"Moderate" Muslims seem to be the minority and get assassinated.

Advertising is interfering seriously with how a competitive economy should work.  Brand names, trade marks, and the efforts thereby people who sell ordinary stuff try to make you think it is not ordinary, so they can charge more.  Also propaganda tactics in advertising -- especially testimonials and bandwagon tactics and glittering generalities and loaded words.  And the stupid music and the appeals to patriotism or the use of cute babies or animals -- I saw one where babies were selling a lubricating oil.


All this "marketing" is really corrupt lying (misrepresentation and deceit are lies).  It is amazing modern societies tolerate it.  This corruption is much more damaging to society than slipping the customs inspector a fiver.

Mammals probably did not evolve from reptiles.  Instead they both evolved from an earlier group.  Birds did evolve from a specific group of dinosaurs and in many ways are still dinosaurs.

The reptiles are a convenient grouping, but they really are several very different and ancient groups -- turtles, crocodilians,  dinosaurs, snakes and lizards (the last two in the same group).

The problem I think some creationists who genuinely have problems with evolution (rather than just stubbornly insisting on their childhood teaching) is that they don't comprehend the time periods involved -- millions and hundreds of millions of years -- in such time periods a lot of things happen.  It is called "deep time."

Vietnamese Buddhism has demons in it, inherited from local beliefs and from Chinese Taoism.  I think though the translation of "demon," like the translation of a lot of this sort of word, misleads.

Taoist demons, because they are so frightening in appearance, are often considered helpful in scaring away other demons and the like.  They are also generally believed to be the spirits (ghosts) of dead people who for some reason (mainly bad karma) reincarnate as demons.  There are a gazillion types you can come back as, depending on what you did wrong during your life.

Now there is an example of a translation that misleads -- dragon -- not at all the beastie of the West.

The best way to protect yourself from demons is with loud noises, such as drums and fireworks.  Statues of certain Chinese worthies and of course lion or dragon demons (especially) in your home are also protective, as long as you do the proper rituals.

The idea of demon possession seems to be a Western idea -- insane people are considered to have a medical problem.

Much of this, of course, is seen as superstition by most of us in Vietnam -- but we do like the Taoist rituals with the dragons and fireworks.

Irritated that someone used the last of the toilet paper and said nothing about it?  Get a little spray device.  It takes a little (very little) practice to use and eliminates any need for toilet paper and running out and the destruction of the trees.  It also leaves you cleaner, is much easier to use if you are overweight or handicapped, and no more skid marks -- ever -- and only takes a few seconds, and is easier on the plumbing.

I feel so virtuous getting up just before dawn, and I love the morning air and the gradual brightening of the sky and the birds and the quiet -- except of course for the birds.

(The sky getting brighter is so optimistic -- the world telling me things will get better.)

Close

I will admit I worry about genetic manipulation technology.  The temptation to "improve" and give the offspring every opportunity, according to the prejudices of the parents, will be huge.  First we will work at eliminating genes that bring about diseases, without considering that nature may have struck a balance here so that removing the gene will have other consequences.  Then we will consider things like height and skin color and of course sexual orientation.  First the blind and deaf communities will disappear, then the gay community.

If most Asians and others too had there way all babies would be boys.  They had better not remove gay orientation is that is the world we are going to create.

What about a world inhabited entirely by geniuses?  I think it might be a nerdy place.

Sometimes outmoded industries with dinosaur management in the habit of caving to unions all the time, or who have no choice and the union is unreasonable and selfish, need to be allowed to go.  A nation is better off buying from foreigners if the foreigners can produce it cheaper -- that way the nation doesn't waste money on subsidies or barriers -- and can concentrate on what it does best.  The economic process is called "creative destruction" and means that it is foolish to try to hold onto old industries when their time has come.

People are starving today because of bad governance and cultural ignorance and things like that.  When a country is well governed and the population is literate and the agricultural industry is not run by corrupt officials and people don't insist on so much meat, there is no problem providing enough food.  I constantly cite Vietnam as an example, but Japan and China and India and Indonesia and of course all of Europe and North America are examples.

Considering what Vietnam exports, it could easily feed three times its present population, and, believe me, the population here is dense.

As far as water, it is true that no one dare touch the water in Vietnam, either in the rivers or from the tap -- but bottled water is abundant and cheap.  The problem in Vietnam with tap water is a prejudice against chlorine inherited from the French -- and I will admit when I'm in the States I let my water sit for an hour or so before drinking it so the chlorine can evaporate out (in my case, though, it's taste, not a conspiracy theory).

It is obvious there has to be some sort of limit on the earth's carrying capacity, and I would agree that from an environmental point of view a steady population can be of help, but the fears are way overdone.  Besides, the way to control population, as we have seen over and over around the world, is to raise living standards.  When living standards reach the level of even less than half that of Vietnam, population growth takes a plunge.  Rigid birth laws are intrusive, autocratic, even fascist.

I want to comment too on the idea of our living in space.  I fully expect that to happen -- not so much colonizing the galaxy (although that could happen too) but building self-sustaining space cities, maybe tethered to the earth or maybe out there on their own.  This stuff, however, is centuries away.

Tomatoes -- not the ones the American markets sell -- they may as well be cardboard (in the States you have to go to a farmer's market or grow your own or know someone who does), is one of life's little but wonderful pleasures.  In Vietnam you also have to avoid the markets and the imported tomatoes and go to one of the ubiquitous outdoor markets.  Since the market tomatoes are cheaper, easier to buy (there is a market one can walk to no matter where you are in the city) and much better tasting, for the life of me I don't see why anyone would want to buy an imported tomato.

I like to steam them a little to release the lycopene.

What about aliens -- good or bad?

Proof of aliens with either no religion or religions different from ours would ultimately spell the end of our religions, except maybe those without deities and a philosophy.  Whether that would do good or harm is a different question, as so many are so dependent on their religious beliefs for their sense of purpose and future.

I'm not terribly concerned about an alien invasion, unless it turns out physics as we now know it is all wrong, which doesn't seem to be likely.  However, I wouldn't want to go off half-cocked building a contraption they send us instructions on how to build, as was done in some movies.

If we ever do meet face to face, the odds are significantly in favor of a peaceful, productive, and helpful relationship.

There is no shame in accepting help, if you need it, from any quarter, including help from the state.  The shame is either when pride prevents accepting help or when one could perfectly well take care of oneself.

Raise people's standard of living and you don't need vicious policy to lower birth rates.  Vietnam's has been radically decreased as the people become more prosperous.  The government has done nothing (of course contraception and abortion are available here, as part of being a secular state, but people who need them pay for them, not the government).

In particular, giving women the ability to decide when and how many children to have, and squashing those men who see it in egoist terms, brings down birth rates remarkably.  Women have more sense about these things and, of course, are the ones who have to go through the pregnancy.

What can happen, though, if population growth slows too fast is that you get an aged population and not enough young people to support them properly.  This is going to happen in China because of its foolishness here, and probably much of Europe and of course is happening in Japan -- that is what is behind its lack of economic growth now.

Power naturally gravitates upward in any federal system.  They can pass laws prohibiting local governments from doing certain things, can hold out carrots of money for compliance, have a much better tax base, control the strings of publicity much better, and so on.  Over time local government institutions become empty shells.

Some time go look at a Federal court house and compare it to a local court house.

In a richer society than exists today, one where most things are automated, everyone will be provided the basics of housing and food and health and education and entertainment and even some luxuries, but must do something that earns extra money if one wants more.

If Scotland had separated itself when nearly half the population was against, it would not have been good for Scotland.  Now the English have to deal with a Scotland where nearly half the population wants to separate.

Satan

It's a bit hard, and I have to bite my lower lip, to avoid ridiculing the Satan idea.  He has, however, over the centuries, gotten a lot more sophisticated -- he no longer has horns and cloven hooves, for example, and in Victorian literature tends to carefully pick out his targets as people of intelligence and talent who appear to be particularly desirable souls, much as we pick out a ripe red cherry.

As a literary device, then, he is great, especially if you want to deal with aspects of human existence and desire and ambition and pride.

Now, though, really -- get real.  Such a figure would long ago have given up, since he knows he is otherwise doomed.  Be rational folks -- and this bit about Satan wanting to convince the world he doesn't exist is just a remarkably stupid rationalization -- conflicting with his supposed pride.  Why should he care to bring others down to perdition?  What would it be to him since he's doomed anyway?  You have to break through the childhood indoctrination and think about things a little.