...

Believers either have one foot in heaven, which makes them halfway somewhere else, or they think god is in the room too. So you can have a one-on-1/2 conversation, or a one-on-1.5 conversation, but a one-on-one conversation with a believer never really seems to be an option.

Perfume made from the pheromones of rich people - made up, or actual thing?*

The correct translation of eve's name? "Life". Gee, i wonder why the church bungled that one? Adam and life.

*made-up, made-up, actual

Supermodel Blues

Perpetually depressed, underfed and overdressed

Got them supermodel blues

Taught to mistrust my sisters

My fate in the hands of misters

No one notices my brains

Predators hold my reins

and in three years i'll be old

Perpetually depressed, underfed and overdressed

Got them supermodel blues

Gilded treadmill never slows

Camera click a million times a day

My dates are intimidated

Neurotic demons howling away

And in two years i'll be old

Perpetually depressed, underfed and overdressed

Got them supermodel blues

Where did i go, what did i eat

Paparazzi are lurking

What did i buy, who did i meet

Anti-anxiety meds just ain't working

Everyone loves me, no one likes me

If i complain i'm just ungrateful

Old friends just want selfies

If i say NO i'm just hateful

and in one year i'll be old

Perpetually depressed, underfed and overdressed

Catwalks to catcalls, binocular-peepers casting couch creepers

Low-down fancy-gown starvation-diet mental-riot

Got them supermodel blues

not-ends 38

Want to know why straight males are intimidated by lesbians? It's not the thought that wimyn don't need a penis...it's the thought that we should be able to satisfy them EVEN WITHOUT ONE. When it comes to sex, that wing dang dingle down there is pretty much our only trick. It's not much of a trick...we know, we know.

True skill in hurting others requires endless practice at hurting oneself.

Wouldn't it suck if you choked to death because you didn't take a breath before you took a bite, and there wasn't enough air in your lungs for a good heimlich?

The only problem i have with the research that demonstrates non-believers are more intelligent than believers, is this - what if it's a case of confusing cause and effect? Are intelligent people more prone to non-belief, or does non-belief make one smarter?

Know how some music open mics have a one-song limit? I'm going to write a political song called "Filibuster". It will be twenty-seven hours long.

After 9/11, americans lost some civil liberties. But it's alright - we weren't using them anyway.

Whenever i pass a Church of the Living God, i always think "Doesn't that imply that somewhere there must be a church of the dying god?" I can never find that church in my neighborhood.

You have two choices in this world - self-deception or self-destruction. The more "normal" you are, the closer your balance is between the two.

If you absolutely cannot avoid a religious debate with a believer, try these two questions:
1) If you'd been born in another culture, would you be a (insert "wrong" religion of their choice)?
2) If there were no god, would some people believe in one anyway?
If you get any kind of rational response, DON'T PRESS YOUR LUCK. Get out while you can.

There is only one path to being really and truly alive. Get over yourself.

If i had a time machine, i'd go to 1953, abduct elizabeth taylor (eight marriages), go to 1378, abduct Henry VIII (six marriages), bring them back to the present and strand them on a desert island. Now THAT'S a reality TV show.