gendao

Not true. If different people achieve alpha status in different areas - then society as a whole actually attains a more optimized, diverse balance. This is called "firing on all cylinders." And as long as different people have different talents and work ethics - then there will ALWAYS naturally be alphas in their respective fields. No system can fully prevent that, as much of that is inborn. And, why would they want to? Are you vehemently against American Idol, too??? Um, a short timeline for you: The Glass-Steagall Act was only "needed" to mitigate the government's risk after promising to insure banks in 1933. This was the equivalent of Monsanto "having" to GMO crops in order to survive...their use of Roundup. IOW, "fixing" an artifical problem you just induced. Removing only one would then cause a problem, yes - but removing both would have been even better than keeping both. Well, then your noble politicians kept removing the FRB's fiat currency off precious metal standards over the years.. The FRB then set the 10:1 "reserve requirements" for all banks to follow. (Hence, Libertarians want to "END THE FED!") Then, liberal politicians FORCED lenders to make high-risk NINJA loans to their voters who otherwise couldn't afford to own homes (for the past 30+ years). In short, the GOVERNMENT stepped in and made taxpayers assume risk for banks, devalued their currency and then forced lenders to make risky bad loans to their special-interest voting block. Predictably, such high risk and defaults then got passed on to the taxpayer. And suddenly you wonder why they got caught up in risky speculation and lost their shirts? It was government REGULATION, not the free-market, that caused all this to begin with! In a free-market, banks simply would not been 10:1 fractional banking with fiat funny money, dared to make NINJA loans and taken such risks overall. This alone would have prevented any subprime lending housing bubble & bust. DUH! And no one forced anyone to buy his products, either. There were always, and still are, many cheaper alternatives. I personally agree his products were overhyped and overpriced, but that's not the point. Apparently, multi-millions still happily chose to pay more for his products because they felt they were worth it. Therefore, these 99%r's either do not believe Apple is "predatory, primitive, violent, greedy & controlling" - or they do and actively support it.

Free-market capitalism is the closest model to natural Darwinism. You know - Darwin, your beloved God of Evolution? Ok, so let me just briefly assume your extreme misanthropism to follow your line of logic here: Corporations (like Apple) are primitive and violent because...humans are naturally primitive and violent. Therefore, we must highly-regulate them with Big Gov? That are ALSO run by...naturally primitive and violent humans? Or are career politicians/lawyers just typically wiser, less primitive, less violent and morally superior to other humans? :lol: Yea thanks man, but I'll pass on the purple Kool-Aid..

Why would this intensify under Libertarians - who support laissez-faire wu-wei free-market capitalism and are against over-regulation? In fact, this is exactly the type of bureacratic red tape & legal booby-traps that they fight against! For example, I believe the Obamacare bill ended up being over 3000 pages of fine print legalese. Moreso, it was purposely ramrodded through Congress with little time for anyone to read any of it. Now, how many Congressmen, much less citizens, do you think actually understood all the full ramifications embedded in that bill??? Considering how it basically took you guys a whole class period just to decode one lawsuit that your prof even gave you hints on?? So, Pelosicare is essentially the liberals' version of the neocons' Patriot Acts. Liberals pass NW0 Trojan Horse legislation under the guise of "compassion" just as neocons do for "security." They're like 2 barrels in the same shotgun. As I've noted before, the 2 largest gaping holes sinking our ship are liberal welfare and neocon warfare.. If we were to significantly cut those back, then our ship would stop taking on water and could slowly begin the process of righting itself again..

On an experiential level, I was meditating today and experimenting with opening into "emptiness".. Like the Taiji hand that is neither limply closed or overly-stretched open - there's a point in between when your hand feels energetically "open"... Like a healthy leaf that is neither wilted nor straight, but gently curved. I could feel energy emanating out from between my toes. I think such openness and the dissolution of blocks & boundaries is the door to emptiness.. The emptiness of no resistance. Anything you can feel or recognize is resistance. The more of that you clear, the less there is to feel. So in the end, you embrace nothing.

Well, finally we are getting down to the real problems here! Libertarians want freedom. Liberals want a free lunch. That's the problem in a nutshell. And California (and other blue states like Illinois) are perfect examples of this spoiled brat mentality. First, these "99%" geniuses vote for an actor (with no platform) after he makes a joke on Leno. Then they veto any spending cuts he wants to make. The entire housing bust was the worst in California. The average Californian has nearly twice the debt as his income?? The state spends vastly more tax dollars keeping criminals comfy than hard-working students at its unis?? And they're so broke now that Pelosi rammed Pelosicare through Congress just to force the rest of the country to play Germany to their Greece! Is there even any depth or ethical conscience to their political thought process?? Again, this is why Libertarians are against Big Gov - because fair, free-market competition is the BEST REGULATION there is!!! Any actual company would have simply gone belly-up long before their ledger sheet got anywhere near as bad as California's! Or forced to increase profits and cut spending to remain solvent and survive.. So, when is the endless summer free ride for California going to end? Will they ever finally sober up, live within their means and pay their own debt off? Or are they going to just keep freebasing off our future like zombifried crackheads while scapegoating only those 1% at the tops of their own pyramid schemes? Who (see Gen X, Y & Z) will then all be stuck with their mind-bending tab after their hellacious 50-year liberal bender? Do Baby Boomers even care about saddling their own kids with a black hole debt, rather than any type of inheritance??? Greed isn't just on Wall Street. It's also in every 99%r who demanded something for nothing out of thin air for decades.. I believe this is one of the points that Twinner was trying to make to temper-tantrum liberals who just covered their ears and screamed, "I can't hear you!!"

Interesting, this experience would bolster my previous impression of a childlike, non-understood oddball who's craving love (heart energy) & acceptance.. And so he's likely not so much "stealing" your heart energy as accepting an overflow from you. That likely wouldn't happen with most average people who aren't so bursting at the seams with it and wanting to "heart ejac" into someone else..

A gelded stamen Firepit of gray ashes Seeking home.. I do enjoy the overall quality and contributions of 5ET, although he does have his sore spots, as noted. I also agree it would be a lost opportunity for personal growth to shy away when these get acupressured. As well as a lost opportunity for the rest of us to enjoy and learn all he does have to offer! And no, people aren't so blunt IRL. However, that's one of the therapeutic "bonuses" of internet dialogue - the NHB aspect. Where people may feel less social etiquette to filter their thoughts and speak as freely and openly.. Another point I've noticed is how martial artists tend to get easily baited into ego battles and very combative - both offensive and defensive. But a man who is at war with himself, will never find peace.. And every warrior is, ultimately at war...with himself.

Ok, nonlinear input time: I got an image of a Gollum-like creature bent over. Well, I don't think Max (might allegedly) tell tall tales or play pranks for ego, fame, sex or money. I think deep down, he may do it for acceptance and love. Otherwise, he may feel insecure as some sort of oddity. So, he may subconsciously feel like he has to overcompensate and entertain the audience to "earn" their love, sort of like a circus freak.. And if that means embellishing some crazy stories, well...you must give them what they want to win the crowd, right? Of course, the kicker is that it's all unnecessary. It'd be like Michael Jordan inflating his stats. Whyyy...WTF?? Well, this may all be completely off-base, just throwing it out there for kicks!

Thanks, lol! I think this forum (and our modern culture in general) gets so left-brain dominant that our intuitive side gets wholly ignored. Many prescriptions consist of just mentally cutting & pasting generic secondhand dogma - instead of really trying to intuit what specifically applies in any unique, given situation in the here & now. Like forgetting everything you know and just being open to any answer you receive in the current moment.. Looking at every situation with a clean slate. So, I'm attempting to inject some of that nonlinear perspective into normal discussions for more balance, fun and personal practice.. I'm hoping others might start to as well. Because, I think our intuitive parts have atrophied so much from complete disuse that it's time we started exercising such vestigial faculties. It's time for a shift! Especially on a Taoist forum. Otherwise, how will we ever figure out any new answers, if we only keep mentally rehashing the currently-known ones like a giant echo chamber? Plus at the very least, it's entertainment!

Nice, that'd put you at just 30 lbs shy of 2230 lbs by Cain Velasquez.. Anyhow, Max's playful demos are basically just to show how he can transmit influence over a distance and trigger kriyas, in those open & willing enough. Kriyas can also be triggered by touch and just on your own. And they can always be stopped at will, if you wish. So, these are more healing, than martial, demos. The only martial aspect of them is that if someone has enough internal energy to transmit over distances...then they likely have a lot of good peng energy and structure were you to actually physically touch and cross hands with them. So, they can still be an indirect indicator of martial ability.

I got an image of dark storm clouds hanging overhead like a "roof" with a pipeline coming down the middle. There seemed to be a dude in heavy armor plates and a helmet (almost like a robot suit) there and a kraken giant squid below in some blue-green water. They seemed to be opposed in battle against each other. The "problem" was that this "water spout" seemed to connect the 2 and feed this conflict. Whereas if this pipeline was cut, they would stop feeding each other and return to calm in their respective places. For Creation, I saw him as a guy just stepping out of a small cave that had been blocked by a stone out into the bright sunlight. This was a bit blinding at first and all sorts of bugs scurried out too.. Well before, he was so surrounded by the dark that he never noticed it too specifically (like a fish in water). He is actually only "noticing" the dark moreso now because he has been exposed to light. And this will take some time to adjust to it..

Illinois is a perfect example of how deep blue states end up in the red due to liberal overspending & anti-competitive legislation: IOW, private businesses are now being forced to bailout the government in liberal blue states!

This could also be a false dilemna, though. You could also help others by being brutally honest. They are not necessarily mutually-exclusive..

I'm not sure exactly what that is, but I'm sure my views may crossover into a number of categories, lol. And I'm more generally opposed to Big Gov than Big Biz because you can't really "opt out" of Big Gov - which directly controls you through force of law (which you are also taxed for). Whereas Big Biz is also very influential, but consumers can also influence it back through their spending habits. And it also doesn't have direct legislative power over you, either way. Yes, instead of focusing MERELY on financial shell games, we COULD be vastly improving our overall quality of life right now without even any new high-tech or money - but simply cultivating smarter and more efficiently. There is NO GOOD REASON why hemp should be illegal - and every reason in the book why it SHOULD be legalized! But how many hemp advocates are going to vote for Ron Paul??? But instead vote for another mainstream liberal puppet and then keep whining about it? Lol, I don't get it? Why didn't they circulate a pic like this when Michael Jackson died too? Reality is, "nobody cares" about 99.9999999% of the people who die privately on this planet. Your real question is why some people become famous and others not? Well, Jobs became famous (when he was alive and dead) because he pioneered popular products that got used by millions. If anything, he "earned" his fame a lot more than most celebs, lol. So, no great mystery or "inequity," there..

Not only that, but the Baby Boomers have depleted all our funds for generations to come by vastly overspending on liberal welfare and neocon warfare. As a result: Today's young 'will end up 25% worse off than their boomer parents' Betrayal of a generation: Their parents enjoyed years of unprecedented affluence... but today's young are crippled by debt

And this is precisely why Libertarians are against Big Gov/Banking/NW0 seeking global control and want to keep power decentralized to preserve individual sovereignty/liberty instead. Big Gov is generally inefficient at best and possibly downright sinister at worst. Whereas liberals somehow still tend to view Big Gov as a paternalistic, benevolent, manmade substitute for God (that they angrily don't believe in)... To entranced liberals, Obama was the heroic, first Black POTUS instantly worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize and the polar opposite of neocon Bush. To Libertarians, he is just another manufactured, teleprompted reality star in a long line of handstrung puppets. For example, a mere minute of Googling will reveal how Brzezinski also just "happens" to be his main mentor..

Lol, these things are all happening NOW under government regulation. That's because all these government agencies (FDA, EPA, CDC, etc) are in bed with Big Pharma, Big Oil, etc. So in effect, they only end up working against the little people and any more effective alternative solutions than the ones these corporations are selling. Well, there's nothing wrong with accepting SS...if you've already been FORCED to pay into it your whole life! Anyhow, interestingly, only 2 Congressmen have refused to accept their Congressional lifetime pensions (on ideological grounds): Republican Howard Coble & Libertarian/"Republican" RON PAUL.. Lol, greed is one thing - simply wanting to remain globally competitive/solvent and turn a fair profit is another. As joeblast said earlier, when you overburden your 1% employers too severely with Socialist affirmative action, state taxes, unions, unending employee benefits, etc - you eventually simply drive them all out of your state/country. Which then leaves higher unemployment in their absence (not quite the "99%" utopia many liberals imagine). Just ask anyone living in California and you can understand why any company there outsources as much as they possibly can - because they simply cannot afford NOT to anymore! The global free market will simply reward the greatest value, no matter how you try to constrain it locally. And isn't the great irony here how the US is becoming more Communist and now forced to outsource more to China, which is becoming more capitalist and booming? And yet liberals are entirely missing the underlying economic law at work here (capitalism economically > Communism)!!! I'm sorry, but if you can't succeed under capitalism, you probably won't succeed in any system. Communism simply lowers everyone to the same lowest common denominator (which is far poorer than even the lowest minority poverty in a capitalist country). And Socialism is essentially a stepping stone towards that.. Anyhow, if the majority of Americans would inform themselves and vote wisely with both their wallets and ballots, the tides would start turning within just a few years.. Otherwise, don't complain about wh0ring out to banksters or the military-industrial complex when you voted for one of their mainstream candidates.

Orly? Does this apply to Asians too? Or only humans of other races? That sure sounded like a basic difference between people attributed to racial genetic difference? That no mods (including you) had heartburn with? So, how come that thread did not get thrown into the Pit by the very same logic? I agree with manitou. The anti-I4L lynch mob in this thread is just the typical liberal tactic of crying racism simply to discredit someone whom they ideologically disagree with (like Ross Perot, Tea Party, Ron Paul, etc). But obviously, none of you really care about any real racism...unless it's politically-expedient.

I've already commented on this several times and one of Ron Paul's Libertarian planks is an anti-war non-interventionist foreign policy. (Which of course pisses off all the mass media military-industrial complex puppetheads - of both mainstream parties!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX6bzv3XiUo He stands ALONE against both liberal and neocon warmongers - and his voting record actually matches his rhetoric! Not only is waging war against Arabs over global resource/financial control a poor and unethical longterm strategy, it is also bankrupting us!

Actually, Steve Jobs attributed his mind-expansion to LSD (& Zen Buddhism?), not pot. Obviously, he had a lot of personality issues, but I find him interesting for his ability to combine his very technical left brain with creative hippy right brain. Anyhow, he is also a good example of how free-market capitalism and entrepreneurship can greatly enrich a society (both financially and culturally) - not deplete it. Wealth is not a zero-sum game as there would have actually been a lot of poorer, unemployed people without his existence, than vice-versa. Jobs vastly boosted our global economy and was himself welllll at the top of the 1%: So, a hella lot of people actually owe their very jobs to wealthy 1% guys like...Jobs.

On a more primal level, women seek fulfillment like voids getting filled. With pen0rs, babies, love, security, etc. In this sense, Christianity promises to fill them with the ultimate protective male love of the Godfather...and eternal security. Not unlike a romance novel. By contrast, the last thing women want is to feel barren, all-one, transitory and EMPTY!!! Whereas, men instinctually seek empty voids. Explorers seek out wide-open virgin spaces, just like how men seek open vaginas (or other orifices ). From this perspective, Eastern systems preaching emptiness may thus primally appeal more strongly to men and deeply disturb (turn off) women as "nihilistic, unromantic & unfulfilling." Anyhow, these are all just a few possible reasons and of course, people will generally reshape religions to suit their own level of understanding (regardless of what the actual teachings say). Which for most of the common masses, means rubbing a magic lamp for favors..

I agree. Christianity offers an emotionally-gripping, soap opera narrative, childish comic book cosmology & the ultimate White Knight! This no-brainer storyline appeals much more strongly to women - than more abstract DIY philosophies that focus on the truly empty nature of the naked truth (can you just see women's eyes rolling and falling asleep already)! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiWPT4vQGOY Anyhow, I would agree that dealing with emotions is very important in healing work. However, I suspect they are also just layers of the onions to be progressively peeled away, like endless thoughts in the mind.. That emotions, like conscious thoughts, tend to further cloud the lens of "self," not clear it. IOW, someone who is very emotionally-driven may become just as deluded and misguided as someone who is too logically stuck in their head. Thus, the higher answer is to transcend this whole duality entirely (somehow, lol).

WOW, brilliant idea!