Author Archives: dbro

Tattoos: A Disfiguring Epidemic

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It is undeniable that there is a tattoo problem in the world. While it affects almost every age group, millennials in particular have taken to the pseudo art form and scarred themselves, in many instances, irreparably (it’s as artistic as cartoons or notebook doodles; we’ve lost the meaning of the word ‘art’). Is there any surprise that tattoo removal is now a booming business? I, like most, have noticed the trend towards tattooing by a generation that is known as impulsive, lacking in foresight, and narcissistic while demonstrating it openly with a poor aesthetic sensibility for all to see. Where once tattoos were historically the marks of pagans and tribal warriors, and then appropriated by military servicemen and violent gangs, they have now become the fashion statements of the short-sighted and impulsive, and in some cases the mentally ill. Multiple studies are starting to emerge that give us some insight into the tattooed in our midst. Just look at the #facetattoo hashtag on Instagram and see the mental illness of many people on full display.

At their very core, tattoos seek to modify not only one’s body, but the self-esteem of the recipient as well. It is a way for many people to envision a more perfect self, and in so doing, admitting their un-tattooed self is imperfect. Rather than working on the inner self and dealing with the esteem and body-image issues, many people have taken to scarring themselves as a bandaid solution for the greater internal problems not dealt with. An article in Psychology Today put it like this:

Today, tattoos have proliferated. While rationales can be as varied as the designs, all tattoos modify self-esteem as well as bodies. Like cosmetics, tattoos are prosthetic, since like an artificial limb they make up for something felt to be missing or inadequate. We’re always devising ways to enhance parts of our bodies, from diets and wigs to a Michael Jackson makeover. Once we’re self-aware, there’s really no such thing as a wholly “natural” body. We compete with others and ourselves to envision a more perfect us.

It should not surprise us that many people, especially millennials, feel lost in the world and are almost begging to be noticed. They feel unnoticed by the masses around them and tattoos, it is thought, will get one the needed attention and make them stand out as an individual. It is thought to be a method by which to improve one’s status in the world, albeit a shallow one.

Tattoos promise to make you attractive, as if you have a personal force akin to gravity. Notice me. The more attraction you command, the more attention you get, and the more life you have—as we see in the public’s devotion to celebrities and leaders. As the name says, hero-worship, too, has a religious character, and if you’re the hero, you’re superhuman. The more people you have thinking about you, the more of you there seems to be. In the wisdom of slang, you can be, if not godlike, at least a “bigshot.”

Sadly, what was once seen as rebellious to societal norms has become the norm as we’ve witnessed the inversion of virtue on a grand scale. It is no longer individualistic and daring to do exactly what everyone else is doing, yet this seems lost on the many who think they are exactly that.

While the statistics about men tattooing themselves are interesting, and do somewhat mirror the statistics pertaining to women, the stats that emerge about tattooed females tell a much bleaker tale of our cultural drift towards the nihilistic and banal. The most highly tattooed demographic is women in their 20’s (several studies conclude close to 40%) which indicates a massive rejection of classically feminine traits. Women of today have traded in their feminine power of natural beauty for trite and meaningless “girl power individualism” by adding the outward ink markings. The true power of the feminine has been abandoned for the traditionally masculine procedure; and this has been to the detriment of tattooed women and how they are viewed. (And any society that allows their men to be feminized and their women to be masculinized will not survive more than two generations. We are in the last stages of final decline). Studies have shown that men assess tattooed women negatively.

The few studies that have focused on men’s perceptions of tattooed women have found that these women are seen in a generally negative light. One study, for example, asked men to rate a 24-year old woman seen in a photograph on a range of personal characteristics. Some men were shown the photo with a black dragon tattoo on the woman’s upper left arm; others were shown the photo without the tattoo. When men saw the woman with the tattoo, they judged her as less athletic, less motivated, less honest, less generous, less religious, less intelligent and less artistic than when she displayed no tattoo. But Guéguen noticed one curious set of findings in this thin research area: While men see tattooed women as less attractive, they also see them as more promiscuous.

There exists a healthy body of research that indicates men exalt beauty in both long-term and in short-term mating, and in every one of them a women with tattoos is predominantly seen as a short-term partner; ie. not a quality long-term partner or responsible parent. This is why tattoos are considered “sexy” by men. Tattoos don’t make women any more attractive (in fact, in scarring herself she becomes less so), they simply provide an easy method of quickly identifying that she is more readily accessible sexually than her un-tattooed counterpart. Studies also show that various aspects of female appearance are used to evaluate their “mating value” and tattoos are always seen as a decrease in that value as women with tattoos generally engage in riskier behaviours.

After adjusting for all other variables, women who currently used tobacco and those who had used cannabis in the last 12 months were more likely to have been tattooed than women who did not use tobacco or cannabis. Increasing number of lifetime sex partners was also associated with a greater likelihood of being tattooed: 3% of women who reported one sex partner or none reported being tattooed compared to 30% of women with 11 or more lifetime sex partners.

And this comports similarly with the behaviours found in men that were associated with tattoos:

A number of behaviors were associated with having a tattoo for men. Men who smoked had twice the odds of having been tattooed. Men with more lifetime sexual partners were more likely to have a tattoo, eg, 1 in 25 men who reported one sex partner or none reported a tattoo compared to 1 in 4 men who reported 11 or more lifetime sexual partners. Men who reported ever being told by a doctor they have depression had 1.3 times the odds of having a tattoo after adjusting for all other variables.

In other words, tattoos are a marker for riskier and more unhealthy behaviours (in both men and women) and correlate highly with those who are impulsive and value short-term gratification over the lost virtue of self-control; who have a greater chance at having an unskilled job and lower level of education; who smoke; who do drugs (4 times the likelihood); who have 3 to 5 times higher the number of sexual partners than average; who have more than double the likelihood of having had an STD; who are more likely to identify as non-heterosexual; and who suffer from depression or other mental disorders. Tattoos are a window into the psyche and makeup of people, and if looked through clearly, reveals something underneath that is an unpleasant reality for many.

I don’t disagree that one persons “body art” is another persons tramp stamp; that on the surface tattoos can be viewed differently as perspectives can change over time. BUT, the research is pretty clear that across the board, tattoos are generally markers of deeper problems. I do feel some sympathy for early childhood sex abuse victims who are prone to tattooing themselves as a way of coping with their inner pain. But again, as mentioned previously, this just confirms that it is an outward sign of something mentally or emotionally wrong within.

…It was found that women with tattoos were more likely to be younger, to drink more alcohol, to have more psychiatric symptoms and to show borderline personality features than were the non tattooed women.  They were also more likely to report child sexual abuse and the conclusion is that tattoos in women are statistically linked to child sexual abuse, and to later psychopathology in some women (Archives Of Women’s Mental Health).

These criticisms do not come from a misunderstanding of different generations; it is not a generational difference that allows tattoos to be viewed differently. Millennial’s, overwhelmingly, are a broken generation and they use tattoos as a band-aid for their brokenness as the data so clearly illustrates. In fact, Generation Z, which follows the Millennials, by and large, have a much greater disdain for tattoos than their predecessors which means this trend is already lessening.

I fully support the freedom for people to ink themselves as they please, but not without judgement. We all make judgements every minute of every day and the research is clear that tattoos outwardly tell a story and reveal the inner psyche of the person who has purposely scarred themselves. The pendulum will eventually swing back, as fashion trends so often do, and many will be left with permanent reminders of their impulsiveness and poor choices in the blurred ink covering their body parts.

We should reject modern tattoo culture and the short-sighted view of life it embodies. Tattoos aren’t edgy anymore; they are a clichè. We should yearn for those things that are good and pure and look first to fix our problems from within, rather than mask them from without. The naysayers will say, “I love tattoos and will continue to get more!” That is their choice. But the studies and evidence are overwhelmingly clear that the tattooed reveal far more about themselves and their instability than merely their taste in “art” so-called.

(Sebastian Maniscalco, capturing as nearly as perfect as one can, the modern day mentality around tattoos):

The Nature of True Charity

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The hip hop “artist” Drake released a new video this week for a song entitled God’s Plan. You can watch it here. (Now, I have nothing against Drake personally, although I do think that hip hop music and culture is objectively detrimental for society and something we know is generally enjoyed by the low IQ. I will write more on this soon). In the video, Drake goes around handing out money to “surprised” people in need, telling us how he is somehow fulfilling God’s plan. It is certainly a nice thing to do and I’m happy for those people who received these gifts. I saw comments around the internet that stated, “Now Drake is an example of a real man,” “Drake is the man. Let’s follow his example,” and others in a similar vein.

Now, outwardly this looked like a wonderful act of charity, but it wasn’t. True charity does not draw attention to itself, but rather, is something done for the welfare of others without looking to accrue praise or accolades for oneself; it is something done from pure motives without the need to signal our virtue to others. We should want to help out of genuine concern for others, not what we can also gain in the meantime.

I worked for a large financial institution for almost three decades. Around Christmas time each year there would be incredible pressure put on all employees, by management, to give to the United Way and it’s various causes. To the casual onlooker this seemed like a worthy endeavour for a business to undertake in order to “give back” to its community. But at it’s heart, it was a selfish campaign and anything but real charity. The men in charge cared not one whit for their community or the plight of the downtrodden; this was obvious to all of us in the way they carried themselves. But pressuring others to give so they could take the credit for raising large sums in the name of the bank was their way of virtue-signalling their goodness to all. If you gave at a certain level you had your name printed in a nice glossy magazine for all to see and be amazed by. It was also a well-known secret that there was a kickback scheme where the charity would fund the private schools of the children of certain executives in return for pressuring higher levels of giving. This is not charity; this is sinister.

I would encourage all to give; for all to be charitable to those less fortunate. But do it in a manner where the true motive is not to receive praise from your peers. Do it quietly. Do it humbly. Do it in a way that escapes the recognition of others. Do it with a pure heart and from pure motives. Don’t do it publicly in order to receive the adoration and commendations of others. Don’t do it from a sense of duty, but rather, from a heart truly motivated by a humble concern for the misfortune of others. Only from actions where there is nothing to gain personally, does true charity spring.

I’m glad Drake helped out those people if they truly were in need. But $1 million was very little to spend on the goodwill it created for his image and brand. At the end of the day, it was cheap advertising.

 

The Empty Rhetoric of Social Justice Feminism

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Without question, this 29 minute “interview” by Cathy Newman of Dr. Jordan Peterson from the University of Toronto is one of the most instructive demonstrations of the emptiness of modern day neo-Marxist, feminist, post-modern, authoritarian liberalism I have seen. It was a complete destruction of both Cathy Newman and the horrid ideology she embraces; on every single point. Newman was ideologically and intellectually over her head from the outset.

It is highly instructive in two ways:

1) Truth will always win out. Logic, reason, and the facts will always trump an emotive and effete world view. Do not be ashamed of an “unpopular” opinion merely because a topic is the prevalent cultural narrative of the time. The leftist authoritarians are rarely concerned with the truth. Do not cede any ground if your argument is sound and factual.

2) When in debate, always keep calm, keep your language precise, and constantly correct your opponent when they knowingly try and twist your words. Refuse to be bullied and never back down, and if need be, punch back twice as hard as your opponent. Never apologize for holding an unpopular opinion unless it is shown to be factually wrong. Never. There were almost a dozen occasions where Newman misrepresented Peterson’s position immediately after he plainly stated it. She did so in an attempt to discredit him and maintain the narrative. The degree of incompetence in listening and understanding was laughable.

Watch and learn.

The Cult of Celebrity Worship

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At the Golden Globes the other night, Oprah Winfrey delivered the following speech:

 

It didn’t take long for the “Oprah2020” hashtags to appear all over the internet even though Oprah said nothing remotely presidential. She did address the sexual harassment and abuse issue in Hollywood and the treatment of women in that bastion of sleaze and decadence, and rightly so, to the sounds of applause not only in the room, but all across the country. (Let’s not forget, Hollywood is made up almost entirely of Democrats with far left leanings; they are the quintessential liberals). The only problem is, that most of those people applauding her at the award show are perpetrators of this common Hollywood occurrence, or complicit in these crimes by their silence. The men stood and applauded, in the hopes that none of their accusers will ever come forward. The women stood and applauded, knowing they had kept silent for years allowing these behaviours to continue and effect others.

For the keen observer, we know what this was. The Hollywood elite needed the script flipped and the finger pointed in the other direction, and who better to do that than the widely trusted Oprah Winfrey. She was brought in to publicly name the problem and tell the world that it was going to stop; and Hollywood would lead the charge (even though everyone knows it will never stop and the moral cesspool that is Hollywood will continue to exploit women as long as it stands; it has from the beginning). In doing so, she absolved her Hollywood audience of their sins of commission and sins of omission; she made them appear as if they would be the ones to root out this evil, which ironically, was their own creation.

I think the sight of the well-loved Meryl Streep at these events is the perfect example of Hollywood hypocrisy; that same Meryl Streep who to this day praises the directorial abilities of convicted child rapist Roman Polanski and the now shamed and embarrassed Hollywood executive, Harvey Weinstein. Meryl Streep, and almost everyone else in Hollywood knew of the sins of Harvey Weinstein and did nothing, absolutely nothing; and by doing so became complicit in the systemic sexual abuse of women and young men in Hollywood. They opted to preserve their careers over outing the sexual predators in their midst. And we are to now believe that these same people are going to change the moral landscape of their own industry? Only the foolish and naive would believe such an absurdity. (And let’s not forget that Oprah was also a longtime friend of Harvey Weinstein and even one actress has alleged that Oprah knowingly set her up with Weinstein). All these people knew, and all these people kept their mouths shut to preserve their careers.

For the most part, I have no issues with Oprah Winfrey. I think she means well; even though she is the typical rich liberal who thinks the government is the vehicle by which all societal ills should be cured. Like Obama, she would be a terrible President because their similar governing philosophies have always led to failure. We as a society need to stop looking to celebrities to cure what ails us. These people are empty and shallow and tend towards a high level of narcissism. They are not intelligent. They are not truly concerned about the well-being of others. And they are not our moral superiors by any stretch. These are people who play make believe for a living; have high rates of substance abuse; and lead shallow and depraved lives. (Does not the amateur pornstar Kim Kardashian embody the shallowness of our culture and the dim-witted followers who measure her every move?) They do not know what hard work is. Like athletes, celebrities should not be looked up to and their opinions should not hold greater weight than anyone else’s. These people, like Winfrey the other night, grand stand in front of others in order to virtue-signal to those around them that they have the answers that will make everything better. Be not drawn in and brainwashed by the cult of celebrity; do not fall for the shiny veneer of what Hollywood has to offer, because the story that lies beneath it is always ugly and exploitive.

Prediction: Oprah will not be President in 2020. Trump will be re-elected in a landslide.

Randon Thoughts #1

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1) The fitness and body building craze, for both men and women, is the opposite of what it tries to portray; it may actually be one of the unhealthiest industries that exists. It is just a different form of body dysmorphic disorder. We ask anorexics to seek help for extreme eating habits and an unhealthy obsession with their appearance yet we don’t ask the same of those who treat their bodies the same.

2) There is a shocking level of effeminacy in men these days. From the clothes they wear, to the music they listen to, and to what they spend their time doing; men are no longer men. Our culture has been greatly feminized and there are too many men pursuing worthless things.

3) If a woman claims to be a feminist yet spends money on, and listens to, hip hop music, she is a hypocrite. Hip hop music and culture, outside of Islam, is the most misogynistic of enterprises on the planet. You cannot be a feminist and listen to that which degrades women so virulently.

4) I believe that the level of societal celebrity worship is inversely proportional to the amount of personal unhappiness in the lives of those who follow the empty, selfish lives of the famous. Following the lives of celebrities is one of today’s most useless and shallow pursuits.

5) The explosion of women in their 20’s obsessed with dogs is the natural offshoot of delayed marriage and child-bearing. A woman’s peak fertility occurs between 18 and 26 years old when biology tells us it is the optimal time to have children. And they aren’t. The maternal instinct cannot be repressed so that natural love and nurturing is showered upon animals instead. Disney has turned people into idiots when they think that love and devotion towards a pet is on par with that of raising children; they’ve humanized animals and people view them as such. Look at the staggering number of women who would fight for animal rights while also fighting for the right to abort human babies. It’s irrational to its core. An emotional attachment to an animal, while a wonderful thing on some level, is but a surrogate for what nature intended. Women with little furry child substitutes is not a sign of a healthy society. It is laziness; it is anti-civilizational, and it is a sign of moral decline.

The Perils of Pot

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With the Canadian government on the verge of legalizing and regulating the use of marijuana, a revenue generator for incompetent politicians and a pending policy disaster for its citizens, it is time to start looking at the hard research data on the effects of marijuana use. Many people think it to be a harmless, recreational drug with little to no side effects and teenagers seem to be under the impression that there is no downside to its use at all. Those who are for the legalization and use of marijuana have done a masterful job at downplaying, and outright hiding, the risks of the drug.

With legalization, which is for all intents and purposes the governments imprimatur on its use, use will greatly increase both among current users while also bringing new users into the fold, as has been the case with legalization in Colorado and Washington.

Weed use amongst teenagers and college students is nearing epidemic levels and helps to reiterate how unintelligent most teens are when it comes to making healthy decisions with a clear view to their futures. The “pot lobby” has done a tremendous job with their propaganda on how “harmless” recreational marijuana use is, despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary. What follows is just a small sampling of the hundreds of studies that have been done that highlight the horrible consequences for those who choose to harm themselves by smoking pot. To wit:

1) Frequent use of marijuana increases the risk of psychosis in teens by 159 percent.

Our results show that while marijuana use is associated with a number of cognitive and mental health symptoms, only an increase in symptoms of depression – such as negative thoughts and low mood – could explain the relationship between marijuana use and increasing psychotic-like experiences in youth, says Bourque.

2) Those who use marijuana in high school underperform their peers.

The researchers found that using marijuana just once a month was linked to a student being four times more likely to play hooky; between two and four times more likely to not complete homework; and only half as likely to get good grades.

For students who consumed weed on a daily basis, their desire to go to college, as opposed to simply completing— or even dropping out of— high school, was about 50 percent lower than it had been prior to them making their consumption as habitual, the study found.

3) Marijuana use increases the risk of stroke and heart failure.

…Cannabis consumption was found to increase the risk of stroke by 26 percent, and the risk of developing heart failure by 10 percent. This was after having controlled for other health factors, such as smoking and alcohol consumption.

4) The younger a person starts smoking pot, the greater their future health problems can be.

A review of longitudinal studies showed that smoking weed when under 15 contributes to memory loss, cognitive impairment, diminished IQ, and lower success in school, along with a higher risk for respiratory diseases and certain cancers.

“We found that if the age of first use is below 15, it’s always bad for you,” says study co-author James McIntosh, a professor of economics in the Faculty of Arts and Science, in a university news release.

5) Smoking pot can raise your risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease later in life.

The study found abnormally low blood flow in the hippocampus — the portion of the brain paramount to memory and learning functions — among marijuana users, suggesting use of the drug might raise the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

6) Marijuana users are twice as likely to have gum disease than non-smokers.

They found that participants who used recreational cannabis frequently were significantly more likely to have greater pocket depth and suffering from moderate to severe gum disease than those who used cannabis less frequently or not at all.

“Even controlling for other factors linked to gum disease, such as cigarette smoking, frequent recreational cannabis smokers are twice as likely as non-frequent users to have signs of periodontal disease,” Shariff says in a university press release.

7) People who are crossfaded — both drunk and high at the same time — while driving are more than five times more likely to be in a car crash.

While it’s not surprising that alcohol on its own increases one’s risk of crashing by 437 percent, it might surprise some to learn that weed consumption increases one’s collision risk by 62 percent.

Drivers who were at fault in collisions were nearly three times as likely as the other party to be intoxicated by alcohol, twice as likely to be under the influence of marijuana, and four times as likely to be inebriated by both.

8) Marijuana use in college or university linked to lower grades.

Those who drank a medium-to-high amount of alcohol, but didn’t consume much marijuana found themselves with a lower GPA mostly during their first semester— their grades in the long-term weren’t significantly affected.

“Doing a lot of both drugs had a significant impact, in terms of lower grades in our study, and in other studies, with number of leaves of absences and those who dropped out of school,” says Godfrey Pearlson, the study’s senior author, in a news release.

9) Early marijuana use associated with abnormal brain function and lower IQ.

In a new study, scientists in London, Ontario have discovered that early marijuana use may result in abnormal brain function and lower IQ.

Marijuana is the most commonly used illegal substance in the world. Previous studies have suggested that frequent marijuana users, especially those who begin at a young age, are at a higher risk for cognitive dysfunction and psychiatric illness, including depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

10) Marijuana use may cause abnormal sperm shape and size and lead to infertility in men.

A study suggests that smoking marijuana may cause sperm abnormality and put men’s fertility at risk…

The results of the study revealed that marijuana was the only habit studied that was strongly associated with abnormal sperm morphology—that is, sperm that were oddly shaped or sized.

11) Pot use can lead to a dramatic decrease in intelligence over time.

In a 2012 report, researchers from Duke University analyzed data from Dunedin and found that the earlier and more frequently a person smoked pot, the greater the loss of intelligence by age 38. Compared to their IQs measured at age 13, people who had started using cannabis as teens and maintained a daily pot habit into adulthood had, on average, a six-point drop in IQ. The decline was not trivial: By age 38, their average IQ was below that of 70 per cent of their peers, according to the report, published in the journal PNAS.

12) Teens who smoked pot regularly severely affected their future educational opportunities and were far more likely to move on to harder drugs.

Teens who smoke pot daily are 60 per cent less likely to finish high school or get a university degree than their weed-free peers, according to a high-profile study published in September in the Lancet.

The researchers, mainly from Australia, looked at outcomes from three long-term studies conducted in Australia and New Zealand. They compared participants’ life status at age 30 to their patterns of marijuana use before age 17 (never, less than monthly, monthly or more, weekly or more, or daily).

Compared to people who had never used cannabis, those who were daily users before age 17 had an 18-times greater chance of becoming cannabis dependent. They were eight times more likely to use other illicit drugs in adulthood, and seven times more likely to attempt suicide.

13) Heavy marijuana use can lead to uncontrolled nausea and vomiting.

The answer was cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, or CHS. It’s caused by heavy, long-term use of various forms of marijuana.

14) Regular cannabis use leads to a decrease in creativity, not an increase as some report.

Regular cannabis use is linked to worse creative thinking, new research concludes. They also find it harder to spot their own mistakes. The conclusions come from a series of studies carried out by psychologist Mikael Kowal.

15) Smoking pot can lead to addiction, depression, anxiety, headaches, memory loss, paranoia, and sleep disorders.

16) Smoking pot makes people poorer and less responsible.

A recent study by Steven Davenport of RAND and Jonathan Caulkins of Carnegie Mellon notes that “despite the popular stereotype of marijuana users as well-off and well-educated … they lag behind national averages” on both income and schooling.

But the poor, who already have a hard time holding down jobs and taking care of their families, are more frequently using a drug that makes it harder for them to focus, to remember things and to behave responsibly.

17) Secondhand marijuana smoke may damage your blood vessels even more than cigarette smoke.

“There is widespread belief that, unlike tobacco smoke, marijuana smoke is benign,” Springer said. “We in public health have been telling the public to avoid secondhand tobacco smoke for years. But we don’t tell them to avoid secondhand marijuana smoke, because until now we haven’t had evidence that it can be harmful.”

18) Marijuana use by teens linked to permanent brain abnormalities later in life, and increased schizophrenia risk.

Teenagers who regularly use cannabis during their adolescent years may cause permanent brain abnormalities by using the drug, and increase their risk of developing serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, a study published this month in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, a division of the journal Nature, hints at.

19) Teenagers who regularly smoke cannabis are putting themselves at risk of permanently damaging their intelligence and lowering their IQ, according to a landmark study.

Researchers found persistent users of the drug, who started smoking it at school, had lower IQ scores as adults.

They were also significantly more likely to have attention and memory problems in later life, than their peers who abstained.

Furthermore, those who started as teenagers and used it heavily, but quit as adults, did not regain their full mental powers, found academics at King’s College London and Duke University in the US.

20) Harvard Scientists studied the brains of pot smokers and the results do not look good.

According to a new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers from Harvard and Northwestern studied the brains of 18- to 25-year-olds, half of whom smoked pot recreationally and half of whom didn’t. What they found was rather shocking: Even those who only smoked few times a week had significant brain abnormalities in the areas that control emotion and motivation.

“There is this general perspective out there that using marijuana recreationally is not a problem — that it is a safe drug,” said Anne Blood, a co-author of the study. “We are seeing that this is not the case.”

Shockingly, every single person in the marijuana group, including those who only smoked once a week, had noticeable abnormalities, with the nucleus accumbens and the amygdala showing changes in density, volume and shape. Those who smoked more had more significant variations.

21) Cannabis use makes people more violent, moreso than alcohol.

Cannabis users are more likely to commit violent crime, pioneering research has shown. It warned those who smoke the drug regularly run an increased risk of using violence against others. The project is the first to demonstrate that cannabis is not only linked with violent crime but is the cause. Violent incidents monitored by the study based on the lives of more than 1,100 American psychiatric patients included assaults, attacks with weapons and rapes.

22) Even casual use of pot has now been shown to have a mental cost of reduced motivation to work.

We found that people on cannabis were significantly less likely to choose the high-effort option.

It is not a pretty picture. These are the facts. If pot is made legal and its use becomes even more commonplace than it already is, we will become a nation of retards as we smoke our brains into oblivious dysfunction.

Lawyers: A Societal Scourge

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I recently read this article without the least bit of surprise. A US Federal Judge openly admitted to not caring about the standard of his profession:

“I pay very little attention to legal rules, statutes, constitutional provisions,” Posner told the New York Times in an interview published Monday. “A case is just a dispute. The first thing you do is ask yourself — forget about the law — what is a sensible resolution of this dispute?”

I often remember hearing “lawyer jokes” when I was younger and always wondered why people seemed to detest them so vigorously. At the time the criticisms, while funny, seemed unjustly harsh. But then the time came where I needed to be involved with both lawyers and what now passes for a legal system*, and I can say with absolute confidence and not the least exaggeration that lawyers are a dishonest, contemptible bunch and a scourge to society.

Here is an example of a judge immersed in the law, who cares not one whit for the process. It’s humourous to hear lawyers wax eloquently about the law, an objective standard of justice they’ve sworn to uphold, when they spend their lives trying to dodge the very spirit of the law making sure justice is seldom done and their clients gotten off.

Before my need of a lawyer I had only met 4 or 5 lawyers in my life. To a man, they were full of themselves with more than a fair share of arrogance. I believe the profession attracts a certain disposition of character rather than law school churning out one pompous ass after another. They usually possess an above average IQ; just high enough to make them foolishly dangerous to society but not smart enough for them to properly assess their own true value in a worthless system.

Lawyers settle disputes among parties, that is all. They are economic parasites that add no value and aid in the confiscation and redistribution of the wealth of others; not according to just terms but to some precedent that may or may not be germane to the exact situation before them. The divorce courts may be the most egregious example of this. They are seldom concerned with fairness or justice, and with trying to change a corrupt system, but rather, just billing more hours than their clients could possibly need.

Lawyers should be looked down on and shamed much like pornographers and drug dealers for their similar decaying influence on society. They provide a useless service and the system that employs them should be torn down and rebuilt in order that fairness can be restored. Literally anything can happen in a court of law. Many of us would stand a better chance at fairness in a casino.

 

*It is a legal system, not a justice system. The sense of justice in the modern world has been all but lost and the blame for such an abominable system lies at the feet of lawyers and lawmakers.

What Feminism Has Wrought: A Cautionary Tale

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She turned 29 last week, and Marcy enjoyed an almost week long birthday celebration with friends. Long gone are the days of just one get together, as it’s important to keep the party going as long as possible. Dinners, drinks, and countless selfies posted to Instagram preserved the memory of the partying urban girl whose life appears, on the outside, to be the envy of many.

Next year she’ll turn 30 so she knows it’s almost time to get serious about life. Turning 29 has led to a couple weeks of honest reflection. “It’s time to get my personal life in order and settle down,” she has thought to herself in those lucid, lonely moments. But the thought of going out to nice restaurants and drinks 3 or 4 nights a week is hard to give up for the toils and traumas of a serious relationship, marriage, and kids.

She consumes too much alcohol, as most women now do, but doesn’t seem to think it’s an issue, despite the fact that alcohol consumption is a leading cause of depression and 25% of women are now on some sort of anti-depressant medication. Marcy partied her way through university and all of her twenties. It was a good life of fun but now she supplements her day with Prozac so she can cope with modern life. She has dabbled with cocaine and ecstasy, as they were common on the club scene, and she didn’t want to appear as someone not down for a good time with little thought towards the lasting effects it would have on her. Her life was a roller coaster of highs and lows. After her drug phase waned, alcohol became her numbing agent of choice. Sacrificing the immediate fun and pleasure of her carefree 20’s is hard now that her fast life has caught up to her and her once youthful beauty has begun to fade. She’d be lying if she didn’t admit she was anxious about her future.

Marcy wants to have children, “hopefully before 35” she says, but has put that off because she hasn’t found the right man to settle down with. A woman’s peak fertility is between 18-26 years of age but most women have used that prime mating period as party years and have bought into the lie that you can always have the family one day in the future, with the big house and the hedge fund manager husband who adores you; and the baggage accumulated along the way will have no lasting impact. If only someone had told her. Marcy has her own “fur baby” anyways. She showers her love upon a little dog that means the world to her. It serves as a surrogate child until she has time for the real deal. And besides, a dog doesn’t really impede upon her social life like a child would and its presence helps dispel the cloud of loneliness that seems ever-present in her apartment. And motherhood is hard. She’s not ready for that kind of work just yet.

She wouldn’t describe herself as a feminist per se, but Marcy has imbibed and lived by every insidious feminist doctrine that has been covertly sold to young girls over the past 50 years. While feminists appear to be the angry, overweight, unattractive women with grating personalities, there is not a female left on the planet who hasn’t been adversely affected by feminism’s destructive tenets; and Marcy was not immune. For all its enviable outward appearances, her life is a tragic one.

She’s been dating her boyfriend for a couple years now but he told her from the beginning he doesn’t want children. It was a “dead end” relationship from the start but she pursued it anyways. He owns a nightclub in one of the hot neighbourhoods downtown so it’s an exciting life for her. He takes her on great vacations and buys her nice things; so it works for now even though it’s not what she ultimately wants. She doesn’t want to be lonely and likes the excitement it provides until she gets her life together. She’s always getting her life in order, but that can wait til tomorrow.

She’s had sex with 32 men so far, almost 5 times the national average. A bunch of those were one night stands, and a lot of those in a drunken stupor; but Marcy doesn’t really count those when discussing the topic with friends. She had an abortion when she was 24 and didn’t want to have the baby because her live-in boyfriend at the time had a tendency to be abusive. She was into bad boys back then and hopes to now find the stable “good guy” with which to settle down. Liberated and all, she still likes to think of her “number” as lower than it really is; every girl wants to be seen as a good girl after all. She’s only had one STD but thankfully it was the treatable kind. About 25% of her friend group hasn’t been so lucky.

Marcy also discretely sees an older man at the accounting firm where she works as a receptionist. It’s easy because he’s married. The city is an expensive place to live and he provides her with help for her rent and other expenses in exchange for secretive meetings once or twice a week. Her boyfriend has no idea about her side activities but with modern relationships it’s only important to be truthful as long as it doesn’t impact your lifestyle. It’s really quite harmless, she thinks, and it allows her to afford those shoes and bags she needs to fit in with that chic, downtown culture.

She’s attractive but feels the constant pressure to maintain a certain style amid the endless stream of younger and prettier girls that fill the clubs and restaurants nightly. She was once one of those younger bartenders that her club-owner boyfriend had an eye for, and she was the fortunate one to land a relationship with him. She doesn’t want to lose her boyfriend to a newer, younger, prettier girl, at least not until she’s ready to find her future husband. She’s hoping her “sugar daddy” will pay for the new boobs she needs that will help her stand out in an ever more competitive dating market. The four tattoos she’s added over the years made her seem “edgy” at the time, but they are all too common now among millennial women and of little competitive value in signalling her availability and appetite for riskier behaviours.

This has been Marcy’s life so far. One lived for the thrill of the moment with no real forethought on how to prepare for her future. And no one told her that the future doesn’t look that great for her even though in her head she sees it all working out as it did for the Disney princesses and Sex in the City characters she emulated. But that was fiction. Her future will not be so kind.

Looking around her, Marcy sees most of her friends starting to marry, most settling below their expectations because all the good men were already taken. At 30, Marcy’s chances of getting married are 81%; at 33 they are 72%; and at 36 an even worse 61%. For her own sake and sanity she had better not wait until 40 because the chances at 38% are downright dreadful; not to mention that at 40 her chances of conceiving a child naturally are slightly less than 5%.

Thirty came, and with it a small panic that she was still in the same place she was a year ago. She started dating with a more serious intent as her now on again off again relationship was proving less stable. She knew he was seeing other girls on the side but there was little she could do to stop it without risking the loss of all the nights out and the vacations she so enjoyed. She met some men, a couple she really liked, but would never hear from them again after she slept with them on the second or third date. The pill, and feminist doctrine, had liberated her body from the oppressive, puritanical strictures of times past. Liberation was supposed to make her feel good, not used up and disposable.

Thirty-two came and she found she had to be in the gym more to keep her body in better shape to even remotely resemble the younger competition that now seemed to haunt her every time she went out. How could she compete with girls five to 10 years younger for the same men? The wall, which comes at you fast and is unavoidable, was quickly approaching and she didn’t want to be the girl left standing when the music stopped.

Thirty-four came and during an “on-again” phase with her old boyfriend he asked her what she thought about getting married. He was now 44 and after a life of partying was finally ready to settle down. They got married in Italy on her 35th birthday. It was more a feeling of relief than excitement. She had made it. Little did she know that because of her past, the numbers were against her marriage lasting.

She gave up her dream of having kids. It was easier to travel without them, she thought, and her two little pups brought her all the happiness she needed. Over time, her husband started to spend more nights at the club and although she had a hunch what was going on, she tried not to think about it. He had just bought her a nice Rolex for her 40th birthday and she had all the stuff she needed for a happier, more comfortable life. Love was overrated anyways.

A few years later, she wasn’t overly shocked when the marriage ended. They hadn’t had sex in almost a year. He got tired of her criticisms and nagging and couldn’t stand being around her. The club provided him the escape he had needed. She moved into a small apartment and rejoined all the dating apps she thought she’d never need again. It was hard being single in her 40’s. Scrolling through the available men was like showing up to the buffet after a bus load of tourists had ravaged it: there was nothing edible left. But single, and in her 40’s, she was no catch now either. While still somewhat attractive, no one looked at her like they did 20 years earlier. She had lived a hard life and time, being the cruel task master, had not been kind.

She lived alone with only her dogs for company. The memories of old flames she thought were never good enough, made her lament and wonder what had become of them. Looking them up on Facebook and seeing their families left her feeling that much more empty. Had they married well? Were they happy? She was inexplicably sad and couldn’t figure out where she had gone wrong when all she did was live like everyone else was back then in the pursuit of a good time.

There are thousands and thousands of Marcy’s everywhere. They pursued the feminist ideals of pleasure over family, with no thought to what would make one truly happy in the long run, thinking that one day they could still have it all. No one taught them. Many would never have subscribed to the tenets of “militant feminism” but they lived according to its ideals because they had been surreptitiously spoon fed them from an early age.

They lived freely with no constraints and any talk of moral restraint would be mocked as the ancient shackles of a patriarchal society. They were liberated and would no longer conduct themselves according to the old rules. They lived as if they had it all, and one day would. They traded future stability and happiness for the fleeting, temporary pleasures of the day. “Everyone lives like this in their 20’s!” they say, not realizing everyone suffers the consequences of poor choices that could have easily been avoided. Women have been lied to and those that figure it out sooner and put their lives on the trajectory towards marriage and motherhood are always happier and healthier for it.

Marcy’s memories of good times past were no longer a comfort, but rather, a reminder of poor choices, squandered opportunities, and a life lived for temporary pleasure over the long-lasting joy of a life lived with purpose and direction.

Irrational Ideology

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The liberal/progressive/leftist world view is riddled with logical inconsistencies. To wit:

1) Progressives continue to parrot the false narrative of a gender pay gap that exists between men and women where women earn 78 cents for every 1 dollar a man earns. Several studies have shown this to be conclusively false. We are also told by these same people that gender is merely a social construct and exists on a spectrum which is fluid from person to person and at times within the same person; against all scientific data to the contrary.

Now, if there is a real wage gap between men and women, wouldn’t that entail that gender must be fixed and not fluid in order to make such an assertion? And if gender is fluid, then isn’t any discussion regarding a wage gap between men and women meaningless because of the multiplicity of alleged genders? You cannot in one breath speak of a gender pay gap with binary gender points and in the next tell us there is no such thing as binary gender points! To assert both propositions is both contradictory and false. Progressives need to pick one.

2) It has been near 50 years that progressives have championed gay rights and freedom for those with minority sexualities to live openly as they please. They have become the most protected class of citizens on the planet because of it. Yet liberals continue to clamour for open borders and the free movement of people; in particular, those from Muslim nations, that would seek to undo these rights.

Now, many of these Muslim immigrants come from one of the 13 Islamic countries that still put homosexuals to death. 52% of current British Muslims believe that homosexuality should be illegal and that number would certainly be higher in the Islamic nations from which the migrants come. Their belief system would not grant equal rights to gay people and in many cases would criminalize their behaviour and endanger their lives. How can progressives champion gay rights in one instance, and in another support the mass immigration of a people group into the West who would like to distinguish those rights and go so far as to punish same-sex behaviours? Would this not set the gay rights movement back decades? Why champion the influx of Muslim immigrants that are directly opposed to Western ideals of freedom and would necessarily seek to have those freedoms taken away? These groups, by definition, cannot live in harmony and it is foolish and dangerous to think otherwise.

There is a reason why progressives unwittingly hold to wildly contradictory positions. Their battle is against traditional Western values and they will say or do anything to advance their cause; logic be damned. They care not for the objective reality of the world we observe that is both quantifiable and measurable. It is the narrative, the ideology, that must be advanced above all evidence to the contrary.

The battle today is first and foremost along ideological lines; between left and right. Ideology trumps all else. If you are a gay conservative you will be outed and rejected; your homosexuality will no longer be useful because of its secondary status to the “evil of conservatism” that mars it. Similarly, if you are a black conservative you will be marginalized and told you are a traitor to your race as if skin colour is somehow magically linked to a like set of ideas. The task we have is to point out these irrationalities at every turn; to expose the rot of a progressive liberalism that seeks to undermine the stability of Western societies and the pillars on which they stand.

 

 

The Narrows, Zion National Park, Utah

There are few hikes more interesting, more accessible, and more breathtakingly beautiful than The Narrows in Zion National Park, Utah. It is a long walk up and down a river that has carved through a canyon over the millennia. It is wide in some spots and narrow in others with walls on either side rising to the skies. It is pure testament to the power and beauty of nature. One cannot help but feel both exhilarated and overwhelmed by the grandeur of the canyon.

Separation

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There was a time with hair less grey
That life seemed easy, fun, and gay.
The future held aloft and bright
With hopes unmarred by black of night.

Then darkness came on heavy air;
It choked the life and brought despair.
The dreams of youth seemed out of sight,
And sorrow came in dying light.

The road had lost its golden hue
And Zion seemed so far from view.
Alone I walked with spirit bowed
And hope had slipped behind the cloud.

As I look back on passing years
I see myself and all the tears.
I’d like to tell that younger boy
That not all paths will lead to joy.

And in that time of long past days
I saw myself and all the ways
That love is lost and anger spent;
The source of pain and great lament.

But dawn will come; the sun arise,
And bring the light back to the skies.
As time will pass, and anguish cease,
I hope for good, and yearn for peace.

© dbro

A Generation of Morons

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Two hundred years ago, 10 year old children were reading Plato and Aristotle in school and walking home with thick books under their arms that contained dense prose. Now they walk home barely able to look up from the latest images on their phones. A century ago this was an example of the final exam to pass 8th grade. How many of us would do well on that test today? How many of us would even pass? There are many and varying reasons why most of us wouldn’t; but some more glaring than others in my estimation. Despite the grade inflation that has occurred over the past decades, SAT scores are declining. For all of its vast increase in knowledge, humanity seems to be getting dumber.

Global IQ is dropping. In typical liberal fashion, school curriculum’s have been dumbed-down over time in order to help the less intelligent achieve passing grades, while not pushing the brighter students to achieve loftier heights of learning. The results are a generation who literally know next to nothing of the world around them. It’s shocking when talking to millennials how little they know. Until we raise the bar and make students aim higher and work harder, rather than lowering the bar so every kid gets a passing grade and a trophy, we will produce more morons whose only source of learning is Netflix, Facebook, and pop culture icons who might themselves be, functionally illiterate.

Modern adolescents (and many adults) do not have intellectual pursuits. They pursue pleasure over knowledge. They fill their minds with the equivalent of cognitive cotton candy and their brains are malnourished. They binge-watch shows rather than read a book in quiet. They listen to the derivative and uninventive music of hip hop which is the music of the low IQ; the music of degenerate and illiterate imbeciles. Or they gravitate towards EDM and the drug-addled stupor required to listen to a DJ play a computer. They hang off every word of social media stars who are themselves, air-brushed idiots. There is no yearning for the beautiful, the meaningful, or the virtuous. There is no pursuit of deeper learning or understanding.

This trend, as I see it, is irreversible. Mass addiction to the trite and banal cannot be undone in an environment of declining IQ’s because there is no drive or desire for meaning or something better. People are lazy and will continue to pursue passive entertainment to fill their dreary and unmotivated lives. Until people throw aside their vapid pursuits and truly want to better themselves, we will see a slow, incremental decline towards the primitive, even though our technological growth makes it seem as if we are ever-advancing.

As humanity’s collective intelligence continues to decline, so will our prosperity. A generation of morons will lead us into a new dark age of sorts where the acquisition of knowledge is replaced by progressive indoctrination. We need a rebirth of higher pursuits and a putting off of the cheap and easy entertainment fodder that is all around us. We must choose against what we most naturally want in order to stave off further decline. We will be, as a people, a reflection of what we ingest.

The Equality Myth

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Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact. –Honoré de Balzac, French playwright

Tennis great John McEnroe recently got in trouble when he would not agree in an interview that Serena Williams was the greatest tennis player of all time. He called her the greatest women’s player ever but would not capitulate under the obvious pressure. He clarified what he meant in the same interview when he said, “Well because if she was in, if she played the men’s circuit, she’d be like 700 in the world.” And, as if on cue, the feminists went crazy. Or should I say crazier than they already are.

There is a reason men and women do not compete against one another. Each sex (and yes, I am using the word by its scientific definition) fulfills different biological roles and are compliments of one another, not equals. Men are stronger and faster and the builders of civilization. Women are gentler and kinder and the nurturers of the next generation. They fulfill certain biological roles in order to propagate the species and what one lacks, the other makes up for.

Equality does not exist, and never will exist; nor can it ever be socially engineered to be a reality. This should be a fact so obvious to common sense that it need not be discussed. All men and women are equal in value, but not equal in ability. No man is greater than another, and no man is equal to another. Equality does not exist in nature, for if it did, it would not have to be manufactured by governments, HR departments, or a host of other social justice movements trying to achieve the impossible.

Rather than take any mention of the differences between the sexes as a slight, the feminists and egalitarians need to embrace the unique attributes that both men and women possess as complimentary and not equal. If we were all the same the world would be boring. If all had equal abilities there would be no marveling at great works of art or a new world record in sports. There would be no great accomplishments or any weaknesses to overcome. The egalitarians cry out for a world full of diversity, yet lose their minds when that diversity results in a naturally occurring inequality. Enjoy Roger Federer and Serena Williams and marvel at their accomplishments, but refrain from the inane comparison that just invites further division and animosity.

 

Thoughts On Pride

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It’s that time of year again when rainbow flags fly and “Pride” parades happen throughout the major cities of the world. It’s an odd celebration put on by people who define themselves differently from the other 98% of the population. Now, I am all for the freedom to live your life as you choose and to celebrate things important to you. But, by the same token, the normalization of homosexuality has always been one of the final markers of a decaying and disintegrating civilization, and a sure sign that we are a culture that no longer values truth nor strives for the virtuous. While it may be a source of pride for some, we cannot just easily gloss over the truth about homosexuality.

1) There is no gay gene. There is absolutely no scientific evidence in the literature to support such a notion. People are not born this way. It is an unscientific claim to make. From what is known, it seems to be various environmental inputs from early on that take us all down a certain sexual path. We choose to embrace or deny the cravings, lusts, and passions that arise in us and that molds our preferences. Sadly, there is also a strong link with homosexuality arising from abuse as children; also here. Sexual abuse has far-reaching affects not the least of which can be a struggle with same sex attraction.

2) According to statistics, condom use in the gay community has plummeted over time since HIV has become manageable with drugs and no longer the death sentence it once was. Homosexuals are  less risk averse and more open to putting their health in danger. No amount of money spent on sex education will change people’s behaviour. They will follow their lusts regardless of the consequences and regardless of the endless stream of information given to them. There are some who go out of their way to risk contracting HIV at “sex roulette” parties. and another yet smaller subset of individuals known as “bug chasers” who try and contract as many STD’s as possible. This is not normal behaviour.

3) Sexually transmitted diseases occur at a far greater rate in the gay community than in the heterosexual community. HIV is almost entirely a gay disease despite their efforts to make it seem otherwise. A new strain of incurable gonorrhea has arisen amongst gay people and will slowly spread into the mainstream population. It is a behaviour and lifestyle that promulgates disease and poorer general health overall.

4) Monogamy does not exist in gay relationships. The statistics on “indiscretions” or “gay hookups” within “committed relationships” so-called, are greater than 95% in almost all studies conducted. Personal sexual gratification trumps commitment at almost every turn. Restraint and self-control are no longer virtues to uphold. Homosexual monogamy in relationships is almost non-existent.

5) Biologically speaking, homosexuality is not “normal.” It is an aberrant behaviour. It occurs in only 2-3% of the population. Homosexuals should be treated with kindness and love, but that does not mean we normalize, celebrate, and teach our children this behaviour is biologically normal and beneficial.

6) Homosexuality is an evolutionary dead end. If it were indeed a genetic disposition, this gene would have been selected against and disappeared from the population millennia ago because its carriers would be unreproductive. It is not a genetic trait, but rather, a mental disposition. That is why it still persists today. As deviancy is defined away and all sorts of aberrant sexualities are normalized and celebrated, the number of people experimenting and embracing them will also grow as it becomes more socially acceptable. The need for some to be seen as different can be easily embraced by adopting one of the new, trendy, orientations.

7) The word “pride” to denote this display of one’s sexuality seems to be a word that overcompensates for a reality that remains hidden. Why is there “pride” in ones orientation? Why is someone “proud” of their same sex attraction? Heterosexuals take no pride in what to them is biologically normal. The word “pride” acts as a glossy veneer over something most understand to be unnatural and not the default orientation of the procreative heterosexual. One should not have to announce and display their “pride” if in fact there was a real belief that it is an orientation that nature intended.

8) If homosexuality is a legitimate orientation, then by the same logic so is pedophilia. You cannot argue for the validity of one without arguing for the validity of the other; and indeed, we have seen just that of late. If our orientations our based on our feelings of attraction, where is the line we do not cross? Because the talk of sexual orientation is so ingrained in our culture, it will only be one to two decades from now before pedophiles will be a protected and celebrated orientation; concomitant with a large drop in the age of consent for children. Pedophilia was common behaviour in ancient Greece and Rome and it will slowly come back into fashion as deviancy is defined away, and no sexual behaviour is allowed to be judged by another.

9) We have lost what it means to be ashamed. Shame is no longer in our lexicon. We now take pride in unnatural things and shame those things which are good and pure and right. We repress our feelings of shame in order to do our best to not be affected by the guilt associated with our behaviours. Shame and guilt are necessary to maintain an orderly society and can be good in helping us to change destructive behaviours.

10) Any opposition to the gay narrative of the day will have one branded homophobic or a bigot. Name calling is a useful strategy and has been used throughout history to silence and denigrate ones opponents. It is for personal thoughts that homosexuals want to silence and shun those who oppose being told they need to accept this as normal. That is the mindset of the fascist. People have different opinions yet only one side on this issue wants to silence their opponents and destroy their livelihoods. It is interesting to note that even within gay communities, personal racial preferences are being targeted as bigoted. Fascists always want to control the choices of another.

11) I believe in the freedom for anyone to live how they so choose. But I also believe in the freedom for anyone to think and believe in whatever they want and not be dictated to what beliefs are acceptable, and what thoughts are not. One person should not dictate to another how they should live or what they should believe. But neither should we shy away from telling the truth.

12) It is no longer about being gay. It is about ideology, first and foremost. The gay rights activists will no longer accept those LGBT people who do not adhere to their progressive narrative in all facets. At it’s core, it is a progressive ideology using sexual orientation as one of its weapons against traditional mores and the family. They have become fascists who want to control the thoughts and actions of others because of their politics. It was a plan from the beginning to destroy the family, monogamy, and the fictitious “patriarchy” by promoting the homosexual lifestyle.

13) Homosexuality is a destructive orientation. It leads to greater rates of depression in children with same-sex parents. Suicides are higher in the gay community due to more difficult relationship problems. 90% of anal cancers are attributable to anal sex and occur primarily among men. Gay people abuse substances 2 to 3 times more than straight people. Homosexuals suffer from a far greater rate of mental illness than their heterosexual counterparts. Gay and lesbian couples report far greater rates of domestic violence in their relationships.

Let me be clear: this post is written to dispel many of the myths that have been promulgated in order to normalize homosexuality. Regardless of one’s orientation, all men and women are of equal value and deserve to be treated fairly by others and the law, not because of their sexual orientation, but because of their humanity.

The Paris Accord and Climate Change

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Last week, President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris Accord on Climate Change. And predictably, the left lost their minds. The Accord, an economic disaster by almost any measure, made sure that Western nations paid billions and billions in “carbon taxes” while other developing nations, including major powers like China and India, paid nothing. It was a scheme, cloaked in “science,” by which to redistribute the wealth of the West, and nothing more. It was the right decision, at the right time, by a leader who put his nations interests above those which relied solely on a future unknown.

If the reports about the Accord are accurate, the changes made to emissions by the signatories would decrease global temperatures by 0.17 degrees by the year 2100. It would cost untold trillions of dollars to do so over that time; dollars that would be taken from the prosperous nations and given to the poorest in the form of a Carbon Tax. Notice they do not even try and hide this fact:

A group of 14 economists published a report Tuesday claiming that the world needs a $4 trillion tax on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to stop global warming.

The study suggests that a tax should be levied on fossil fuel use, taxing between $50 to $100 per ton of CO2 emitted. Proceeds could support green energy, given out as aid to poor countries, or be redistributed back to the population. The World Bank and French government financed the study.

Is the earth warming? Sure, but almost negligibly; and the dire predictions made over the last few decades haven’t been close to coming true. Should we do what we can to reduce CO2 emissions? Yes, it certainly sounds like it would be good for the environment. Should we stand for the globalists extracting wealth from certain nations and giving it to others as a means to help “solve” the problem? Absolutely not. The US is a sovereign nation and should never enter into any agreements to its detriment; it would be economic suicide. A nation, first and foremost, should have the prosperity of its own citizens as its goal, not the world.

Climate science, as a science, has an abysmal track record of accuracy. As a predictive model, it is a failure. Science is about repeatable, predictable results and climate science models to date have given us anything but accurate results.

Human CO2 emission is such a small part of the overall climate picture that we should not cripple nations from economic advancements. But at the same time, we should also be encouraging them to adopt strategies to reduce harmful environmental agents. That seems sensible. The science around climate change could be more right than wrong; time will tell. Until it is, it hardly seems worth the alarmist proclamations we often read.

The problem really lies in the economic models put forward to tackle this problem. It should never be used  as a reason for one nation to fund another. At best, they are unworkable. At worst, they are a Marxist redistribution of wealth between nations.

Bowing to the histrionics of those for whom the topic of Climate Change has become an immutable religious doctrine is not the solution for a countries economic prosperity, nor is it the right way to affect change for the good of the planet. Why is it that celebrities and the wealthy want to lecture us on what must be done, yet live with carbon footprints 10 to 20 times that of the average person? Actions are the best indication of what one truly believes, not words. At times, humanity thinks a little too much of itself and its ability to do what is right.

A Costly Complacency

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Last night, a suicide bomber walked into an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, and blew himself up, killing 22 people and injuring many others. It was another incident in a long line of barbarous Islamic attacks on innocent civilians.

It is a fact of history that Islam is a religion of the sword and has expanded through the use of violence; and that terror attacks were an effective element of war used by Mohammed himself against his enemies. When you allow the barbarians to peacefully enter through the gates, conflict will eventually arise and put the native population at greater risk. We see this everywhere as Muslims emigrate and increase their geographical presence and influence.

There was a time when the British people cared about defeating evil during WWII. They fought hard against the tanks and planes of the Germans because they were British people defending the British nation. If it were today, Hitler would only have to employ diversity and multiculturalism as his weapon of choice against the British to secure an easy victory. It’s hard to watch the West commit civilizational suicide by importing people that hate them and their way of life, and not naming the evil in their midst: Islam.

What a tragic and horrible event, and yet it is an event that we are told is “part and parcel of living in a big city” according to Sadiq Khan, the Muslim mayor of London. Get use to this: more attacks are coming. Get use to this new way of life. Hold a candlelight vigil or write something heartfelt on Facebook, or stand up in solidarity with others against “Islamophobia,” but actually do nothing. If you can’t name the evil; if you can’t eject the evil from your presence, get ready for more, get ready for worse. Submission to terror has never been this easy.

Now in case one thinks I’m being overly dramatic when describing the threat, a 2016 survey of British Muslims revealed some startling facts. Most notably, as it relates to this latest incident:

Four per cent–the equivalent of more than 100,000 British Muslims–told the researchers that they had sympathy for people who take part in suicide bombing to fight injustice. Asked if someone they knew was involved with supporting terrorism in Syria, just one in three would report it to the police.

100,000 British Muslims would approve of this attack and two thirds of them would not report a known jihadist to the police; that’s more than 2,000,000 British Muslims that would not report a known jihadist. The enemy is in our midst and we are inviting more. Is there any wonder why this continues?

There is only one solution for those with any fight left in them: send them all back. Every last one. They hate you and your way of life. This is a cultural and civilizational war that only one side knows they are fighting. Our own values of tolerance and peace are being used as weapons against us. Islam cannot be reformed; it’s original texts will not allow for it. Jihad against the West will continue until all men are under submission to Islam. We can fight, or we can submit. The most humanitarian option would be to repatriate all Muslims back to their homelands and eliminate the strife and conflict that comes with this unworkable type of diversity. Let men live in peace amongst those with whom they share the same values. It is really that simple.

We can remain complacent, but it will be costly. We can light candles or tweet against “Islamophobia” to virute signal that we are a progressive, tolerant people; or we can eject those in our midst that are responsible for the conflict, the terror, the death, that has become too commonplace. There isn’t another option.

The Sira: The Life Of Mohammed

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There is no moderate Muslim and there is no peaceful Islam if the prophet Mohammed is the ‘perfect Muslim’ to be emulated by all his followers. It’s a provocative statement to make in this age of tolerance where we are fed a false narrative on the nature of Islam unmoored from the historical record and the reality of the events around us.

Just as Christians are called to imitate the life of Jesus Christ, so too are Muslims called to imitate the life of their prophet, Mohammed. In order to fully understand Islam, one must have a working knowledge of three different sources: the Koran, the Hadith, and the life of Mohammed as recorded in the Sira. In his book, The Sira: The Life of Mohammed, Dr. Bill Warner gives us a look into the life of the first and “greatest of all Muslims” from the primary sources of his life. When we understand the life of Mohammed, how he lived and all that he did, it is then that we see a true picture of Islam.

Warner’s thesis can be identified early on and he spends the remainder of the book providing details from the life of Mohammed in order to show that Islam is more a political ideology than a religion.

“Islam is primarily a political ideology. No action or statement by Islam can be understood without understanding its origins in the Trilogy. Any analysis, statement, or opinion about Islam is incomplete without a reference to the Trilogy. The Trilogy is the source and basis of all Islamic politics, diplomacy, history, philosophy, religion, and culture.”

Warner further states:

“Islam is defined by the words of Allah in the Koran, and the words and actions of Mohammed, called the Sunna. The Sunna is found in two collections of texts–the Sira (Mohammed’s life) and the Hadith (event’s in Mohammed’s life). The Koran says 91 times that Mohammed’s words and actions are to be considered the divine pattern for humanity…So the Trilogy is the Koran, the Sira, and the Hadith..[This] is the foundation and totality of Islam.”

Throughout it’s history, Islam has been a political force that has advanced by the power of the sword. There has been no missionary movement or caring charity to those outside the faith, only a violent advance of its borders in emulation of their Prophet who advanced his cause politically through the use of force during his 9 years in Medina.

Warner shows through the use of the Koranic text that the Kafir (or unbeliever ie. non-Muslims) can be mocked, beheaded, plotted against, terrorized, cursed, and lied to, all to advance the cause of Islam and bring about the submission of all unbelievers. This is how Mohammed lived and advanced the cause of Islam, and we see this in the Islamic world today as it works to expand its borders. This jihad will not be complete until the entire world is under the submission of Islam.

Mohammed’s success depended on politics, not religion. The Sira, Mohammed’s biography, gives a highly detailed accounting of his rise to power. He preached the religion of Islam for 13 years in Mecca and garnered 150 followers. He was forced to move to Medina and became a politician and warrior. During the last 9 years of his life, he was involved in an event of violence on the average of every 6 weeks. When he died, every Arab was a Muslim. Mohammed succeeded through politics, not religion…Politics was almost a thousand times more effective than religion [in increasing the number of converts to Islam].

Mohammed created a political doctrine of domination covertly cloaked under religious guise. As a preacher of the religious doctrine Mohammed was a failure, but as a commander of a strong political ideology he was a force that controlled the Middle East and much of Europe. Warner writes,

In Mecca, Mohammed demonstrated the initial practice of jihad when Islam was weak: persuasion and conversion. When he moved to Medina, he demonstrated how jihad worked when Islam was strong: using immigration against inhabitants, creating political power by struggling against the host, dominating other religions, using violence, and establishing a government.

It is estimated that in the 1400 year history of Islam, 270 million Africans, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and Jews were the victims of violent Jihad. It does not have a history of tolerance and peace as modern apologists like to portray. To say that Islam is a religion of peace misses the point since the very heart of Islam is political power wielded against the unbelievers and not a peaceful religion trying to bring about good for all people.

To understand Islam, it is absolutely necessary to understand the life of Mohammed. Warner’s book, drawn from primary source texts, goes a long way in painting an accurate picture of the roots of Islam and the modern branches that have grown from it. It is paramount that we understand the life of Mohammed in light of modern Islam that is expanding rapidly into the West. If we want to remain peaceful and free it is necessary to reject Islam as compatible with Western civilization.

The Life And Work Of Horatius Bonar

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In 2004 I completed a three year project compiling the works of the Scottish Presbyterian minister, Horatius Bonar. It was a general admiration for the humble life of a man that led me to complete the 13,000 page project and release it in PDF format; along with the fact that it had not been done before. Below is the short biography I wrote to accompany the work.

Before his death on July 31st, 1889, Rev. Horatius Bonar asked that no memoir of his life be written. Unfortunately for later generations, this request was honoured by those who knew and revered Dr. Bonar, and now little is known about the man apart from that which can be garnered from small biographical sketches and the personal recollections of friends. Despite authoring three biographies of eminent ministers in his own day, Bonar did not want the story of his life and ministry to in any way obscure the glory of Jesus Christ; to whom he hoped his life would point. He was a man who toiled ceaselessly to warn sinners of impending judgment and one whom God used greatly in 19th century Scotland for the saving of souls.

Horatius Bonar was born in Edinburgh on December 19th, 1808. He was one of seven boys, three of which entered upon gospel ministry (John James, Horatius, and Andrew) in their early years. He was ordained a minister in the Church of Scotland on November 30th, 1837, and was later given charge over the North Parish Church in Kelso. Bonar was counted among the dissenting ministers who left the Established Church to form the Free Church of Scotland in what was known as the Disruption of 1843. In 1866 he accepted a call to pastor in Edinburgh at the newly erected Chalmers Memorial Church. He was one in a long line of ministers in the Bonar family. In the May 1908 edition of The Scotsman magazine, they estimated that the Bonar descendants (John Bonar 1671-1747) served a total of 364 years in the pulpits of Scottish churches.

From the pulpit, Bonar’s message was simple and clear: he preached a crucified and risen Christ, whose righteousness alone was the only hope of sinners. He was adept in the exposition of a free gospel through the necessary sovereign workings of the Holy Spirit. His presentation always placed an emphasis on the urgent and immediate necessity of leaving one’s sin and coming to Christ; and this as the only means of reconciliation between man and God. In a rare autobiographical piece, Dr. Bonar wrote of his theology:

“Righteousness without works to the sinner, simply on his acceptance of the Divine message concerning Jesus and His sufficiency,—this has been the burden of our good news…It is one message, one gospel, one cross, one sacrifice, from which nothing can be taken and to which nothing can be added. This is the…beginning and the ending of our ministry.”

Dr. Bonar’s preaching was thoroughly biblical. He added nothing superfluous or superficial. He was not blessed with commanding powers of oration, but rather, was characterized as a sober and erudite preacher. It was once asked of one of his congregants if he was an eloquent man to which was replied, “No, he was not eloquent, but his doctrine was full and clear.” It was not his presence in the pulpit that captivated, for there was nothing in Dr. Bonar’s exposition that aimed at merely affecting the emotions. It was in his powerful and effective presentation of the evil of sin and the approaching doom of the impenitent sinner combined with an earnest commendation of Christ that moved his hearers. He strove to preach a biblical gospel that proclaimed the glory of God in the fullness of Christ; not one ashamedly suited for ‘itching ears’. Commenting on the state of the Christian faith in his day, Bonar once wrote: “It is not opinions that man needs, it is TRUTH. It is not theology, it is GOD. It is not religion, it is CHRIST. It is the knowledge of the free love of God in the gift of His only-begotten Son;” and it was towards these ‘needs’ that Bonar aimed his message.

Dr. Bonar had a modest estimate of his abilities, coupled with a seemingly boundless capacity for work. He edited and contributed to various magazines and periodicals; he wrote books, tracts, and hymns. His pen was scarcely idle. Whether it was a word of comfort to the afflicted saint or sound encouragement for the mature believer, his books were written with the sole purpose of communicating the truths of Scripture to the hearts and minds of his readers. Lord Polwarth, when asked to pay tribute to the writings of Dr. Bonar, remarked,

“…when I think of Dr. Bonar…as a writer, it is like a pure, broad light shining from heaven, where all the promises of salvation to men on earth appear to pour down as the perfect divine revelation, with nothing of man’s embellishment…it is all the divine message from beginning to end. Study the poetry, study the prose, you will feel the heart of God beating through it all.”

While the subject matter often varied, it almost always led the reader back to the central message of Scripture: the person and work of Christ. Christ was the sum and substance of every sermon Bonar preached, and every hymn or book he wrote to instruct and teach the dear saints of God. Two of his most notable works were God’s Way of Peace, and its companion volume, God’s Way of Holiness. In these books, Bonar outlined the doctrines of justification and sanctification and showed the profound importance that each of these play in the life of the Christian. He was also one of the foremost advocates of “pre-millennarian” eschatology and wrote extensively on this subject. He edited The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy for twenty-five years and summarized his eschatological views in a book entitled Prophetical Landmarks. The second advent of Christ was a doctrine that engaged much of Bonar’s efforts as he believed it had been “the hope of the Church through many a starless night when other hopes had gone out one by one…leaving her disconsolate and helpless.” Dr. Bonar strongly held that the knowledge and hope of Christ’s imminent return could dispel the darkness and afford a blessed comfort to the Christian.

The Reverend Bonar’s ministry extended beyond both the pulpit and the pen as he was known to spend countless hours in the spiritual care of the children in his parish. He considered it one of the minister’s foremost responsibilities to instruct and teach the little ones in the ways of the gospel. A young girl recalls her experience in a Bible class conducted by her minister:

“I sometimes wonder if any one else ever possessed the faculty that he had of drawing towards him the affection of young people, which, when you were once brought under the charm of his friendship, could never afterwards be lost or lessened. How well I remember his class for us girls! We would not for all the world have missed that hour on Wednesday afternoon. I think I see the little room…where we gathered, a bright, happy band of school- girls, sitting around to listen to his earnest, loving, faithful teaching. I see Dr. Bonar seated at the end of the long table with the large Bible spread out before him, the Bible hymn book in his hand, his dear handsome face beaming, and the pleasant smile which lighted it up, as some of us gave a fuller, clearer answer than he expected to the question asked. And then the last meeting before the holidays; what a solemn hour it was, as he reminded us that never again here below should we all meet together, and spoke of the meeting-place above. All kneeling down, to be each tenderly commended to the loving care of our heavenly Father, bathed in tears, we could hardly tear ourselves away, lingering long after the usual time.”

It was this affectionate love and concern for the spiritual welfare of these little ones that led him to the writing of hymns. The children he was ministering to had difficulty in understanding the metrical Psalms used in the Presbyterian Church, so he began to write hymns for them that could be sung in their Sabbath school. He set his hymns to simplistic tunes and the children loved them. Dr. Bonar viewed his hymns as a means of both enriching the mind and stirring the affections in the worship of God. He understood the power of music and how that power could be harnessed to effectively teach doctrinal truths. His hymns can be divided into two classes: those that conveyed the riches of Gospel truth, and those that spoke of the return of Christ and the coming heavenly glory. Dr. Handley Moule, the Bishop of Durham, once remarked:

“In Bonar’s hymns, the massive theology of the Reformation, say rather of St. Paul and of St. John, breaks into deep and tender melody, a crystal river from the rock. The glory of the Son of God, His finished work, His never-finished working, the power of His promised Spirit upon the heart of man, to convict, to convert, to train, to sanctify; the awe of guilt and judgment, the wonder of the blood of the Lamb, the sublime freedom of justifying grace, the walk with God through duty and suffering, the victory over death, the unutterable brightness of the promise of the second coming-all lives in his verse, that it may live in the worshipper’s soul as he sings, making the majestic doctrines embrace us, as it were, with a power full of beauty unified with truth.”

Dr. Bonar wrote well over 600 hymns, yet they were not used for public worship on the Sabbath. Theodore Cuyler recalled:

“The first time I ever saw Dr. Horatius Bonar was in May, 1872, when I was attending the Free Church General Assembly of Scotland as a delegate from the Presbyterian Church in the United States…I was glad to be introduced to him, for I was an enthusiastic admirer of his hymns…Although Horatius had won his world-wide fame as a composer of hymns, he was, at that time, stoutly opposed to the use of anything but the old Scotch version of the Psalms in church worship. During my address to the Assembly I said: ‘We Presbyterians in America sing the good old psalms of David.’ At this point Dr. Bonar led in a round of applause, and then I continued: ‘We also sing the Gospel of Jesus Christ as versified by Watts, Wesley, Cowper, Toplady and your own Horatius Bonar.‘ There was a burst of laughter, and then I rather mischievously added: ‘My own people have the privilege, not accorded to my brother’s congregation, of singing his magnificent hymns.’ By this time the whole house came down in a perfect roar, and the confused blush on Bonar’s face puzzled us—whether it was on account of the compliment, or on account of his own inconsistency. However, before his death he consented to have his own congregation sing his own hymns, although it is said that two pragmatical elders rose and strode indignantly down the aisle of the church.”

Bonar was also cognitive of the possible dangers associated with the use of hymns in worship:

“One is often inclined to ask how far some of these exulting hymns may be the utterance of excitement or sentimentalism…hymns are often the channels through which much unreality is given vent to in ‘religious life.’ Song, like music, is often deceitful, malting people unwittingly believe themselves to be what they are not. The amount of superficial similarity which has, in all ages, been introduced into and fostered in the Church by music, is incalculable. High-wrought feeling produced by it in conjunction with song, has in many a case misled both the singer and the listener into a belief that their heart was beating truly and nobly towards Christ, when all the goodness was like the morning cloud and early dew.”

The Signal, a magazine of the Free Church, publicly rebuked Bonar for his role in introducing hymns into the worship of their presbytery as he entered into the last years of his ministry. This was not the only controversy in which Dr. Bonar found himself. In 1843 he was one of the many supporters of Thomas Chalmers during the Disruption in the Church of Scotland. The abuses of patronage in the calling of ministers caused many to break away and form the Free Church of Scotland. The cause of the separation was grounded in the demand of the laity for a voice in the process of appointing ministers in opposition to the heritors whose selections went unimpeded. 474 ministers left to form the Free Church which Dr. Bonar was to remain in for more than forty years. However, the biggest public disputation that engaged Dr. Bonar was his support for the crusades of D. L. Moody in opposition to Dr. John Kennedy of Dingwall. In a series of public tracts, the two Scottish Presbyterians debated the orthodoxy of the American’s preaching and his “hyper-evangelistic” methods, with Bonar defending Moody from the charges of Kennedy.

Horatius Bonar was unable to avoid the trials and afflictions of life. He and his wife, Jane Lundie, suffered greatly when five of their children died early in life. In a moment of deep sorrow, a broken Horatius wrote, “Spare not the stroke; do with me as thou wilt; let there be naught unfinished, broken or marred; complete thy purpose that we may become thy perfect image.” Years later, when his son-in-law was taken early in life, Bonar’s daughter and five children came back to live with him and he was able to joyously write to a friend, “God took five children from me some years ago, and He has given me another five to bring up for Him in my old age.”

Through the tribulations he endured, Bonar was sustained by the sovereign hand of God working through his life and in his ministry. Horatius Bonar lived to the glory of God and the service of others, with little concern for how his own life would be remembered. It is my prayer that this CD will help to paint a clearer picture of this humble servant, while at the same time, showing us the beauty and glory of the One he served.

Angels Landing, Zion National Park, Utah

Angels Landing in Zion is my favourite place of anywhere I’ve ever been. I’ve done the hike 4 times to date and plan to do it many more times before I’m unable to navigate its steepness. It is a 4 mile hike up the spine of a rock structure that gives you an unrivalled view of Zion Canyon. It is narrow in spots and not for the feint of heart but the reward at the top more than makes up for those anxious moments.

This place is special to me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the representation of the various forms of freedom we experience as humans. I suppose the closer we get to Zion (heaven) the freer we feel.