CastleBravo

These are the exact claims I need scientific substantiation of. Everyone says this but no one can prove it. I can easily drink a gallon a day if I let myself. I don't do it very often because all the other fatty foods i eat are very calorie dense, so it's pretty easy to over eat. There are a few states that do allow the sale of whole milk off of the shelves; surprisingly the people's republic of California is one of them. I do support the raw milk movement because of consumer choice. Keep in mind this is a republic; the very nature of majority rule is irrational. Brian, Thanks for the link.

I've recently been working on my diet and exercise. It has come to my attention that processed foods make me sluggish and weak, especially grains and highly processed meats. I mainly eat coniferous vegetables, grass fed free-range beef, free-range eggs and chicken, about 4 tons of almonds a week and my weight in fruit. Basically I am on a Paleo diet. The results on my body have been pretty amazing. The only processed food im having trouble converting from is Dairy. Many people claim raw milk has amazing health benefits and is extremely advantageous over pasteurized milk, but when I search for scientific research on the benefits of raw vs. pasteurized milk, I come up empty handed. The only study I found to be helpful was done in the 1930's and it concluded that after x weeks of feeding a control and test group of mice raw and pasteurized milk respectively that there was no difference in the growth of the mice (i.e. the protein is not necessarily more available in raw or pasteurized milk). There is also an often cited book raw milk activists cite - Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, also published in the earlier half of the 20th century. The age of existing research troubles me. I have also heard it tastes better. This reason alone would make me switch if I had a study that concluded the risks of drink raw milk were equal to or less than the risks of drinking pasteurized milk. I love the taste of a cup of whole milk (I currently drink about a half gallon a day (yes, i know that is excessive)) so if it could taste better sign me up. Can anyone help me out with links to credible sources of objective information about raw dairy products? I do not want to dive into something head first if it has a greater possibility of ruining my health than what I'm already doing.

You sound a lot like me. I started with Taoism and that "What the bleep do we know" movie. I meant being a whore. I shouldn't have used the word "date". There is absolutely nothing immoral (as far as i can tell) about dating for the rest of your life. It certainly wouldn't be the best method of raising children, but that is a practical matter. I'm not sure about all that "soul mate" bullshit, but I am sure that it is possible to find a woman that can only get so marginally better that it would be illogical to try and find another. I do not believe in perfection. I currently (as in I'm still pondering it) do not agree with marriage. It is a sanction of the church and I will not contribute a dime of money to such a thing.

Libertarianism has no answer for irrationality, which is the root cause of the world's problems (as khaight said). It only seeks to pacify conservative warmongering and liberal spending, not address the real issue at hand. It seeks to validate personal freedoms, responsibility and "principle" but does not state why, what those mean or how they are beneficial to uhmurikuh. Libertarianism moves under the guise of individualism while accepting such broken anti-individual ideologies as Christianity and Anarchism. It's lack of solutions led me to Objectivism pretty quickly. I am a secretary for the Libertarians at the district level and the only purpose it serves for me is padding for my resume. It also allows me to sharpen my mind with constant debate. I get to harass liberals and conservatives at least 4x as much as I normally would as well

I never really felt comfortable sharing my encounters on the internet. I mostly journaled about them. Lay Reports are pretty much locker room talk over the internet. Nothing more. They prove nothing. I suspect some are merely adventures in creative writing. There are any number of reasons a girl will sleep with you. Correlation does not mean causation. Your sweet new card trick may be cool, but perhaps she decided before that to sleep with the next guy that had the guts to talk to her. Maximus is also on to something with honesty. There is nothing to be gained from lying about yourself. If your persona isn't good enough for a woman you need to move on (which is a strong point emphasized throughout the community). It is also worth noting that for many people the end game is the chase. I know a few guys that will probably date until they are dead. It is interesting that the community lead you to Objectivism. How exactly did that link come about?

Ill post my question in here since it is related; What do Schrodinger's cat and the double slit experiment mean if reality truly is independent of conscious observation? How do we explain quantum mechanics while validating primacy of existence? Would it be that existence still exists even if it's form has not yet been perceived (i.e. the atoms are there, even though we have not observed their structure)? I dislike the realm of quantum physics. Too many new age spiritualists try to use it to "prove" god exists. I do believe that the above god statement is bogus because it seems to reach back into the dark ages when things we could not scientifically explain were mystical entities. Uncertainty and god are not the same thing.

I really enjoy the seduction community. It's kind of like the "science" of attracting people; hypothesizing methods of seduction and testing them in the field, then determining what does and does not work. Having said that, the only real thing I got out of it all was confidence and grooming. I have found the other stuff is just fluff used to sell something. Dress nice and love yourself and you will attract the opposite sex. Until i see a clinical trial that shows favorable results with NLP, I will think it is bullshit. I have never seen a trial conclude that it works. I bought a book about it and had to put it down almost immediately. It asserted that there was some mystical reason why some people are "just well liked" as opposed to the ones who no one seems to like "for some reason". Jake - I also read the art of seduction and agree entirely. Individuals with a need to control others disgust me. The book had very little to do with meeting new people and enjoying their company, which is what I expected. I should also mention that the community really helped my social skills in general. Being confident in yourself seems to make others confident in you as well and more willing to engage you in professional or social encounters.

Couldn't even get past the first paragraph. I have become so tired of arguing against people who viscously denounce Objectivism without ever reading a word from the person who constructed it. Intellectual fraud.

I will honestly say that i am still working through applying reason to every area of my life. Currently working through diet and exercise. So no, i will admit to not always adhering to reason and logic. I realize I still have a great deal to learn (and thats why i come here whenever I uncover a problem I can't work out myself). It's interesting that you mention arrogant behavior because there are times when I feel as if I have just become an arrogant, self-absorbed jackass. I feel as if I'm gaining knowledge for the sake of knowing more than anyone. When I introspect and examine the source of these feelings, however, i find that somewhere along the line I have lost sight of my original premises. I am NOT trying to be smarter than anyone else, I am trying to uncover the truth and apply it to my life so that i may live happily. When i remind myself that my goal is to not be "right" (and consequently, "wrong" as infrequently possible) and instead I am seeking Objective truth, the feelings of pretentiousness disappear. Admittedly, this also dissolves my need to label others as intellectual inferior by default. I find myself doing the less and less the more I learn, so someday I will be able to live by the premise of truth automatically. Your mention of the "Ivory Tower" really puts my attitude into perspective. Sometimes I forget that Objectivism seeks to exalt man for his potential greatness instead of shunning him for his faults. David - I have had my encounters with epistemological nihilism. It is usually used as an argument (as far as my experience) against science by those that wish to point out that science doesn't have all the answers (i.e. creationists). I have found that those that believe we can know nothing are too far gone for me to tolerate. If they do not believe in the existence of knowledge than how am I to use it to converse with them about their misunderstanding?

I wouldn't say I get "worked up" over any of it, I just tend to treat people who prove to be irrational like they are 5. There was a point in time where i let tiny little things like that piss me off but soon realized I was wasting time and energy. I label now so i know who not to converse with about politics and religion. I don't have a problem with people disagreeing, I do have a problem with people being irrational in their arguments. I have found that every religious person i talk to uses about 298357029340 logical fallacies per hour. This is why i am so biased against the religious i suppose. The MTV thing is interestingly enough related to my girlfriend who insists on watching it constantly. When i confront her on its absolute lack of intellectual value i get response that do not validate spending any amount of time on such programming. She has even agreed that none of the shows offer anything to the intellect but can not justify the point in shutting off her brain. And now for something off topic; What is your education level? Every time i see you post it's always brilliant. You can decline to answer of course.

I've recently discovered that I inadvertently treat irrational people like dogs. Literally. I refuse to talk about anything requiring more than a few seconds of thought. To me, irrational people are about as useful as an empty firearm. Anyone who believes in god I immediately want nothing to do with intellectually because they have already stepped outside the bounds of reason. Anyone who watches cable news and believes one Chanel is more objective than the other because they are more in line with the viewer's political views is automatically a moron. Anyone who likes to watch MTV or VH1 is a drooling cretin. Am I an uptight asshole or am I doing well to protect my sanity by effectively shielding it from the madness of treating these people as intellectual equals? Is it wrong for me to instantly label a person given such a limited number of criteria or am I saving myself the trouble of endless disagreement and frustration?

No, Ayn Rand was an Objectivist.

Well that's disappointing. Regardless, I'm still experiencing Schadenfreude.

I believe I saw somewhere that this movie was doing positively dismally at the BO. Can anyone confirm this?

I suppose you need to evaluate it from a sacrificial standpoint; is mitigating future conflict with this person of less value than what I'm getting out of them now? I do see your point. I was kind of thinking it as I was writing my response but got lazy. Most of the time someone on here manages to fill the holes anyway so thank you

I say let them resent me. They chose to waste their energy on other people and so be it. Why would I care if I were hated by an altruist? When the 'gift' is thrown up to me I simply point out that no one signed a contract and reimbursement was never requested. When a friend asks that I make up for the debt at a later time before it is incurred, however, I have no problems repaying it. I also don't believe you should waste your time being "selfish for other people". I think this goes against being rationally self interested. They are free to make their own decisions and choose their own moral code. They have made it clear that they believe self sacrifice is the right thing to do and will bring them happiness (i.e. repayment or karma or whatever is floating their boat at the moment).

I don't mind it at all. If others choose to serve my interests by their own volition, you won't hear a peep out of me. I rarely, if ever, ask for anything, but frequently find those that 'love' me paying for my meals and taking me to movies. What DOES annoy me is when later they want to throw what they did up to you as if you own them something. Completely absurd...

Interesting. Many people hate Rand, but I do not see it as a viable reason to discredit them entirely. I suppose I'll really have to read on my feet this time...

I've read the first few pages of Consciousness Explained, which I really liked. I've also watched the majority of his videos on YouTube. I really like the way he looks at religion and I want to read "Breaking the Spell". Dawkins is another one I've been wanting to read, but hes definitely closer to the bottom of the list.

I was introduced to Dennett by a co-worker a few years back and started Consciousness Explained, but never finished it. In the opening, he presents a very good refutation of Descartes "Evil Demon" (also known as the Brain in the Vat), but that is as far as I've gotten. What do the members of this forum think about him and his works?

Greebo, excellent response. I thank you.

I have already thought about arbitrarily defined "deadlines" and can not come up with an answer. I do not have a real way to monitor her progress, but I know that she has until the middle of December to show improvement. This begs the question of what specifically defined criteria I should use to determine the fulfillment of her promises. Any suggestions? Other than outright asking her, I can't think of an objective way to monitor for changes.

After all, isn't that what got us where we are today? You know, it's funny, because I thought about going through and capitalizing all of the 'I's', but FYI Kevin, the cursor disappeared on my browser, requiring its reboot. Then again, you could be referring to my need to put myself before all others... Bluecherry, I suppose you bring up another reason I am reluctant to leave so soon. I sat her down a few weeks back at a nice restaurant and laid everything out on the table. I asked her what she wanted to do with her life and after a few minutes of indecisive banter, she told me she liked animals and wanted to a vet assistant. She told be she would get her mom to enroll her in online classes and start working for her degree. I also made it clear that I was a very cerebral person and needed her to at least understand that when I ask her 20 questions. I told her I didn't expect her to pick up the complete works of Aristotle, but that I liked it when people challenged me and made me check the premises of what I was claiming. And so, the other reason I'm reluctant to leave her is that doing so now would be somewhat unfair in that i've not given her a good enough chance to demonstrate her desire to improve her life. If, after a while, she shows that she has no true desire to better herself, I will have no qualms calling it quits. I was thinking of buying her this for Christmas instead of something intellectually numbing (i got her Twilight last Christmas); http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/081269455...acebookshelf-20 Thank you all for your input. I was afraid the answer was, once again, painfully obvious, but one of these days I'll learn to trust my reasoning and stop annoying people with such overtly solvable problems.

Ive read most of this. For anyone interested in the persecution of the Communist crimes against humanity, i would suggest reading "The Black Book of Communism" if you have not already. Its well written and shows quite clearly that communist governments are every bit as guilty as the Nazis in their criminal activities.

Oops, completely forgot the relationship section existed... Mods please move. Apologies.